Dragon Con 2023 – The Year of the Barbie

by Danette Haser and Ted Ladue

This year’s convention attracted over 70 thousand attendees and raised more than 200 thousand dollars

for this year’s official charity, Cure Childhood Cancer. While Dragon Con always features costumed fans

of all varieties, this year, one category clearly dominated the crowd.

In celebration of Greta Gerwig’s film “Barbie” hundreds of cosplayers chose to dress as Barbies, Kens,

and Allans, thus creating a sea of pink across downtown Atlanta. The film, which stars Margot Robbie,

has shattered the glass ceiling and is the first movie solely directed by a woman to become the biggest

hit movie of this year. Currently, “Barbie” has worldwide ticket sales of more than one billion dollars.

“Hi, Barbie!” seemed to be the background track of this year’s Dragon Con. Hundreds of cosplayers chose

to dress as Barbies, Kens, and Allans, thus creating a sea of pink across downtown Atlanta. While at

Dragon Con, team RoShamBo caught up with several Barbies to find out why they chose their version of

the iconic doll.

First, we spoke with “Weird Barbie,” also known as Lauren Ott. She said she “smells like basement and

looks like a child has colored all over her,” basically she was aiming for a look of a Barbie who lived a

When Ott was asked why she chose to dress like Barbie this year she said that she feels like guys at

Dragon Con always find a community to cosplay with, but this was the first year that she felt a

community. Hearing “Hi Barbie!” everywhere she went filled her with a joyful sense of community.

Next up we found the Barbie in charge, “President Barbie,” aka Nadia Williams. She said was very

excited to see an awesome representation of a Barbie of color in the movie. Williams went on to say,

“As a brown girl, there weren’t a lot of brown “Barbies” when I was growing up, so it was really cool

seeing this representation.”

Moving through the crowd we could help but see Stefanie Diaz dressed as “Gold Disco Barbie.” Her

outfit shimmered in the way that only gold can. Diaz said she chose this version because it reminded her

of one of the Barbies that she had growing up. Daiz continued, “In the trailer, they had this moment

where she was dressed like me and she has a bit of an existential crisis, and I connected with that. It felt

like my brand.”

After speaking with Diaz, Cosplayer Faith D’isa came by dressed as what she called, “Return to Barbie

Land Barbie,” references the part of Gerwig’s film where “Barbies” are dressed in jumpsuits and

moving through the land to deprogram other “Barbies” who have been brainwashed. D’isa said that she

and her friends knew they wanted to dress as “Barbies” right away she said she knew in advance that

“everyone at the convention is going to be dressed as “Barbie” and she was looking forward to the

sisterhood that her costume would inspire. She most certainly wasn’t disappointed.