Mattel apologized on Wednesday for the Barbie children's book that was widely deemed sexist for its portrayal of a female engineer who needs the help of two men to do her job, and pulled the book from online stores.
The company posted an apology to its Barbie Facebook page, saying all titles "moving forward will be written to inspire girl's imaginations, and portray an empowered Barbie character." Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer is no longer available on Amazon.
In the children's book, Barbie has some trouble while she's trying to develop a computer program. She enlists the help of Steven and Brian, two male programmers, to help her understand the technology. Female developers (and basically everyone else) did not take it well.
"It will go faster if Brian and I help," the character Steven says to Barbie in the story, and she's quick to oblige.
The book's author has also gone on the defense, saying she did not mean to offend with her portrayal of women in tech.
Maybe I should have made one of those programmers a female. I wish I did, author Susan Marenco told ABC News. If I was on deadline, its possible stuff slipped out, or I quietly abided by Mattel without questioning it. Maybe I should have pushed back, and I usually I do, but I didnt this time.