Interview with 5-Year-Old Emily about her Doll "Corona Barbie" and Missing School During COVID-19

Emily Oral History, 2020/05/29

This is an interview from May 29th 2020 with five-year-old Emily of rural Oklahoma about COVID-19. She talks about her doll she named "Corona Barbie" in which she used a high neck dress to cover the doll's mouth like a mask. Emily also talks about missing family vacations, missing school, and especially missing her teacher Mrs. Looper. Growing up in a rural area, she was most excited to be able to share videos of her chickens hatching via Facebook Messenger Kids during the pandemic. Photograph included that inspired the interview is of the actual "Corona Barbie" mentioned in the interview. The photograph was taken on March 16th, 2020. Submitted for the #ruralvoices collection. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST 580. #HST580 #ASU

May 29, 2020

Clinton P. Roberts

Clinton P. Roberts

HST580

Arizona State University

Audio File

Photograph

English Education--K12

English Emotion

English Home & Family Life

English Recreation & Leisure

interview

mask

messenger

Disneyland

rural voices

rural

youth

oral

history

Rural Voices

Children

K-12

05/29/2020

06/10/2020

06/27/2020

10/22/2020

11/09/2020

12/11/2020

01/29/2021

05/18/2021

08/02/2022

10/17/2024

05/29/2020

Clinton P. Roberts

Emily

Blanchard

Oklahoma

73010

United States

audio

English

0h:08m:07s

Transcription provide by Otter.ai w/ 2nd Pass for accuracy by Clinton P. Roberts HST580 / HSE ASU.

Clinton Roberts 0:01
Emily, how old are you?

Emily 0:02
Five.

Clinton Roberts 0:03
Five? So, I noticed that you had this doll. What's the name of this doll?

Emily 0:16
Flexie

Clinton Roberts 0:16
Flexie? What did you call her when, when you put this outfit on her?

Emily 0:22
Corona Barbie.

Clinton Roberts 0:24
Well, that's funny. Why did why did that come to your mind? Did you think of Corona Barbie? Because it's something you'd heard before.

Emily 0:31
No, I just put a mask on.

Clinton Roberts 0:34
Mask on? Is that something people do now? They put masks on.

Emily 0:38
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 0:39
Why do they put masks on?

Emily 0:41
Cause of the corona virus.

Clinton Roberts 0:43
Is that kind of scary?

Emily 0:45
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 0:45
Yeah? If you do- have you seen people wear masks?

Emily 0:49
Yes.

Clinton Roberts 0:52
What kind of masks do they wear?

Emily 0:57
[indiscernible]

Clinton Roberts 0:57
Do what now?

Emily 0:58
Just regular and I don't know.

Clinton Roberts 1:03
Do you ever do you, do you ever wear a mask? Have you worn a mask yet?

Emily 1:08
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 1:09
Yeah. Was it easy to do or was it kind of difficult?

Emily 1:14
That one I could barely breath in.

Clinton Roberts 1:16
Yeah, sometimes it's kind of hard, huh?

Emily 1:18
Mm hmm.

Clinton Roberts 1:19
Yeah. Do you think like people wearing masks, that's kind of weird?

Emily 1:24
Mm hmm.

Clinton Roberts 1:25
Yeah. What does the mask do?

Emily 1:28
It keeps from getting corona virus.

Clinton Roberts 1:33
It keeps you from getting what?

Emily 1:35
Corona virus.

Clinton Roberts 1:37
Is that what like the mask does, it just it helps people ?

Emily 1:42
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 1:43
So is that one of the things you thought about with Barbie?

Emily 1:46
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 1:46
Is her having a mask so she would be protected too?

Emily 1:49
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 1:50
So when you hear like things like the Coronavirus does that seem like some kind of big thing that's everywhere. What kind of thing is it?

Emily 2:00
A big thing.

Clinton Roberts 2:03
What other things do you think about when you hear the word Coronavirus?

Emily 2:08
I don't know.

Clinton Roberts 2:11
Do you do you hear adults talk about it a lot?

Emily 2:15
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 2:15
Do you ever wonder sometimes what it means?

Emily 2:19
No.

Clinton Roberts 2:19
No? It just seems like something adults worry about?

Emily 2:23
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 2:25
Does- did the Barbie seem like something that you did because you just kind of wanted to do stuff that adults were doing? Or did it seem like something that you were afraid Barbie was gonna get Corona?

Emily 2:38
[Emily laughs] Both.

Clinton Roberts 2:41
Both? [Clinton laughs] So, if you were going to tell yourself a story later in life when you're an adult, what would you tell yourself about this time when Coronavirus?

Emily 2:53
I don't know.

Clinton Roberts 2:53
You don't know. What would be something you'd want yourself to know about what you did during this time.

Emily 3:00
I don't know.

Clinton Roberts 3:02
You don't know. Would you want your future self to remember about Coronavirus Barbie?

Emily 3:11
Mmm, yeah.

Clinton Roberts 3:11
Yeah.

Emily 3:11
If can't break her, I will keep her.

Clinton Roberts 3:14
You'll keep her? You going to keep her in her mask?

Emily 3:17
Not in her mask.

Clinton Roberts 3:18
No?

Emily 3:19
In some of her clothes, I like her in.

Clinton Roberts 3:22
Yeah. So is that the kind of thing that that you thought about when you you missed school? Because- Did you did you get to finish school this year?

Emily 3:34
No.

Clinton Roberts 3:35
What- Why did you not get to finish school?

Emily 3:38
Because of corona virus. Why do I have to keep saying this?

Clinton Roberts 3:43
Well it's just part of what we're talking about. It's just the Coronavirus itself. Did you miss school?

Emily 3:48
Yeah. I miss Mrs. Looper.

Clinton Roberts 3:51
Yeah. School is pretty fun, huh?

Emily 3:54
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 3:55
Did you did you think about you know, maybe like this would only take a week or so. And then it seemed like it went a long time. Huh?

Emily 4:03
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 4:05
Are you excited about going back to school next year?

Emily 4:07
Uh huh.

Clinton Roberts 4:09
Are you hoping this will all be over so you can do that? What what kind of message would you want to tell to your friends that got to miss school too? And you hadn't seen them since then?

Emily 4:20
I don't know.

Clinton Roberts 4:21
You don't know?

Emily 4:22
I'll see them at graduation.

Clinton Roberts 4:25
Oh, yeah. What kind of event is that?

Emily 4:29
Next year, I think.

Clinton Roberts 4:31
Oh, yeah. So you'll get to see your friends next year school, huh? Okay, is there anything else you want to tell me about school

Emily 4:40
Not really.

Clinton Roberts 4:42
Tell me about some of the things you missed out on. You said you missed out on vacation.

Emily 5:07
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 5:09
Well, what did- some of the things that you did instead? Since you were stuck at home, did you do other things? that- Did you find other ways to talk to your friends? Did you find other ways to message them or to communicate with your friends?

Emily 5:28
Yes, no, maybe?

Clinton Roberts 5:29
[Clinton laughs] So-

Emily 5:33
Facebook Messenger.

Clinton Roberts 5:38
Facebook Messenger, like the one for kids? Is that a cool way to like talk to people when you're kind of stuck in the house?

Emily 5:45
[nods head]

Clinton Roberts 5:55
Yeah. Is not as good as going to school though. Is it?

Emily 5:51
No.

Clinton Roberts 5:52
No. So if you were going to talk about things you missed, it's really not as good you know, to do those things but it was better than nothing right? Did you get to do anything at home that was special that you want to tell your friends about? You You were going to talk about-

Emily 6:11
Yes.

Clinton Roberts 6:11
-your chickens, huh?

Emily 6:14
Yeah. Chicken videos.

Clinton Roberts 6:19
You made chicken videos?

Emily 6:20
Mm hmm.

Clinton Roberts 6:22
What did you want your friends to see about?

Emily 6:25
Hatching eggs.

Clinton Roberts 6:26
Oh, yeah, was that something you would have told them in person if it wasn't for the Coronavirus?

Emily 6:32
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 6:33
Yeah.

Emily 6:33
Tonight I want to make a video about how my chickens were. And, no, not like that. Maybe on summertime.

Clinton Roberts 6:43
Yeah, yeah.

Emily 6:44
Maybe I'll do that one at summertime, but other than serama showing video.

Clinton Roberts 6:54
Was there anything else you can think of you missed because of the corona virus?

Emily 7:03
Disneyland and the beach and Louisiana.

Clinton Roberts 7:13
Yeah.

Emily 7:13
And the ghost beaches.

Clinton Roberts 7:16
So you had you had trips planned that you didn't get to do?

Emily 7:19
Yeah.

Clinton Roberts 7:20
Yeah. So you think you'll get to do those later?

Emily 7:24
Hmm, yeah.

Clinton Roberts 7:24
Maybe?

Emily 7:25
I guess it could be [indiscernible]

Clinton Roberts 7:27
Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else you can think of?

Emily 7:36
No.

Clinton Roberts 7:36
No? Okay. Well, thank you, Emily. This is Clinton Roberts, Arizona State University, HST 580. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai