Barbie gets a long overdue makeover.

She’s not the first blue-eyed blonde to make the cover of Time magazine, but she might be the first plastic one.

Barbie’s had a makeover, and it’s probably not what you were expecting.

Mattel has launched a new range of the iconic doll, with three new sizes. Tall, curvy and petite. And she now comes in seven skin tones, with dozens of hair and eye colour options.

They’ve tagged the campaign “the doll evolves”, and say the three new body types now “stand proudly next to our Original body”.

It’s about time.

First introduced in 1959, the criticism of Barbie’s shape and the message it sends to young girls has existed from the start.

Finally, almost 60 years later the company is doing something about it.

Not that Original Barbie is unpopular.

According to Time, Barbie makes $1 billion in sales in over 150 countries each year, and 92 per cent of American girls ages 3 to 12 have owned a Barbie.

Still, sales have been decreasing as more and more children turn to Disney princesses, Bratz and other non-Barbie toys.

These new body types are an attempt to fix that problem.

It’s “Curvy” Barbie that is expected to be the most successful. In the promotional photos Curvy Barbie has blue and black hair, wider hips and thicker legs, and a bigger waist.

We think she looks a lot more “normal”, but really, that doesn’t make her “curvy”.

Mattel surely knows they won’t please everyone, but the wide range of new dolls is clearly designed to try.

So far, the move has been broadly praised on social media.

When Time’s writer Eliana Dockterman watched some little girls playing with the new Barbie (Mattel is calling the range Fashonista), she observes that they are calling Curvy Barbie fat.

“Hello, I’m a fat person, fat, fat, fat,” Dockterman recounts.

“A 6-year-old girl giving voice for the first time to curvy Barbie sings in a testing room at Mattel’s headquarters. Her playmates erupt in laughter,” Dockterman writes.

And then, in what may be the most telling insight into how Barbie is informing girls’ views of their own bodies, she continues:

“When an adult comes into the room and asks her if she sees a difference between the dolls’ bodies, she modifies her language. “This one’s a little chubbier,” she says. Girls in other sessions are similarly careful about labels. “She’s, well, you know,” says an 8-year-old as she uses her hands to gesture a curvier woman. A shy 7-year-old refuses to say the word fat to describe the doll, instead spelling it out, “F, a, t.”

“‘I don’t want to hurt her feelings,’ she says a little desperately.”

Discussing the new body shape on ABC News Breakfast, host Virginia Trioli pointed out that women had always come in a variety of shapes and colours.

Which is something Mattel was very aware of designing the new range.

“Yes, some people will say we are late to the game,” Evelyn Mazzocco, head of the Barbie brand, tells Dockterman. “But changes at a huge corporation take time.”

As well as those criticisms, it seems there is destined to be some of the less enlightened ones as well.

With news of the change trending on social media, there were bound to be some people who didn’t get it.

Don’t worry Peter, you can still play with Original Barbie. No one will know.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle Mattel is bracing for, is to Barbie’s wardrobe. For the first time, not all clothes will fit all Barbies.

The company has set up a hotline for aggrieved parents.

Hopefully they’ve also introduced some elasticised waists and flowing shapes for our heroine.