What is one of your earliest memories?
Chances are Barbie was involved.
She’s an important piece of cultural history and an iconic nostalgic figure for many people.
Perhaps because she has been around for so long, Barbie has a few skeletons in her closet.
Barbie has a slightly creepy past.
She wasn’t meant for kids
Want to hear something disturbing?
The original doll that inspired Barbie was not meant for children at all.
She was actually used as a gag gift at bachelor parties.
The Bild-Lilli dolls were released in Germany in 1952 and were actually based on an adult comic strip.
Lilli was a rather saucy single lady and seemed to be pretty popular with the gentlemen.
Lilli was definitely much more sexualized than Barbie.
Despite their different personalities, you’re free to’t deny the physical resemblance between Lilli and Barbie.
This was actually a revolutionary idea in the ’50s.
Enter Ken, Midge, and Skipper who all joined her in the early 1960s.
She chose not to have children
Barbie has had just about every job under the sun.
This woman went from being an astronaut to a doctor to the president of the United States.
Is it any wonder that she never decided to have children?
Mattel purposely never gave Barbie children, so that girls could be creative and make her anything they wanted.
ThereareBarbie dolls that come with babies, but we’re not entirely sure who the parents are.
Barbie has younger sisters, but she and Ken never tied the knot nor had babies.
Her first job was as a fashion designer in 1960.
Then, she was a lounge singer and a flight attendant in 1961.
Over the next few years, Mattel released a few miscellaneous office-themed Barbies.
Since then, she has racked up an impressive resume.
In 2023, Mattel finally launched a line of Barbies that celebrated careers in STEM.
Parents didn’t love that Barbie looked so “mature.”
However, Ruth Handler was always unapologetic about this.
So I gave it beautiful breasts.
Handler wanted Barbie to be older than a child so that girls could live out their futures through her.
Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.
“It drives my husband mad when I bring a new doll home,” she toldMetro.
At least it isn’t maintaining a home with over 15,000 Barbie dolls in it.
The couple actually broke up in 2004, so this was quite the separation.
One Facebook user was worried that Barbie may be wasting her time: “good luck!
Now all you have to do is travel to Taiwan to eat at the Barbie-themed restaurant.
“We picked Taiwan because theme restaurants are very popular and successful here.
The cafe is a place for adults and children alike.
“I will take her here to celebrate her next birthday.”
The problem was that the recorded children’s voices were going to be saved on cloud servers.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) wasted no time taking this on.
“It’s creepy and creates a host of dangers for children and families.”
Georgetown Law Professor Angela Campbell had major concerns as well.
This information could be of great value to advertisers and be used to market unfairly to children.”
“Hello Barbie” also prompted concerns about kids' social interaction and development.
The Fashionistas line contains three body types: small, curvy, and petite.
Teen Talk Barbie said four random phrases chosen from a list of 270.
That is until women’s rights groups got involved.
One of the phrases said, “Math class is tough.”
Mattel ended up removing that phrase.
Mattel president Jill E. Barad wrote a letter to the association to apologize.
She now blurs gender lines
Barbie has never held back when it comes to her look.
Designer cars, formal gowns, and stilettos are just part of a normal day for her.
Perhaps that is why she jumped at the chance to collaborate with an unlikely pair.
The Blonds are glamorous and androgynous fashion designers who have always loved Barbie.
“Barbie doesn’t worry about what other people think.”
The Blonds are all about glamour, so Barbie was a perfect fit.
Her designer defends her body jot down
Barbie has long been criticized for her one-size body jot down.
Kim Culmone, Vice President of Design for Barbie, sees nothing wrong with her figure.
“Barbie’s body was never designed to be realistic.
Culmone also isn’t buying the fact that Barbie affects young girls and their body images.
“Girls view the world completely differently than grown-ups do.
From a very young age, girls were pressured to feel thin.
According to a2006 study, playing with an unattainably thin doll does affect how girls see themselves.
In this study, girls were given Barbie dolls to play with, then asked questions about their self-esteem.
Their self-esteem levels were significantly lower.
However, when the girls played with average or plus-size dolls, there was no effect on their self-esteem.
Barbie’s house was launched in 1962, just three years after the birth of Barbie.
The first Barbie home was a simple fold-out room with cardboard furniture and drawn-on decorations.
At the time, Barbie was often considered a college student.
Since then, Dreamhouse has been through several other iterations.
Who knows, maybe Barbie’s next home will be in the metaverse!
“Barbie” the movie is already making waves in the culture.
It’s safe to say that this movie will make a huge splash this year.
Throughout the 2000s, 39 more movies followed.
Most of them saw Barbie appear in a new version of a classic fairy tale or ballet.
Over the years, the Barbie animations became digital.
The latest film came in 2022 with “Barbie: Mermaid Power.”
Clearly, for many of us, the animated films are peak Barbie nostalgia.
In the ’90s, Barbie games were available on DOS, NES, and PC.
Dozens of other games were released over the years.
The sisters often appear in Barbie’s movies, video games, and online vlogs.
Todd also had a twin sister called Tutti.
It only makes sense that Warhol would add such an iconic figure as Barbie to the list.
However, it turns out, the real story behind the painting is a little more complicated.
As the story goes, Warhol painted Barbie as BillyBoy* wasn’t interested in being painted.
“For many, many, many years he wanted to do a painting of me.
And for some reason I didn’t appreciate that idea,” BillyBoy* told theBBC.
“I felt it was futile.
BillyBoy* suggested that he paint Barbie instead.
As the designer said: “He took it literally.
Wells, and poet Maya Angelou.
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
The song’s cultural impact was immense.
According toUDiscover Music, the song sold 33 million albums and garnered more than a billion YouTube views.
“It looked like a big, round ball.
It made me think of, ‘Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.'”
“You don’t necessarily have to have plastic surgeries to be a better person.”
The Totally Hair Barbie featured a classic Barbie doll with Rapunzel-length hair.
It also came with real hair gel so that owners of the doll could style the hair themselves.
According toBusiness Week, the doll was sold over 10 million times.
“None of the ideas worked, so it was down to the wire.
We had very little time before the doll had to go into production.
That’s when I realized the best way to go forward was todress the doll with her hair.
“Luckily, it worked and the rest is history.
Midge was first introduced in 1963 as Barbie’s bestie.
Apparently, with her red hair and bangs, she was more “mature” than Barbie.
Midge then disappeared from 1965 until 1988, when Mattel released a new Midge doll.
Eventually, in 2002, Mattel released a pregnant Midge doll.
The doll featured a removable baby bump with a tiny newborn doll, Nikki, inside.
The doll was discontinued and a new post-pregnancy doll was introduced.
Mattel is still sellingMidgedolls today but not the controversial pregnant one.
Mattel’s new line, Barbie Extra, features a number of over-the-top Barbies with matching pets.
“Even their pets are extra.”
In fact, they are expected to underperform in 2023.
In early 2023,Reutersreported that the company’s shares had gone down by around 12%.
Added Linda Bolton Weiser, an analyst at D.A.
Apparently, we just aren’t buying enough toys anymore!
She has a massive YouTube channel
Can’t get enough Barbie?
Well, you’re in luck.
The channel also makes short videos.
Barbie also has a vlog where she speaks directly to the camera about her life.
“But we’ve also infused some of the episodes with teachable moments.
Sounds like the YouTube channel is both fun and educational.
By the sounds of things, these conventions are extremely popular.
In 2015, for instance, over 1,000 fans reportedly attended the Washington D.C. convention.
As for the 2023 Barbie convention, it sold out months before the convention’s start date.
As one fan explained onReddit, the convention comes with a lot of perks.
“You get a goodie baggie when you check in,” the fan wrote.
“This year [2022] there was a reusable bag, some pens, and a wine glass.
Then there is of course, the Convention Doll you get on the last day during dinner.
Mattel also gives out a gift, this year it was an outfit.”
