Queen Camilla has been immortalised as a Barbie doll and joked it had made her look 50 years younger.
Camilla was presented with the toy, dressed in her outfit, in recognition of her work supporting the Women Of The World (Wow) Foundation as its president.
She held the miniature version of herself during a Buckingham Palace event celebrating Wow and quipped: “You’ve taken about 50 years off my life – we should all have a Barbie.”
Dame Helen Mirren, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Spice Girl Mel B and Dame Kelly Holmes were some of the nation’s leading women invited to the event alongside schoolgirls and others who have contributed to the promotion of women and girls.
In a speech Camilla recounted the story of two suffragettes who broke palace windows with stones in May 1914 and how the objects were kept, on the orders of Queen Mary, wife of King George V.
After holding up the stones, the Queen said: “In 1914, I believe, they represented hope to the women who threw them, hope that, in the future, they would not be victims of their history, nor of the social and economic forces that were ranged against gender equality.
“Above all, they represented the hope that it was possible, as Christabel Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst) said, ‘to make this world a better place for women’.
“Today, 110 years later, you have been invited into Buckingham Palace because you too represent hope for women in the present and in the future.”
The one-off Barbie was dressed in a scaled down version of Camilla’s outfit, worn a number of times before, a blue Fiona Clare dress, black cape by Amanda Wakeley and Eliot Zed black boots.
The doll’s hair was closely modelled on Camilla’s curls as was the jewellery worn by the toy which featured a Wow badge also worn by the Queen.
The presentation was made on board the WOW Girls Festival Bus which has toured the country promoting gender equality and made a final stop at the palace where the Queen toured it with Mathilde, Queen of the Belgians and the Duchess of Gloucester.
Women of the World Foundation is a charity which has grown to become a global network of events which champion gender equality, celebrate the achievements of women and girls and examine the obstacles which stop them from fulfilling their potential.
During the event the Queen met schoolchildren working on gender equality projects and also briefly chatted to some of the invited leading women.
Dame Helen Mirren has also received her own Barbie accolade, a Mattel doll in her likeness complete with a tiny Oscar in recognition of the best actress Academy Award she won for The Queen in 2007.
The actress, who narrates the recent Barbie film which has prompted a resurgence of interest in the Barbie brand, said with a laugh: “I would hope if I have an influence on young girls in particular, it’s not to want to make them become actresses.
“It’s for them to support organisations like Women of the World, to realise there are endless opportunities out there for them, if they seek them out.”
