Barbie Dolls, entrepreneurial training, and endless inspiration – this is the Be Anything Museum!

If you feel like your day could do with a little (scratch that – big) motivational boost, this customer stories interview is worth a read. In it, we chat with the wonderful Lourdes Uranday, a truly inspirational woman who is the brains and heart behind the fascinating Be Anything Museum, also known as BAM! 

BAM!’s name is highly apt, given that it was created by Lourdes as a not-for-profit endeavour to empower and inspire individuals seeking to be their best selves. But wait – it gets better. The Be Anything Museum doesn’t just use any old means to inspire and motivate its visitors. Rather, it centres around an extensive and thrilling collection of Barbie dolls, showcasing the evolution of the iconic character’s role in empowering women and minorities. 

This beautiful collection forms the backdrop to an organisation that, among other things, provides entrepreneurial training, runs workshops, seminars, and classes, and collaborates with local non-profits, schools, and businesses – all with the aim of creating a supportive ecosystem that helps individuals achieve their greatest ambitions. Powerful stuff. 

Read on to learn more about this impressive endeavour. We guarantee that, after doing so, you’ll have a spring in your step for the rest of the day.

🎟️ Why Lourdes loves Ticket Tailor

📲 Seamless integration with her website and social media: Lourdes loved how simple it was to integrate her Ticket Tailor box office with her existing website. Plus, social media integration has made it so much easier to market BAM! events.

👀 Tip: Find out how to add the Ticket Tailor box office widget to your website, and about Ticket Tailor integrations. 

✅ Super easy for attendees to register for both free and paid events: Lourdes talks about how user-friendly Ticket Tailor is for their attendees, making sign-up quick and easy.

📈 Easy to track event participants: Ticket Tailor makes your attendee check-in data highly accessible. After using our free event check-in app, Lourdes can view and export all of her event attendee data, and can also access real-time attendee data in the check-in app 🙌.

Hey Lourdes! First up, tell us a bit about yourself and how BAM! came into being…

I grew up in the Central Valley of California, the fifth of six children and the youngest girl — which meant I received a lot of dolls growing up! I got my very first Barbie dolls from the Salvation Army’s Christmas Toy Giveaway when I was about six years old. Those two Barbies are now proudly displayed at the Be Anything Museum.

I was the first in my family to go to college, and later earned my MBA with an emphasis in Human Resources. For over 25 years, I worked in corporate America in HR, and along the way I also developed a love for collecting Barbie dolls — especially the ones that showed Barbie in a wide variety of careers, with Mattel’s empowering slogan “Girls can be anything”.

As my collection and my career grew — including work in business advising and grant writing — I realised I wanted to create something more. That’s how the Be Anything Museum was born: a nonprofit space that celebrates possibility and potential through the lens of Barbie, while also serving as a business resource centre for our community.

We get the feeling BAM! is so much more than a museum… Tell us a bit more about your mission:

You’re right! The Be Anything Museum is dedicated to inspiring and empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds by showcasing the iconic Barbie Dolls as symbols of endless possibilities and potential – as well as through educational programmes and resources.

Our organisation aims to serve as both a museum and an educational center, catering to non-profits, children, women, minority-owned businesses, and entrepreneurs in the region. 

Ultimately, we aim to curate inspiring exhibits featuring Barbie Dolls and toys that showcase the limitless possibilities and potential of individuals from all walks of life. Through these displays, we hope to instill a sense of ambition, creativity, and empowerment in our visitors. And we have several strategic objectives:

• Motivation and inspiration – to inspire individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and identities to dream big and pursue their aspirations relentlessly.
• Education and empowerment – through offering workshops, seminars, and interactive experiences, including financial literacy and entrepreneurship to thrive in today's world.
• Community engagement – by actively collaborating with local non-profits, schools, and businesses to foster meaningful connections and address the unique needs of the Central Valley population. Through this, we aim to create a supportive ecosystem where individuals can access resources and support to achieve their goals, including youth career exploration.
• Celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion – by showcasing Barbie Dolls representing a wide range of cultures, professions, and identities. Ultimately, our museum aims to foster a sense of belonging and acceptance among anyone who visits.

Can you tell us about any of BAM!’s biggest achievements so far?

We officially opened our doors on October 17, 2024, with a ribbon-cutting from the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. Since then, we’ve hosted our first annual Doll & Collectible Toy Show and Sale, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Girl Scouts of America.

We also launched the Business Women’s Fellowship, which meets monthly and features a local woman business owner sharing her expertise. Every session this year is already booked with fantastic speakers. In May 2025, we kicked off our Business Action & Mentorship series to help aspiring entrepreneurs grow their businesses. And we recently welcomed our first school district for a field trip, bringing over 50 girls to BAM! for a tour and career workshop. 

Impressive stuff! Have there been any challenges along the way? 

At the moment, the Be Anything Museum is still building momentum. We’ve had visitors from throughout California, and are hopeful that more school districts will bring students for a tour and career exploration. The main challenge we have to tackle as a non-profit is funding. Grant funding is slow to come in, and BAM! is still new – we’re still proving our concept, in a way. With cuts in funding, museums are not a priority, so we have to come up with additional fundraisers to overcome this challenge. For example, we’re planning to host our second annual Doll & Collectible Toy Show and Sale on November 8th 2025, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Club. 

How do you get the word out about your museum and events?

We’ve made the most of the general PR side of things in recent years – we’ve been lucky to get some great local media coverage, including features in The Modesto Bee, Modesto View, and even a segment on KCRA Channel 3 out of Sacramento. We also use social media actively to promote our events and connect with our community.

Any words of advice for someone looking to start their own cool, cultural project?

I think it’s all about staying connected to your community. My ultimate advice to anyone starting a project would be to network and find a mentor. And, of course, consider joining one of our Business Action & Mentorship workshops! We cover everything from idea development to grant writing.

Now onto ticketing – we’d love to know why you chose Ticket Tailor as your ticketing partner?

Ticket Tailor has been a fantastic platform for us. It’s easy to use, and I really appreciate how seamlessly it links to our website. The integration with our social media accounts has also been incredibly helpful. It makes promoting events so much easier and keeps everything streamlined. We also find the event registration process really straightforward, whether the event is paid or free – it’s good to know our attendees are having a good user experience when booking onto our events. Ticket Tailor also makes it easy for us to accurately and effortlessly track attendance.

That’s great to hear! Finally, what do you think the future holds for BAM!?

We’re very hopeful that the Be Anything Museum will continue to thrive as we gain more and more momentum, and more people hear about us! We have tons of new events on the horizon and don’t plan to slow these down any time soon!

💛 A big thanks

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, Lourdes! We’re sure our readers will be keen to learn more about BAM!’s up and coming events.

💫 Feeling inspired? 

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