The Golden Age Of ITA

Despite a 60-year media career, Ita Buttrose’s greatest challenge may yet lie ahead of her. She talks to Genevieve Gannon about the importance of role models, and self-belief.

- Genevieve Gannon

The pearls in Ita Buttrose’s earrings are catching the afternoon light as she gazes across the turquoise vista of Sydney Harbour and makes a shocking pronouncement: “I’ve taken on jobs sometimes when I’ve thought, what have I done?” She mimes fear and there’s a moment of surprise in the hotel room before she continues: “But then I’ve always had this belief that I would be able to do it. Always.” And order is restored.

The former editor’s accomplishments are well documented. She has been canonised by Cold Chisel and dramatised on TV. Now the paper giant has become a plastic miniature. Ita Buttrose has been turned into a Barbie. The 28 centimetres of rubber, with Ita’s signature bob and pointed black heels, sits on a table by the harbour view, and stands as a testament to what an important figure Ita is. And though the face of the Ita “Shero” doll has Barbie’s stock features, there’s something about her, and the tiny newspaper poking out of her handbag, that does capture that distinct Ita panache.

“I’m really thrilled,” the former editor of The Weekly says, admiring the figurine made in her image, to her specifications. “I’ve done a lot in my life but I’ve never imagined being a Barbie doll.”

Barbie is a toy with a chequered record on women’s empowerment, but the “Shero” 2019 line, in which the Ita Barbie represents Australia alongside more than 20 other inspiring women across the globe, is part of its creators’ multi-pronged bid to be more inclusive. The woman who used Bingo to increase The Sunday Telegraph’s circulation knows the value of populist methods for delivering a message which, in this case, is that girls can grow up to be anything.