As initially suggested by the title When My Brother Was an Aztec—and by the titular poem’s being set apart as an introduction—the metaphor of the Aztec/Brother serves as a central image in Diaz’s personal mythos. But Barbie stays one step ahead of that thought, because it’s all leading up to an expert commentary on how little girls will always realize, sooner or later, that the real world is run by men, and that its Kens have more power than its Barbies. I definitely think that pressure and the culture of going to university and doing something academic, plus my own desire to learn things and know what everything was made of, led me down the path of physics. But this movie’s full cast of Barbies would absolutely not be able to share their outfits, which the movie never explicitly addresses or resolves.

Now, whether as a time-travelling blonde-bobbed murderer in Umbrella Academy or as a damsel in distress who is rescued by her martial arts fighting sister in Polite Society, Arya aims to bend the binary of what space South Asians occupy on-screen. But I really do believe that seeing those faces in the media, holding the dolls in your hand that look like you, those are the things that change entire generations and the way that they function and how the world works,” says Deepica Mutyala, founder and CEO of Live Tinted, the community and brand that has put brown skin make-up on the map, and now the inspiration behind 2022’s Indian Barbie doll. Indian parents…” she begins explaining the trials of any creative pursuit in a traditional Indian home. In this respect, it allows Diaz to arrive at a form that mirrors the political content of her poems—works that lament the disintegration of traditional Native culture, and that seek to push back against the influence of European assimilation. Her other honors and awards include the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from Bread Loaf, the Narrative Poetry Prize, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship.I figured it’d be a little funny, a little deep, maybe a little too basic, but hopefully smarter than The Lego Movie. Every pink-washed DreamHouse mansion in Barbieland is owned by a woman who makes her own money and spends her free time indulging in “girls’ nights” where everybody shares a glorious communal wardrobe. A year later, the company rolled out the Expressions of India Collection in which Barbie’s dress and jewellery were altered to introduce the Roopvati Rajasthani, Mystical Manipuri and Sohni Punjab Di dolls.

Most of us even owned Barbie dolls and dressed them like elder sisters and also took them around as kids and adults too. We’re seeing more brown faces on mainstream television, and even better, storylines featuring lead characters with decidedly south Asian themes and actors of south Asian origin. She lives in Barbieland, a fantasy realm conjured by Mattel that’s powered by the imaginations of kids who play with Barbie dolls. When, for example, Diaz imagines the drugs fueling her brother’s addiction as “crushed diamonds and fire,” or describes her parents as the “wrecked honeysuckles” gorged on by her brother “until their eyebrows whitened,” she creates a way of talking about her family life that’s larger—more magical and fantastical—than any historical account.

They include a “curvy” Barbie, a “petite” Barbie, and a Barbie with articulated knees who can use a wheelchair. She makes more than a billion dollars in sales every year in over 150 countries with three dolls sold every second. I had forgotten that I had ever even experienced the dream world Barbieland offered me as a young girl. While we all enjoyed playing with the dolls, watching a movie on the quintessential Barbie dolls never crossed our minds.

And for me, all of those things represent a kind of hunger that comes with being raised in a place like this. Arya always knew she would be an actor, even if her path to acting featured a pit stop as an astrophysics student at Southampton University. Mutyala, founder and CEO of the beauty brand Live Tinted, is collaborating with American toy company Mattel Inc. She’s forced to trek into the harsh world of Reality only because somewhere, someone is playing with her while experiencing such intense existential angst that their emotions are reaching Barbieland and drilling into Barbie’s psyche. Diaz lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, where she has worked with the last speakers of Mojave and directeda language revitalization program.

Heading into the press screening for Barbie, I regressed back into the beautiful, childlike misconceptions of my toy collection. But when such indirection is also possible using other poetic devices, why create a personal mythology? The fact that Diaz can bring fresh insight and meaning to something as grim as a brother’s methamphetamine addiction is a testament to her skill as a poet.