Do you know how old is Barbie?
Gender stereotypes aside, most kids grow up playing with the universally favourite doll Barbie. She comes in various forms. Sometimes, Barbie is a pilot or a doctor, and at others, she is an astronaut! If you have played with Barbie, you have had a colourful childhood. But have you ever wondered how long has Barbie been around? Let’s dig into the history of this all-time favourite of kids.
Birth of Barbie
If you take a close look at the history of doll-making, you will observe that dolls were often made to resemble babies (that’s where the phrase “baby doll” comes from!). The goal was to encourage young kids play with their own prototype, something that they could easily take care of. It was their opportunity to act like parents and pretend to nurture their make-believe babies. But guess what, this changed overnight, when on 9th March 1959, a never-seen-before doll sporting a black-and-whited striped swimsuit, pouty red lips and a blonde ponytail was introduced to the world. Her grand debut was through the American Toy Fair that was being held in New York City. It was none other than Barbie!
Turns out, Barbie was created by Ruth Handler who was inspired by her daughter Barbara, who often used to play with make-believe paper dolls resembling adult women. She realised that her daughter was imagining herself as a grown-up lady. Thus, she came up with the idea of Barbie, something the world had not thought of before. She wanted children to focus on the future and visualise what they wanted to be when they grew up. An older, life-like figure called Barbie was just the way to ensure that. In fact, the creator was later quoted saying, “whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, a little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”
Who is Barbie?
Barbie is not just a 11-inch plastic figure, but a doll with a sassy personality. Her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and she hails from the fictional US town called Willows in Wisconsin. She has a best friend named Midge Hadley (born 1963), a little sister named Skipper Roberts (born 1964) and an on-again off-again long-time boyfriend named Ken Carson (after Handler’s son), who was introduced in 1961.
Barbie over the years
Ruth Handler was so keen on popularising Barbie that right after its inception, she went on to establish Mattel, Inc. (now a global toy giant) with her husband Elliot. And it wasn’t before long that Barbie became the first-ever mass-produced doll in the USA with adult-like body features.
As for the design, Ms. Handler had chosen a famous German comic-strip character named Bild Lilli and had even purchased its rights. The similarities are right there: Both Barbie and Lilli were a foot tall each, with long, distinguished blond hair.
The first design of Barbie was the reflection of the contemporary times and mimicked the glamour and lifestyle of 1950s film stars, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Interestingly, Barbie went on to become a global sensation, selling almost 300,000 units the first year itself.
Owing to its immense popularity, the line-up of Barbie expanded over the years. Barbie started coming with not only friends and family but also with cars, houses and other accessories. Not only that, Barbie came in various professions (as many as 200), such as air hostess, astronaut, teacher, model, pilot, doctor, nurse, palaeontologist, rock star, computer engineer, athlete and even a U.S. Presidential candidate (1992).
Barbie also came in the form of celebrities, such as supermodel Twiggy in 1967, followed by Cher, J.K. Rowling, Aubrey Hepburn and Diana Ross over the years. Barbie is now an iconic symbol of diversity, representing all races, drag queens and even a cancer affected ‘chemo’ personality.