She’s an actress, doctor, astronaut, Olympian – basically anything you want her to be but in an inspirational way. After 64 years of walking in pink heels, Barbara ‘Barbie’ Millicent Roberts has probably done it all because name a job and you’ll likely find it on Barbie’s resume, as she can groom your puppy one second, put out a burning building the next and then cook up a meal right after because, well, she’s also a chef. She’s inspired renowned artists like Andy Warhol, has 42 movies centred around her – not including the upcoming Barbie movie from Greta Gerwig – and by the way, has also sold over a billion dolls of herself.
But just who is Barbie and why is she the icon she is today? Come on Barbie, let’s go party dive into her rich history.
Origins
Behind every successful woman is another woman and Barbie is no different, as Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, first created Barbie. Handler noticed that her daughter Barbara was playing with paper dolls and while on a business trip in Switzerland in 1956, Handler came across a German doll called Bild Lilli, a fashion doll with an adult female body and inspiration struck.
Bild Lilli was based off a comic strip and was much more risqué. She was scantily clad and became an adult toy popular amongst German men. Handler then sought to make a doll with an adult female body like Bild Lilli, but rebranded as an all-American girl that young girls can play with and dress up.
Handler hopped on a plane to Japan with a Mattel researcher and two years later, Barbara ‘Barbie’ Millicent Roberts was born – lovingly named after Handler’s own daughter. Barbie made her official debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City in 1959 and became an instant success, selling 300,000 dolls in her first year.
In Barbie’s first television ad, a woman sings from the point of view of a young girl: “Till then, I know just what I’ll do: Barbie, beautiful Barbie, I’ll make believe that I am you.”
The creators of the Bild Lilli doll were not too happy and sued Mattel twice. The first case ended with a settlement, and the second case was eventually dismissed. The company went bankrupt, which was the end of Bild Lilli, and the start of Barbie’s legacy.
Barbie and Friends
Not long after, Mattel introduced Barbie’s longtime boyfriend, Ken Carson, famously known as Ken. The doll was created in 1961 and was named after Handler’s son and Barbara’s brother (which is extremely weird if you think about it). Ken easily became synonymous with the Barbie brand, but few know of Barbie’s group of other friends and family.
In 1963, Midge Hadley was introduced, and a year later, so was Allan Sherwood. Midge is Barbie’s best friend and in many ways, a complete opposite of Barbie. Barbie was a blonde bombshell whereas Midge was made as a redhead with freckles and was designed with less makeup and fashion sense. Midge was, in simple terms, the ugly best friend compared to the fabulous Barbie. Allan, as you can guess, was Ken’s best friend and was also the redhead to Ken’s blonde. There wasn’t as much buzz around Allan, but Mattel did release a pregnant Midge doll that allowed children to pop her belly and reveal a baby inside her, and where the supposed father of Midge’s child was Allan himself. The release of pregnant Midge caused quite a stir with parents claiming it promoted sexual behaviours and pregnancy amongst young girls. Midge was later discontinued in 1967 and replaced with another doll, PJ, who resembled Barbie despite her thick, long pigtails.
Barbie’s younger sister Skipper was introduced in 1964. Skipper was marketed as a spunky tech-savvy teenager with a purple streak in her brown hair. Although she was not discontinued like Midge was, Skipper did face some controversy. Somewhere out there, a Skipper doll exists where if one were to swivel her arm, she would grow in height and grow a chest.
There were many other dolls to have come and gone over the years, with Mattel putting out a total of 176 dolls thus far, with nine body types, 35 skin tones and 94 hairstyles, all efforts by the toymaker to diversify their range of dolls. In 2004, the first African-American doll was introduced. A transgender doll was introduced in 2016 and a doll with Down-Syndrome was announced in the earlier part of 2023.
Barbie’s Impact
Barbie has become a cultural phenomenon that has had a lasting impact on the lives of girls and women around the world. She became a symbol of empowerment and possibility and continues to inspire girls to reach for their dreams. After all, Barbie is an absolute girl boss with an illustrious career. She was a doctor, an astronaut, a president, a model, a dentist, a construction worker, a zoologist, a princess and so much more. Barbie taught girls that they could be whatever they wanted to be despite their gender. Barbie was also shown with a variety of body types and skin colours to further represent more girls around the world.
Unfortunately, Barbie’s impact was not always positive. Some people have criticised the doll’s unrealistic body image. Research has also shown that young girls aged five to eight who played with Barbie dolls had negative perceptions of their own bodies and appearances, and showed a preference for skinny body types.
In 2016, Barbie got a redesign and Mattel launched Barbie dolls in a variety of sizes. The redesign is meant to be a whole lot more realistic than the original Barbie, which if you converted to real-life sizes, would mean a 16-inch waist and the inability to walk on her two stick-like legs. Kids and parents can now purchase a short Barbie, a tall Barbie, a Barbie with hips, thighs and a hint of meat on her bones and a curvy Barbie. The original skinny Barbie still exists, though.
Barbie in the Media
Mattel first started making animated Barbie movies in the early 2000s, starting with 2001’s Barbie in the Nutcracker. The Barbie movies began as reimaginations of popular tales like Rapunzel and Swan Lake before Mattel started telling original fairy tales about fairies, mythical creatures and Barbie as various princesses. The movies later evolve to tell more modern stories with Barbie as a pop star, a spy, a video gamer and more. Currently, there are 42 animated Barbie movies, with the latest being Barbie: Skipper and the Big Babysitting Adventure in 2023.
Outside of animated movies, there are six other Barbie tv shows: the animated Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse (2012-2015), Barbie Vlogger (2015-2016), Barbie Dreamtopia (2016-2018), Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures (2018-2020), Barbie: It Takes Two (2022-present) and a reality TV competition called Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge (2023-present) where eight teams of Barbie fans compete to makeover a Barbie Dreamhouse.
Barbie and Ken have also appeared in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, where they were voiced by Jodi Benson (Ariel, The Little Mermaid) and Michael Keaton (He’s Batman) respectively. This also marked the first time that the Mattel dolls made appearances in a non-Mattel project and the first time the on-and-off again lovers reunited after their break up in 2004. Getting Mattel to agree to their appearances in a toy movie featuring other toys was a tough journey, as Pixar artist Craig L. Good revealed that the first movie was originally meant to see Barbie saving Woody from Sid’s house but Mattel wouldn’t allow it and the studio had to eventually write that part out.
“Some flat turned us down. We couldn’t get G.I. Joe, so had to invent Combat Carl. Mattel in those days didn’t want Barbie in any kind of animated film because they felt it was important for her to be neutral, allowing girls to imprint any personality they wanted. Obviously they later changed their minds. In this case it helped us make the story stronger,” Good replied to a Quora question.
“Barbie was going to show up driving her Corvette in Sid’s house and tell Woody, ‘Come with me if you want to live.’ Yeah, a Sarah Connor reference. In the process of writing her out, (director) John Lasseter and the story team realized that she would have been deus ex machina and that Woody needed to be in charge. That’s when the whole complicated “wind the frog” sequence was born.”
However, after seeing the success of the first Toy Story movie, Mattel became a lot more agreeable. Barbie made her first appearance in Toy Story 2, before being joined by Ken in Toy Story 3.
“By the time we made the sequels it was much, much easier to convince people it was a good idea to let their toys appear in the movie. In all fairness, they had no particular reason to think so when we were making the first one,” continued Good.
Unlike other toy properties where there is an established canon among the characters, the Barbie franchise is not bogged down by continuity or an established list of facts whereby Barbie has to marry Ken, or that there has only been one Barbie or Ken character.
Barbie is finally making her live-action debut in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie. In Barbie, the iconic doll has achieved a level of self-actualisation and is forced to leave Barbieland due to her so-called imperfections like having flat feet and thinking about dying mid-party. She sets off on an adventure in the real world with fellow doll and lifetime boyfriend, Ken, and discovers along the way that true perfection can be found within.
The movie stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Emma Mackey, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Ana Cruz Kayne, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Scott Evans, John Cena, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Emerald Fennell, Connor Swindells, Jamie Demetriou and Helen Mirren.
Barbie releases on 20 July 2023. Find out more about the movie, here.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Natalie
