Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Former Seattle Storm star Sue Bird is going viral for happy and bad reasons this week, and it all has to do with fans of Angel Reese.
Sue Bird is being honored with her very own role model Barbie doll, and this has been met with controversy.
Mattel announced Bird is receiving her own Barbie doll as part of the toy’s 65th anniversary celebration.
“I was really excited when I heard,” Bird told People. “I grew up playing with Barbies, so it’s kind of a surreal moment when something like this happens.”
When Reese was winning a national championship and piling up accolades while playing for LSU, she began to refer to herself as the “Bayou Barbie.”
She was also known as the “Baltimore Barbie” since she is from Maryland.
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Mattel’s decision not to give Angel Reese a doll made fans lose their minds.
Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese is one of the more popular players in the league right now and is one of many players that are the sole reason why viewership and attendance is up across the league.
Drafted by the Storm with the No. 1 pick of the 2002 WNBA draft, Bird spent two decades as a player in Seattle before she retired at the end of the 2022 season with four championships and a record 13 All-Star appearances.
While Sue Bird is an all-time legend, not many new fans have the same excitement about her as they do about Angel Reese since her pro career is just getting started, and the league is widely popular now.
Angel Reese Gets ‘Bayou Barbie’ Trademark Application Denied
Angel Reese is not used to being told no, but that is what happened when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied her application for the ‘Bayou Barbie’ moniker, according to On3.
Toy company Mattel, who just gave Sue Bird her own Barbie doll, owns the trademark to Barbie.
“We discussed internally and determined that it was in Angel’s best interest to not unnecessarily instigate Mattel,” IP and NIL attorney Darren Heitner, who filed the trademark paperwork on Reese’s behalf, told On3. “While initially it seemed worthy to obtain the registration, Angel has pivoted away from selling Bayou Barbie merchandise. As such, the appropriate business decision was made to simply let the application abandon.”
