Since Mattel created Barbie more than half a century ago, the iconic doll has dabbled in more than 90 careers. She has always been ahead of her time, breaking the glass ceiling way before many people even knew there was one.

Barbie is back in the news again in a big way. She has people talking in more than 25 languages around the world, and has set the social networking world on fire with the question: “Should there be a Bald Barbie for children with cancer?”

Just to set the record straight, Beautiful & Bald Barbie does exist; in fact, there are two of them, both living with little girls right here on Long Island. How this pair of prototypes came to be made especially for Sadie Freifeld and Genesis Reyes is the result of the efforts of Beth Freifeld of Merrick, Sadie’s mother.

Sadie was just three years old when she was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, a very rare cancer affecting only about 200 children in the U.S. every year.

“Sadie’s eyelids were discolored,” Beth explained. “We had no idea what was wrong. She was so tired and weak. She would wake up from a nap and want to go back to bed.”

Beth and her husband Steven took Sadie from doctor to doctor, and no one could tell them what was wrong with their child.

Beth remembers sending Sadie off to school one morning, and a short time later getting a call from her teacher saying that Sadie’s eye just went “lazy,” rolling to the side of her head. They were sent to a hematologist who found a tumor on Sadie’s adrenal gland.

The little girl underwent an operation to remove the tumor and five days of chemotherapy all in less than two weeks.

Sadie began to lose her hair as a side effect of the treatments. Beth says that they told their eldest child, Max, that if Sadie’s hair was falling out, it meant she was getting well. Max would diligently check his sister’s pillow to look for a sign that she was getting better.

Beth was adamant that cancer was not going to take all of her daughter’s hair. “I cut her hair. That was my control,” Beth says. Twelve inches of Sadie’s hair was donated to Locks of Love.

While being treated as an outpatient, Beth and Sadie met another little girl named Genesis Reyes, a year older than Sadie, who had a recurrence of the same cancer that Sadie had. Genesis was completely bald and Beth learned that Genesis believed that without her hair, she didn’t look “like a princess anymore, like her doll.”

Beth started looking for a doll for Genesis but couldn’t find the right one. “There was nothing beautiful and sparkly, that’s what Barbie is known for,” Beth says. Sadie was in the hospital for a treatment and while she slept Beth did a search online. “I posted on Facebook saying that a friend of Sadie’s doesn’t feel like a princess,” she recalls.

At that time, the CEO of Mattel lived on Long Island, and his wife learned about Beth’s search. (Mattel’s new CEO doesn’t live here.) The executive’s wife had two prototype dolls made, one for Genesis, a Hispanic Barbie doll that was completely bald, dressed in a sparkly pink dress that looked just like her. The other Barbie doll had blonde fuzz on her head, like Sadie, whose hair had begun to grow back. She was also dressed like a princess in a beautiful pink gown.

“I wanted a doll for Genesis,” Beth says. “I didn’t ask for one for Sadie.”

Beth was asked to attend a press conference where the Beautiful & Bald Barbie would be given to Genesis but decided it was more important that she stay with Sadie.

“I got the doll and felt my job was done,” Beth says.

No one could guess that Beth’s original 2011 Facebook posting would be the spark of an online movement.

Jane Bingham and Rebecca Sypin, both personally affected by cancer, recently posted on a new Facebook page, “Bald and Beautiful Barbie: Let’s see if we can get it made.” Beth found their post and contacted them with words of encouragement. “I told them I did it, you can, too.” Jane and Rebecca were surprised to learn that Sadie also had her own Beautiful & Bald Barbie.

They credit Beth with starting the movement and told her: “You’re the “other mom”; you’re the one who inspired us.”

So far more than 134,000 people “like” the Facebook page and celebrity supporters include Marlo Thomas and Denise Richards. Beth is hopeful that eventually Mattel will reconsider making the doll. With over a million page views in just one week, how can the toy company ignore them?

“They’ve made tattoo Barbie, wheelchair Barbie, breast cancer Barbie, astronaut Barbie and pregnant Midge already,” Beth says. “Why not this doll?”

During her treatment, Sadie endured six rounds of chemo, radiation, a stem-cell transplant and fought hard through the pain. Beth just learned that Sadie has a severe hearing loss, but she is doing well now–and that’s what is important.

Beth believes that this special Barbie doll can help a sick child deal with the emotional toll of losing their hair. “We are supposed to have hair; if you don’t, people assume you’re sick,” Beth says. A bald Barbie doll gives the child something tangible. “They can see it, touch it and visualize it,” she says.

Why Mattel won’t reconsider its refusal is baffling to Beautiful and Bald Barbie advocates since the toy manufacturer introduced the sparkly “Pink Ribbon Barbie” in 2006, which, in Mattel’s words, “celebrates the incredible strength, beauty and resilience of women.”

What about children with cancer?

The giant toy company’s response hasn’t changed: “Mattel does not accept ideas from outside sources.”

Beth was asked to be an administrator on the official Beautiful & Bald Barbie Facebook page, and shares the responsibility of overseeing the page content with Jane, Rebecca and three other women, all with a different reason for wanting Barbie bald.

“I’m the one who started it, but my focus now is getting back to living life,” Beth says. With Sadie in remission and attending pre-K and Max in third grade, Beth has time to focus on just raising a normal family and assisting her husband with their business in Freeport, Arrow Express Packing and Shipping.

Being the mother of a child with cancer has given Beth a new perspective on many things, she says. “You don’t have time to think, you just do.”

And that’s exactly what Beth did when she found Genesis Reyes the only truly Bald & Beautiful Barbie in the world. “My main goal was to get this doll for Genesis and I did.”

To contact Beth, email bfreifeld1@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/#!/BeautifulandBaldBarbie