The Grandmother of Juneteenth is now a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.

The big picture: The Opal Lee Barbie is part of Mattel's Inspiring Women series, which includes retired WNBA legend Sue Bird, fashion designer Anna Sui and tennis star Venus Williams.

Driving the news: Mattel released the Opal Lee Barbie yesterday. Walmart, Target, Amazon and the Mattel website are now selling the Barbies.

State of play: The $38 doll depicts Lee at age 89, when she organized a walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to petition Congress to designate Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

• The doll rocks a purple T-shirt, white joggers, sneakers and glasses.
• "Dr. Lee exemplifies the power of purpose in action," Nathan Baynard, who oversees Barbie globally, said in a statement.

Context: For two and a half years, an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas didn't know President Lincoln had declared them free through the Emancipation Proclamation.

• Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, announcing that enslaved Texans were now freed.

The intrigue: Lee, now 99, has written a memoir and is featured in several children's books.

• The books share how her experiences with racism inspired her civil rights advocacy. Lee holds a 2.5-mile walk in Fort Worth every year to remind people of the significance of Juneteenth.

The bottom line: "I hope my story encourages the next generation to never underestimate the power of one voice," Lee said in a statement.

• "As I often say, one person can start a change, and that can change the world."

The National Weather Service says it's deploying every available resource to forecast this week's potentially historic winter storm, including "hurricane hunter" aircraft.

Why it matters: The storm could bring as much as five inches of snow and freezing rain to North Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

Catch up quick: Dallas-Fort Worth is under a winter storm watch starting this afternoon until Sunday morning.

• The region will be under an extreme cold watch from tomorrow through Monday morning. Wind chills could drop below zero.
• Because temperatures are forecasted to stay below freezing through Monday, any precipitation is not expected to melt until Tuesday.

What they're doing: Hurricane hunter aircraft and crews from NWS parent agency NOAA and the U.S. Air Force are busy collecting invaluable data for forecasters.

• Among their tools: dropsondes, probes dropped from aircraft that collect and transmit weather data as they fall.
• Those aircraft are flying over the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf Coast to collect useful intel for predicting this far-reaching storm — a rare multifront effort.

What they're saying: "Little wiggles matter, so 1 or 2 degrees in either direction could be rain or freezing rain or snow. North and south 40 or 50 miles could put a major city in the ice or the snow or just rain," NWS director Ken Graham tells Axios.

• "It is a complicated, tricky forecast, so we're really trying to refine it the best we can."

What we're watching: Whether ERCOT elevates the weather watch to a conservation order.

"The Women," Kristin Hannah's 2024 historical fiction novel, was the top checked out book from library systems nationwide last year, including in several North Texas libraries.

Zoom in: The book topped the list of most checked out in Dallas and Frisco.

• In Fort Worth, the most read library book was James Patterson's "The Texas Murders."

The intrigue: Last year, the Plano library system surpassed a million digital checkouts, mirroring a nationwide increase in digital library loans. That includes ebooks and audiobooks.

Zoom out: Novelist Emily Henry is popular with library users.

• Her 2024 romance, "Funny Story," was the second-most checked out book in Dallas and third-most in Frisco. "Book Lovers" was also popular.

For the youths: A Hunger Games prequel, "Sunrise on the Reaping," was among the top checked out books in Frisco and Fort Worth.

• The movie version will hit theaters in November.

💰The Dallas County Commissioners Court approved spending $55 million to buy land to build a new jail. (DMN)

🚨 Dallas Baptist University canceled classes yesterday over several threats. An event at the university with U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was also canceled. (WFAA)

🫀 A Fort Worth hospital is testing an implant that could help patients with ventricular arrhythmias, which can cause sudden cardiac arrest. (Star-Telegram)

👋🏽 Naheed here. Denton County was a winter wonderland on Jan. 10, 2025.

• I was worried about losing power and spent way too much time outside, begging the dog to hurry up and do his business.
• I forgot about that weekend until I came across this photo yesterday.

The big picture: Our region is larger than most metros, which means we don't all experience winter storms the same way.

The intrigue: Researchers say photography can help with mindfulness and wellness.

• If you find yourself feeling miserable or bored this weekend, try capturing what you see around you.

📬 Want to share your winter storm pics with us? Hit reply and email us a photo, along with the North Texas city where it was taken.