The Barbie Party at The Vogue

They call 2023 The Year of the Girl, and for good reason: the Barbie movie, The Eras Tour, and TikTok’s themes of #GirlDinner and #Girl Math are just a few of the host of ways society embraced girlhood. Being a woman was celebrated, and our economy reaped the benefits of it.

As I watched in real-time as women used their inherent traits as launching pads for their careers, I was inspired to do the same. Working for Forty5, a live events company, our team struggled for years with the internal events strategy. We’d sell-out touring acts with ease, but when it came to internally planned events, we couldn’t crack the code on how to get people through the doors.

It was early May 2023 when I first noticed the beginning the cultural zeitgeist that would become Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. This prompted me to ask my team their feelings on a “Barbie Party'' at The Vogue Theatre in Broad Ripple — a historic Indy music venue — the weekend of the movie premiere. Over the next eight weeks, I leaned fully into the incredible Indianapolis community, my“girlhood”, and my public relations knowledge to organize and advertise The Barbie Party. By winning partnerships with Francis & Fern Boutique, Mavenspace women’s coworking space, Üesthetics Indy, and other women-owned businesses, we simultaneously offered fun activations and fueled the local women-owned economy. By working with local influencers, we simultaneously showcased Indy women and got the event in front of the right audience’s eyes. By using Barbie memes and securing coverage from IndyStar, IndyNow, and more, we simultaneously leaned into an international phenomenon and supported local journalism. “Work” didn’t feel like “work” – my desire for building community was met, and my cup was filled.

Finally, the evening of July 22 arrived. The Barbie Party sold out, becoming the first-ever internal Forty5 event to do so. I watched Barbies and Kens of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities walk through the doors of The Vogue to channel their inner child and embrace The Year of the Girl. I felt the collective effervescence energizing the venue – a feeling I was proud to have a hand in producing.

The event was so successful that we sold it to similar-sized venues in both Bloomington, IN and Nashville, TN, and they hosted Barbie Parties of their own. This event's success resulted in me leading the team in completely revamping our internal events strategy.

My mind flashed back to my 2021 interview with Forty5, where I shared that after graduating from college in 2020 — one of the most polarizing times in modern history — I desperately wanted to do work that unites individuals rather than divides them. I couldn’t believe that two years later, I was doing exactly that. It dawned on me "what I was made for," just as Billie Eilish sings in the movie soundtrack's song.