Ramsay Newsroom

Doctor Kirby White, who has assisted at Warringal Private Hospital every month for the past 18 months, co-founded Gowns for Doctors, creating gowns that can be washed and reused by frontline workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

She joins five other women in science, including the co-founder of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to be honoured in Mattel’s ‘role model’ series. 

“When I saw the line up of other Barbie recipients, that was the most breathtaking moment for me. These are truly amazing women who have achieved great things that have made a huge difference to the world so to feel like I was among them was just amazing,” Dr White said. 

“Looking at this doll, she looks exactly like me. She’s wearing my gown, she’s doing my job. It really took me back to a moment in my clinic and it just blew me away. 

“Mattel’s current project is about women in STEM and as a child I loved science, I walked that journey and I thought this was a wonderful opportunity for me to inspire other young women and girls to follow a career in science,” she said. 

Doctor White co-founded Gowns for Doctors after struggling to order PPE for her own GP clinic in Bendigo. The gowns and their patterns are now in demand across the world. 

“We had only just opened our clinic and we didn’t have any stockpiles. So I had the idea with my business partner to come up with reusable gowns. Suddenly everyone was screaming for PPE and we thought why not make some more. Now our gowns are all over Australia, from Tasmania to Queensland and we’ve had requests for our patterns in Canada and the United States so we’re helping them to create Gowns for Doctors in their own communities,” Dr White said. 

“I’m certainly no seamstress and this project was achievable primarily due to our amazing volunteers in Bendigo. We had 100 local sewers who rose to the challenge of cutting our pattern and sewing the gowns together. They were even putting their own little tags on them, like ‘made with love’ or ‘made by Karen’, it was really special to experience,” she said. 

The other women honoured in the Barbie role model series include: 

• Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University and co-developer of the AstraZeneca vaccine; 
• Chika Stacy Oriuwa, a Canadian psychiatry resident who has advocated against systemic racism in healthcare;  
• Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, a Brazilian biomedical researcher who led the sequencing of the genome of a COVID-19 variant in Brazil;  
• Amy O’Sullivan, an emergency room nurse who treated the first COVID-19 patient in Brooklyn at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Centre; and  
• Audrey Sue Cruz, a frontline worker from Las Vegas who worked with other Asian American physicians to fight anti-Asian hate during the pandemic. 
  
  

Mattel’s Senior Vice President and Global Head of Barbie & Dolls, Lisa McKnight, said Barbie recognises that all frontline workers have made tremendous sacrifices when confronting the pandemic. 

"To shine a light on their efforts, we are sharing their stories and leveraging Barbie’s platform to inspire the next generation to take after these heroes and give back. Our hope is to nurture and ignite the imaginations of children playing out their own storyline as heroes,” Ms McKnight said. 

When asked what Dr White will be doing with her Dr Kirby Barbie, she laughed when noting it was currently on top of her fridge waiting for her two year old daughter to play with her. 

“I’ll be back at Warringal Private in two weeks so I’ll make sure I bring her along so my colleagues can see her and take a photo if they want.  We’ve had a lot of struggles and it’s been really challenging in the healthcare sector so for this to bring about some joy is really lovely,” Dr White said. 

 People can donate to Gowns for Doctors by heading to www.gownsfordoctors.com.au or https://gofund.me/3c9ff76e.