18 Things You Didn't Know About The Barbie Doll
18.
Barbie Is Just A Nickname We all know Barbie instantly; even if you
meet someone named Barbie nowadays, the first association you’re likely to make is with
the Barbie doll.
But did you know that Barbie actually isn’t her real name?
In fact, it’s just a nickname - short for Barbara Millicent Roberts.
This name was chosen to honor the daughter of the founders of Mattel, the company which
manufactures the dolls.
Shortly after the release of the first Barbie dolls in 1959, a series of Random House novels
were written and released to fill in Barbie’s back story.
Besides just her full name, these books gave out interesting details about Barbie, like
the name of the high school she attended, Willows High School, and the name of her primary
love interest, Ken Carson.
17.
MC Hammer Barbie?
This may seem a little ridiculous nowadays, but MC Hammer was once immortalized in Barbie
Doll form.
The dolls were released in 1991 and came in two versions.
One wore a gold suit while the other wore a purple suit.
With the doll came a cassette mix tape featuring MC Hammer music, as well as a pair of gold
glasses which fit on the doll’s face.
The doll was tremendously popular and is now considered a collector’s item, going for
as much as $100 on sites like eBay and Amazon.
16.
First Sales The first Barbie Dolls sold for just $3 in
1959, and if you can believe it, she wasn’t wearing pink.
In fact, the first outfit Barbie wore was a black and white striped swimsuit.
Although the iconic Barbie Doll is best known as a blonde, the first dolls were sold in
both blonde and brunette hair colors.
It’s estimated that a total of about 350,000 dolls were sold in that first production run
and accompanying sales year of its debut, following the American International Toy Fair
in New York City.
15.
Barbie’s Family Besides just her love interest, Ken, Barbie
actually has a pretty wide circle of friends and family.
She has three sisters, named Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea.
Another sister named Tutti had a twin brother named Todd, but these characters have only
been mentioned and sold sporadically throughout the Barbie Doll’s existence.
Additionally, Barbie has cousins named Francie and Jazzie, and friends named Blaine (whom
Barbie briefly dated while on break from Ken), Midge (who has been Barbie’s best friend
since 1963), Christie, Teresa, Summer, Nikki, Raquelle, Grace, Stacey, PJ, and Steffie.
Many of these have appeared in physical doll form while others, including Barbie’s parents,
George and Margaret, have only appeared in other Barbie media such as books and movies.
14.
Banned In Saudi Arabia Barbie may be hugely popular and successful
in almost every part of the world, but that’s not the case in Saudi Arabia.
In 2003, the Saudi religious police announced that Barbie’s lifestyle and wardrobe were
too decadent and revealing for their culture, and that sales of the toy would no longer
be allowed in their country.
At the time, special posters depicting the tight outfits Barbie Dolls wore were created
reading “A strange request.
A little girl asks her mother: Mother, I want jeans, a low-cut shirt, and a swimsuit like
Barbie.”
13.
Barbie’s Biggest Fan A woman from Germany named Bettina Dorfmann
claims that she is Barbie’s biggest fan, and she has the collection to back it up.
At the age of just five years old, Bettina received her first Barbie doll.
This was 1966, so her doll was in fact one of the originals.
Her interest was thoroughly piqued, and in 1993 at the age of 32 years old, Bettina decided
to take her collection to the next level.
She began seeking out rare Barbies as well as common ones, with the goal of creating
the most robust collection on Earth.
In 2011 she was awarded a world record for the largest Barbie doll collection, with more
than 15,000 dolls owned.
In the years since, she has continued to expand the collection and solidify her title as the
biggest Barbie doll fan ever.
12.
Source of Inspiration Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman who
served as the President of Mattel, Inc. got the inspiration for the Barbie Doll when she
saw the German Bild Lilli doll, which was a fashion doll in the same vein as what the
barbie doll would become.
Seeing an opportunity, she was inspired to create the Barbie Doll and sell it in the
United States, where it quickly became popular.
The main difference between the two dolls was that Bild Lilli was not considered a children’s
toy, and was in fact seen more as a gag gift for adults.
In 1964, Mattel acquired the rights to the German doll, and Bild Lilli production was
ceased.
11.
The Barbie Population Has Grown Faster Than The Real One
It’s no secret that Barbie Dolls are more popular than ever in modern society.
With that growth, though, comes a pretty interesting fact.
One Barbie Doll is sold every three seconds around the world.
This outpaces the growth at which babies are born in the United States, since about 4,000,000
babies are born in America each year.
Barbie Dolls sell at about 24 times that rate, meaning that there are already far more Barbie
Dolls than there are people in the USA, and that number is growing all the time.
Although Barbies are now sold all over the world, there has actually been a slight decline
in sales in the United States as of late.
10.
The Cover of Sports Illustrated It’s not just in the Middle East that Barbie
has caused controversy, though.
In 2014, Barbie was chosen to be featured in Sports Illustrated’s 50th Anniversary
Swimsuit Edition.
This caused backlash from feminist and women’s rights groups everywhere, and Barbie was forced
to write an essay to these groups explaining that it was her personal choice to appear
in the magazine, and that women in general should be less judgemental of the choices
other women make for themselves.
9.
A Diverse Resume Since Barbie serves as a role model for her
fans, she’s had a very wide array of jobs and careers.
In fact, she’s had more than 150 different occupations over the years, including prestigious
titles such as nurse, TV anchor, movie star, teacher, astronaut, and even the President
of the United States.
Her roles spread the message to girls everywhere that they can achieve anything they can dream,
and be anything they want to be.
8.
Best Selling Barbie The best selling Barbie Doll of all time came
in 1992, with the release of the Totally Hair Barbie.
This doll had extra-long blonde hair which reached all the way to her calves, with the
intention of doll owners being able to style the doll’s hair themselves.
The hair could be gel styled, cut, trimmed, and put up to match the fashion sense of the
owner and adapt to anyone.
This doll sold more than 10 million units, and has gone on to be a favorite of collectors
ever since, especially in its mint condition form.
7.
Trouble In Paradise The name Ken is now synonymous with Barbie
fandom, and this is largely due to the fact that the Ken Doll has been Barbie’s longtime
companion and boyfriend.
Ken was introduced in 1961, and the two were together for more than 43 years.
A split was announced between the two characters in 2004, however, and during that time Barbie
dated an Australian surfer doll named Blaine.
However, as is often the case, the love between Barbie and Ken rekindled and the two dolls
were reunited in 2011.
The announcement of their rekindled relationship was made on Valentine’s Day, no less, and
the couple even announced it on Facebook to make it official.
6.
Not A Family Gal Although Barbie has been a great many things
over the years, she has never been married or pregnant.
Of course, many of Barbie’s fans have imagined Barbie and Ken tying the knot, and there have
even been bridal versions of Barbie, according to the Barbie fictional story, she has never
officially been married.
This is also true of pregnancy; Barbie has never been in the family way.
That said, Barbie’s best friend Midge was famously pregnant in the ‘90s, and a version
of her doll was released which featured an openable pregnant belly, out of which a curled
up baby could be removed.
This doll received mixed results, as some found it to be creepy while others believed
Midge was too young to have a child.
5.
A Bit of a Misstep Although Barbie had already successfully cashed
in on the hip-hop craze of the ‘90s once in 1991 with the MC Hammer tie-in, Mattel
though it would be a good idea to try to double down on the new music culture.
In 1992 a new Barbie, called Rappin’ Rockin’ Barbie was released, along with a commercial
which featured the doll rapping with a boom-box.
Unfortunately the doll wasn’t very successful, and the commercial is now considered to be
pretty cringe-worthy.
The doll, however, is now Barbie legend and is considered a collector’s item.
4.
A Huge Wardrobe Barbie is a fashion doll - and there’s no
way you can make a mistake about that when you know the size of her wardrobe.
She gets more than 120 new outfits made specially for her each and every year, and since the
first Barbie outfits rolled out of the factory, Mattel has used more than 100 million yards
of fabric to produce her wardrobe.
Additionally, more than a billion pairs of shoes have been produced for Barbie’s feet.
This actually has a secondary effect which is quite interesting - it makes Mattel one
of the largest clothing manufacturers in the world.
3.
Barbie’s Pets There have been many pets in the Barbie fandom
over the years, but the exact number may surprise you.
All in all, Barbie has had more than 50 pets, including 21 dogs, 6 cats, a chimpanzee, a
panda, a parrot, a lion cub, a giraffe, and a zebra.
Her first pet wasn’t a dog or cat, though - it was actually a horse named Dancer.
Many of these pets have been sold in physical form, and others have been featured in the
Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse animated web series.
2.
Not So Barbie World Although the 1997 Aqua song “Barbie Girl”
is still considered a hit today, Mattel wasn’t so happy about it.
The company felt that the song gave a false image of Barbie and didn’t represent the
brand, and also felt that it infringed on their copyright.
The lawsuits, which began in 2000, were protracted and took years to complete, but Mattel eventually
lost since the song was found to fall within the protection of parody.
In 2002 the case was closed and Aqua was declared the winner.
1.
New Body Styles Over the years, Barbie’s tall, slim and
busty frame has caused a lot of controversy.
Mattel has been blamed for giving girls a bad image of what a women should look like,
and setting expectations too high for boys.
Although Barbie has undergone quite a few appearance adjustments over the years, none
have been as large as the shift Mattel announced in 2016.
Barbie is now available in four body styles, including curvy, petite, and tall.
The shift is meant to accommodate Barbie fans of all shapes and sizes, and to give girls
a more realistic idea of what women look like.