Barbie goes multimedia for geeky girls

For young gadget girl nerds in training, Barbie launches new products

27 April 2007 11:04 GMT / By Ryan Haynes

Girl Gamers became all the rage at the 2006 London Games Festival and now Barbie is linking up to the online generation.

Mattel has launched a new Barbie Girl online community where little ladies can lay games, chat and "hang out" with other tween-ish participants.

Like Second Generation, WOW and Wii girls can customise their characters and accessorise as they please. At least the make-up can be put off for a few years with this one.

The chat site has been made as safe as the company can do, obviously requiring parent observation.

In July, Mattel is introducing a Barbie Girl MP3 player that will allow girls who have met in person and synched the player with each other's computer to participate in "Secret B Chat" which allows more privacy and more open conversation. Plus this way you can really monitor who your girl is chatting to.

The $60 device includes 512MB of memory and a miniSD expansion slot, and unlocks additional content for the the little users.

We're still yet to hear on UK pricing and availability.