Every year, Mattel releases a line of Career of the Year Barbies that celebrates women in different fields. Since 2010, all kinds of careers have been covered: game developer, judge, campaign manager, music producer, and now, women in sports. The collection includes four dolls and represents four different aspects of the sports industry—a general manager, coach, referee, and sports journalist. Besides being a fun new toy (“Hi Barbie!”) these dolls are actually years in the making, thanks to CEO of Voice In Sport (VIS), Stefanie Strack. To explain how the 2023 Career of the Year Barbie came to fruition, it’s important to highlight VIS and how it was founded. 

Strack grew up in Alaska with an extremely active lifestyle. Athletics was in her blood—her father, aunt, and uncle were Olympic ski racers, so she was always encouraged to stay in sports. Strack eventually went on to play Division I soccer at the University of Montana, and then found herself at Nike post-grad. She started as an associate footwear designer and worked her way up to become the VP and General Manager of Nike Express Lane in 2017. Her hard work had paid off, and everything felt right.

Except, it didn’t.

“It was at that point when I stopped and looked around and saw that there weren’t a lot of women role models for me to learn from,” Stack says. “And there certainly weren’t a lot of female CEOs in the sports industry, as a whole, for me to look up to.” 

Melanie Strong, also a Nike VP and General Manager at the time, was close with Strack and says they shared the same experience of a kind of “wake up call.”

“It just felt like all of a sudden the reasons why I joined [Nike] no longer aligned with what I wanted,” Strong says. “At the time, it just didn’t feel like the place that had the courage to bust through big issues in sports around gender and racial equity. It felt like we lost the bravery that I was always so proud to be a part of.”

The two women decided to pivot. Strack became CEO of the fashion brand, Rag & Bone, while Strong became a founding partner in Next Ventures, a venture capital firm. Strack, although enjoying her time in fashion, felt called to do something else when she saw the U.S. Women’s National soccer team win the World Cup in France. 

“I saw those women using their platform to fight for equity in pay and treatment,” she says. “And that’s the moment I decided to start VIS.” 

Today, VIS is an online community dedicated to supporting women ages 13-23 through mentorships, podcasts, educational articles, and videos. The platform is a website with layers of membership for several layers of access to all of its resources. 

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Girls Aren’t Playing Sports – Here’s How a Barbie Can Help

Studies show that (regardless of gender) athletic participation at a young age develops leadership skills, particularly in management of self (consideration for others’ and self well-being) and management of feelings (creating motivation and purpose behind work.) Sports have been believed to reinforce confidence in high-pressure scenarios and collaboration among a team, which can translate into successful leaders in future careers. In fact, a study of C-Suite executives found that 94 percent of women executives have a background in sport, with over half of them participating at a collegiate level. 

But even if athletics create better female, successful leaders, girls are still dropping out of sport at two times the rate of boys. These are girls who once considered themselves “sporty,” but now fear being judged by others. 

“We created VIS to help girls stay in sports and develop a pipeline to female leaders,” Strack says. “The partnership with Mattel was made to inspire girls to, of course, dream big, but also to get inspired to play sports, build their confidence and leadership skills, then take that power into the sports industry.” 

VIS not only allows members to access mentorships with all kinds of athletes in different stages of their careers, but it also connects girls to sports psychologists and women’s health experts. Though one is a website and the other is a doll, both VIS and the Career of the Year Barbie have a common goal: to create representation. The idea is to have the dolls become a norm to young girls so they see themselves represented in this industry and know they, too, have a place, if they dream to be in one of those careers. 

“My daughter, Sienna, was eight at the time VIS started, and I saw the influence that playing dolls had on her,” Strack says. “She had all kinds of dolls, even tons of athletes. But what was missing was a one who had a career in sports, something she watched her mom do everyday.”

Though there are countless jobs within the sports industry that should be highlighted, Strack tried to pick four that she felt were the most underrepresented. There are only about 23 percent of female youth coaches. As for general managers, there wasn’t a female GM in a professional men’s sports team until 2020—Kim Ng, who managed the Miami Marlins baseball team. There are currently only eight female referees in the NBA, and three in the NFL, and about 80 percent of sports journalists are men. 

“When it came to the type of role models we wanted to get in front of young women, there are inequalities and lack of representation in almost every single role in the sports ecosystem,” Strack says. “Four dolls isn’t enough, but it’s a great starting point.” 

The Gap in Sports Business

At Loyola Marymount University’s 2022 commencement speech, professional soccer player Abby Wambach said, “When you are the one at the table with the least privilege, speak up.”

Though the advice is sound, the act is harder said than done. A survey of 800 women conducted by the Women’s Sport Collective reports that 1 in 3 women feel that male gatekeepers and intimidation were a barrier to entering sport. 

Strong says that, in advancing her career in the industry, she found herself replicating her male counterpart’s habits to assimilate. 

“It often felt like I needed to show up like a man to be most successful,” she says. “I was more charismatic, extroverted, and aggressive because I felt I had to mimic those behaviors to do well for my team. But did I lose myself because I didn’t preserve my identity?”

Taking a look at the sports industry ecosystem—the corporate world Strack and Strong used to lead—there are three key barriers women are facing. First is a lack of funding. Only 2 percent of venture capital funding goes to women, so getting a company off the ground can be very difficult. Second, there’s a lack of sponsorship and promotion. Research shows that men have more director reports and budget responsibility than women, and that their projects had twice the budget and team size. And third, lack of visibility is keeping women from being in the spaces they need to be to get their voices heard.

“If you don’t have women in the room where key decisions are happening, you miss out on progress they can make in the space,” Strack says. “They’re there in the company, but it’s sort of like women’s sports on TV—you have to dig for them, because it’s not as well advertised.”

A Team of Mentors

VIS hopes to address these concerns in the industry with its mentors in categories like sports psychology, nutrition, business, and leadership. These experts, available to connect with and seek advice from, open up another avenue to athletes who want to combine their love of sports with a career after college. 

Canadian track athlete (the 4×400 being her speciality), Olympian, and VIS mentor Maddy Price loves helping girls take ownership of their futures by addressing what they want to with the sport, breaking down those goals, and figuring out the path to accomplish them. She hosts weekly planning sessions where athletes can talk openly about their struggles, ambitions, and questions. While Price isn’t an expert in everything, she’s the medium that can provide references and connections to nutritionists and psychologists within VIS. 

Price is also an example of the chain reaction of female support. While still a mentor, she’s able to learn from Strack, step into developmental business roles, and learn more about the industry. 

“When I used to think of a career in sports, I had no idea what that looked like,” Price says. “After joining the team at VIS, I’ve not only loved guiding young athletes, but thanks to Stef, I’ve filled some business development roles. I’ve even started taking an interest in sports psychology.”

This relates to a movement Strong, now a VIS mentor, firmly believes in. “There’s something really exciting happening as my generation creates more space for future generations and female leaders to take over,” she says. “Instead of there being this scarcity mindset where women are competing for one seat at the metaphorical table, there’s more than one seat, so that now we can turn around and open doors for one another. Collectively, we can change the representation problem in sports.” 

There’s a long way to go, but VIS and its partnership with Mattel is just one avenue that can open conversations and opportunities for women to succeed in sports, regardless of their particular passions within the industry. 

“One of my favorite aspects of VIS is that I can celebrate so many incredible women and their stories,” Strack says. “And with that visibility, I think many current and former athletes will consider transitioning into the sports industry as their next step. It’s a great evolution.”