Challenging the Status Quo: The Power of Diversity

I know that “Barbie” summer and all its fuchsia pink glory is well over, but there is still a fun Barbie fact we'd like to share with you. We all grew up with Barbie. For a lot of us, every doll was just “a Barbie,” even if it technically wasn’t, but by the early 2010s, she wasn’t doing so hot anymore. In fact, her sales were dropping by double digits year over year. What changed? She hadn't – she was still the same blond, overachieving woman that taught young girls they can be astronauts and drive a pink convertible to their playground-inspired houses. But while she didn't, the world around her did change – parents found her promoting the wrong standards, the girls could no longer relate to her, and Mattel, the toy company responsible for Barbie, hadn’t caught on.  

That is, until they started bringing in more women and people of color into their leadership, design, and marketing teams to try and combat their dwindling sales. The result? A wider range of Barbies that showcased different body types, skin tones, hair textures, eye shapes, and even accessible inclusions like hearing aids and wheelchairs. By 2020, Barbie was the #1 global toy brand again, outperforming expectations.  

Mattel’s story isn’t unique. It’s every major brand’s story. Apple, LEGO, Xbox — all saw breakthroughs when they diversified the teams behind their products and broadened who those products were for. McKinsey even ran the numbers: companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity on executive teams were 35% more likely to outperform their industry averages.

Embracing Diversity With Pride Month 

As we kick off Pride Month, it’s important to understand that along with celebrating the history and accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s also a good time to reflect on whether you’re leading with diversity or sticking to a status quo (and likely falling behind).  

Because here’s the thing — diversity isn’t just about a trending acronym. It’s about how we show up for real people in real ways. And since we’re a phone provider, we’ll stick to what we know – phone service – to explain what we mean.  

Before 2001, the only form of phone service that existed was the traditional postpaid plan, whereby you get billed for the service after the month is used, with the potential to lead to the dreaded high cell phone bills led by overages that your parents would ground you for. Then, Boost Mobile popped up – seemingly out of nowhere – with a groundbreaking idea: a prepaid plan, whereby you can just pay for the service up front and use it for that month. No overages, no late payments, no surprises. Suddenly, phone service was accessible to people who didn’t have a predictable income (shift workers or seasonal workers, for example), strong credit, or extra room in their budget — but still needed to be connected.

What Boost Mobile did not only help cement their place among popular phone provider options, it also started a revolution. Prepaid phone providers started popping up all over the place, with more than 50 of them (including TextNow!) operating in the U.S today.  

But even so, within the prepaid phone plan world, there is still a status quo to challenge. Phone service is admittedly getting cheaper and more accessible, but it’s still only serving a certain kind of customer – the kind that can afford it, with no other grey areas. But if there’s anything we learned in the past 5 years, it’s that anything can happen, and your ability to pay at a certain time should not affect your ability to stay connected. That's why we implemented the idea of a free phone plan – unlimited nationwide talk & text, plus access to data for apps like email, maps, and rideshare for $0. If you want access to more without Wi-Fi, you can pay for an hour, a day, or the whole traditional month. But if you don’t, or you can’t, your number will still be on. Your job can still reach you, your friends can still meme you, and your kids can still...well, ignore you. But at least it’s by choice, not a technicality.  

Diversity isn’t a trend. It’s not a checklist. It’s a mindset — one that builds better teams, better ideas, and better service for more people.

And yes, we’re celebrating Pride this month. But the push for equity and inclusion? That’s year-round.