Barbie Gets CGM as CDC Claims 1 in 3 Teens Have Prediabetes

This has been quite a week for easy reading news nuggets about diabetes. First we had the news that Barbie is getting a nifty heart-shaped CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) patch and an insulin pump. Then comes a news blurb from CDC telling us that one in three teens have prediabetes.

Should we celebrate the news that Barbie might help to destigmatize diabetes? Perhaps.

Are we be concerned about a new report on prediabetes emerges in factoid form only? Yes.

Destigmatizing Diabetes

Barbie with type 1 diabetes seems to be tapping into something significant in popular culture. Just a few days into her launch, this special edition doll sold out. Mattel says they’ll have more soon. But since Barbies are made in China and other countries where our president is waging a trade war, this might be easier said than done.

Nonetheless, it seems that T1D Barbie might be a good thing for destigmatizing diabetes. We won’t split hairs about differences between stigma attached T1D and T2D. Bias and stigma are tricky, but the fact is that with either form of diabetes, many persons feel the sting of stigma.

Anything that might ease it is good.

Prediabetes Factoids

We are less enthusiastic about CDC releasing potentially important new statistics on prediabetes in teens as little more than factoids. The news that one in three adolescents, 8.4 million young persons, came in the form of a “Spotlight” post on the CDC website – a page with a single sentence of only 20 words. Less than half a tweet in length.

Anyone who wants more detail will be left with only a bare-bones pop-up window with an abstract of the analysis. Steven Kahn would be one of those people. He is a diabetes researcher at UW Medicine in Seattle and editor of Diabetes Care. He has concerns:

“I would like to believe it doesn’t diminish the quality of CDC data. However, because there’s no raw data provided, none of us can look at it to better understand where these numbers are derived from and what they really mean.”

Is this a sign that transparency and rigor at CDC are diminishing? A reasonable person can wonder.

Sound bites have their place in pop culture and mass communication. For health and medical science, they should not dominate.

Click here for more on T1D Barbie, here and here for more on the CDC factoids about prediabetes in teens. For a review of stigma in diabetes, click here.

Barbie with T1D, CGM, and an Insulin Pump, publicity photos by Mattel

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July 12, 2025