As young girls, we likely spent hours fawning over our Barbie and thought nothing more than which room of her playhouse we should leave her in. As we came of age, (even if we weren’t Barbie lovers) we learned to scrutinize the entire Barbie paradigm-accepting that our psyches were subjected to unrealistic expectations of what women should look like, what we should look like, as defined by Mattel.

Well, it looks like Mattel is earning back some of their brownie points but not because they are changing Barbie’s boob size. Rather, they have just announced that in 2013 they will release a bald friend of Barbie for kids with cancer, sold exclusively through Children’s hospitals in North America. For children who are going through one of the toughest times imaginable, Mattel’s effort to help them enjoy their playtime with interchangeable wigs, hats and scarves, is nothing short of touching.

And what spurred Mattel to do such a gesture? A social media campaign led by the Facebook page “Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let’s see if we can get it made” which had more than 156,000 fans by April 1st. Additionally, a petition calling for the development of a bald Barbie on Change.org acquired over 35,000 signatures. As we live in age where the consumer is gaining back power with the corporations, it is positive to see those organizations listening, especially in efforts for social good.

So today we pause the general Barbie negativity to thank Mattel for bringing a bit of happiness to these young girls suffering the hardships of cancer. Hopefully, little girls’ playtime with a Barbie that resembles them is just the bit of happiness they need to conquer their disease and become part of the next-generation Levo League.