Sarah Nurse says PWHL Barbie can inspire next generation of female athletes

By Canadian Press on August 15, 2025.

Sarah Nurse will start her first season with the still-unnamed Vancouver franchise in the Professional Women’s Hockey League this fall — but she’s already made her mark off the ice with a Barbie doll in her likeness.

The Canadian forward, MVP at the 2022 Olympic women’s hockey tournament, was one of two players featured in a recent collaboration between the PWHL, Tim Hortons and Mattel.

Nurse and Montréal Victoire star Marie-Philip Poulin each have dolls dressed in PWHL gear, part of a project celebrating women’s achievements in the sport.

Nurse says it’s a “big privilege” to show the younger generation that women can be professional hockey players.

“There are so many women who are older than me, who never got the chance to play hockey or never had a hockey-playing Barbie doll to play with when they were younger,” she said. “And so, I’ve really seen this Barbie be able to touch different generations of women.”

Nurse has been part of a Barbie project before — she and Poulin were featured five years ago as Olympic players in a Hockey Canada partnership with Tim Hortons and Mattel.

That campaign recognized their influence in helping open doors for women in the sport.

“They were such a huge success the first round, they had to bring them back again,” Nurse said.

This latest edition, she said, is an opportunity to show girls that playing professional hockey can be an actual, tangible goal.

Nurse and Poulin first saw their dolls during a joint shoot for the Barbie campaign, “where even the Barbies had their own hair, makeup and wardrobe stylists.”

“I think it was really cool just to be in that environment. And then obviously to see these Barbies that are inspired by us is, it was really special,” she said.

The off-ice highlight comes ahead of a new chapter in her playing career.

Nurse spent the league’s first two seasons with the Toronto Sceptres before signing with Vancouver in June after being left unprotected in the expansion draft, as the league expands to eight clubs with new West Coast franchises in B.C. and Seattle.

Nurse joins a roster that includes Olympic teammates Emerance Maschmeyer and Claire Thompson.

PWHL Vancouver will open its inaugural season in November at the Pacific Coliseum.

It’s another landmark in a high-profile career that has seen Nurse become the first female cover athlete for EA Sports’ NHL video game in 2023 and help negotiate the PWHL’s first collective bargaining agreement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.

Norah Kim, The Canadian Press