National Barbie Day
In 2016, the Mattel toy company introduced three new body types for the iconic Barbie doll—tall, curvy, and petite. Barbie also is now available in a variety of skin tones and hair styles. The makeover from the original Barbie’s extremely thin and unrealistic body type was aimed at helping girls to feel more confident about their own body image.
Credit: Mattel
Today, March 9th is National Barbie Day! Barbie is a teenage fashion doll made by the toy company Mattel, Inc. The iconic doll was introduced in 1959 by the American toy inventors Elliot and Ruth Handler. The couple founded Mattel in 1945. Mattel is one of the world’s largest toy companies, and Barbie is one of the world’s most popular dolls. Mattel also introduced the world to Hot Wheels toy cars in 1968.
This coming July, a stacked cast will portray Barbie’s story in a movie! Australian actress Margot Robbie plays Barbie with Canadian actor Ryan Gosling as Ken. The glamorous, pink-clad blonde Robbie is featured alongside other stars including American actor Will Ferrel, Canadian actor Simu Liu, and Canadian actor Michael Cera. The movie will be the first live-action portrayal of the Barbie doll in a movie, 64 years after Barbie dolls graced the shelves of toy stores!
Back in the 1950’s, Ruth Handler saw her daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls. She decided to make a doll that had many beautiful outfits. Ruth’s inspiration for Barbie was a German doll called Bild-Lilli. She named the new doll after her daughter.
Barbie doll
Credit: © Robin Beckham, BEEP Stock/Alamy Images
Mattel introduced the 11 1/2-inch (29-centimeter) vinyl Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. The doll created some controversy because the teenage Barbie had the figure of an adult woman. Barbie was one of the first toys to be advertised on television. The doll became popular almost immediately.
Clothes for the Barbie doll were sold separately and came with accessories and shoes. Over the years, sales of the outfits produced more profits for Mattel than the doll itself. The company has sold over a billion Barbie outfits.
Mattel introduced other dolls as friends and family members of Barbie. Such dolls included her boyfriend, Ken, (introduced in 1961); her friend Midge (1963); and her sister Skipper (1964). Some of Barbie’s other friends have included an African American girl named Christie (added in 1968); a Hispanic girl named Teresa (1988); and an Asian or Pacific Island girl named Kira (1990). Barbie’s friend Becky, who uses a wheelchair because of a disability, was added in 1997.
Mattel made a wide variety of toys to accompany the Barbie doll. In 1962, the company introduced a cardboard dollhouse called Barbie’s Dream House. By the 1980’s, the dollhouse was made of pink vinyl, and the color pink soon came to be associated with Barbie. Other Barbie toys include vacation homes, cars, airplanes, a camper, and a cruise ship. There are also Barbie games, books, paper dolls, coloring books, lunch boxes, movies, video games, websites, and apps (software applications) for smartphones.
Barbie has assumed a number of roles through the years. She appears here as an architect, from the “I Can Be…” line of Barbie dolls. The line is meant to encourage girls in careers.
Credit: AP Photo
Since her introduction, Barbie has been featured as a fairy, a princess, and the fairy-tale character Rapunzel. Barbie has also been sold with outfits and accessories representing different careers in the “I Can Be…” series. Barbie can be dressed as an astronaut, computer engineer, dentist, news anchor, president, race car driver, and as many other professionals. In 2015, Mattel introduced “Hello Barbie,” a doll that uses Wi-Fi and speech recognition technology to engage in two-way conversations with a child. Wi-Fi is a wireless computer networking technology. The doll can also play games and tells jokes. In the 2010′s, Mattel also introduced new Barbie dolls with different body types and more varied skin tones, eye colors, and hair. Some new dolls used a wheelchair or prosthetic (artificial) limb. Such additions were intended to reflect real-life diversity and help children feel more confident about their own unique selves.
Some Barbie dolls are higher-priced collectibles targeted to adults. These include porcelain Barbies dressed in designer or vintage fashions and dolls representing Hollywood stars and other celebrities.
