Barbie dolls

Identification Doll in the form of an adult woman

Date Debuted in February 1959, at the International American Toy Fair in New York City

Manufacturer Mattel

Barbie became the new American teenage doll. Unlike the traditional baby dolls of the time, she had an adult face and body and an enormous and fashionable wardrobe. An immediate commercial success in 1959, the Barbie doll evolved through later years and remained popular into the twenty-first century.

During the 1950s, Ruth and Elliot Handler operated a successful toy company called Mattel, which had been founded in 1945. Watching her daughter Barbara and her friends play make-believe with paper dolls inspired Ruth to push for the creation of an adult-bodied fashion doll. However, others at Mattel felt that such a doll would be too expensive to manufacture. On a trip to Europe, Handler discovered the German Bild Lilli doll, based on a cartoon character created by Reinhard Beuthien in 1952. Manufactured by the O. M. Hausser Company, Bild Lilli was either blonde or brunette, with an adult female body, high-heeled shoes molded on her feet, painted fingernails, and black earrings. Most of the Lilli dolls were twelve inches in height, but they also came in a seven-inch size. Handler presented the Lilli dolls to the Mattel design department, which began work on designing the Barbie doll, named after Ruth’s daughter, Barbara. In 1957, Mattel set up the manufacture of the doll in Japan, where production costs were lower. Charlotte Johnson was hired to design the doll’s costumes, which would resemble those worn by teenage and adult women.

In February 1959, the first Barbie doll, in a black-and-white swimsuit, was presented at the American International Toy Fair in New York. About half the trade people there were skeptical about selling a small, eleven-and-a-half-inch fashion doll, which was so different from the popular baby dolls. However, when Barbie dolls became available in stores at a price of three dollars each in May 1959, they were an immediate success with children and their parents.

This first Barbie was made of sturdy vinyl plastic, with a definite bust, narrow waist and hips, and joints at the neck, arms, and legs. Her slim legs could move but not bend. She wore curly bangs and a ponytail, and her skin was a pale, ivory tone. The first Barbie had high-arched eyebrows, painted eyes set in a sideways glance, and red pursed lips.

Changes in Barbie Dolls Over the Years

As the years passed and technology advanced and children continued to express interest in playing with Barbie dolls, Mattel made various alterations to the original to comply with changing demands and societal attitudes—especially regarding gender and body image, controversial issues that have always surrounded the dolls to some extent. In 1967, the company began producing dolls that would seem more realistic through the incorporation of a rotating waist and rooted eyelashes. The 1970s saw the incarnation of "Malibu" Barbie, a doll with tan skin that reflected the more carefree lifestyle of the decade. "Superstar" Barbie, a product of the late 1970s, was the first design that featured a full, toothy smile. While Mattel had introduced the first African American dolls into the Barbie collection in the 1960s with friends such as Christie and Julia, an African American Barbie was not on the shelves until 1980; that same year, the company also released a line of dolls representing other cultures, such as Scotland, India, Spain, and Ireland. By 1992, Mattel was receiving backlash from critics such as the American Association of University Women for selling "Teen Talk" Barbie, with each doll built to speak certain phrases, some of which were considered stereotypical, such as "Math class is tough" and "I love shopping."

Beginning in the late 1990s, in response to longtime criticism that Barbie's body type was too unrealistic and even unhealthy, Mattel created designs that featured a wider waist, a smaller bust, and more conservative makeup; however, many increasingly argued that the doll may not be the best role model for young girls to be playing with and collecting. Regardless, Barbie continued to transform into the twenty-first century, with Mattel still striving to keep up with trends. In 2011, the release of an alternative Barbie doll designed by a Japanese lifestyle brand, which sported a pink bob hairstyle and tattoos, sparked concern among parents similar to those that had been raised by the "Totally Stylin' Tattoos" Barbie—though the tattoos were stick-on and removable—of 2009, but Mattel claimed that this iteration of the doll was meant for adult collectors.

Again in response to emphasis on supporting healthy, diverse body images instead of a universal ideal, especially for children, Mattel made its most radical development in the Barbie franchise in early 2016. The company unveiled three new versions of the doll that would be sold alongside the original model: tall, petite, and curvy. In addition, the new dolls would come in a variety of skin tones and hairstyles. Some commentators conjectured that this move was also partly an attempt by Mattel to overcome previous years' decreased sales of the doll. Mattel continued to create new Barbies for a number of other initiatives over the years as well. In 2018, they launched the "Barbie Role Models" collection, which modeled Barbies after famous women role models, including figures like artist Frida Kahlo, conservationist and zookeeper Bindi Irwin, pilot Amelia Earhart, Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas. They added a Barbie modeled after astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to the collection in 2021.

Barbie in Popular Culture

Barbie has been a standard character in popular culture since the mid-1980s, when she began being featured in books, on clothing and cosmetics, and even video games. Perhaps most popularly, the character of Barbie starred as a virtual actor in a series of computer-animated movies beginning in the 2000s. This series included such films as Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001), Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (2004), Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006), Barbie: Mariposa and the Fairy Princess (2013), and Barbie: Princess Adventure (2020). Originally released direct-to-video on VHS and DVD, the series eventually shifted film releases to streaming services like Netflix. Barbie has starred in a number of television and web series.

In addition to media in which Barbie starred, the character has also been featured in other media franchises. Various Barbie dolls served as supporting characters in the Disney animated Toy Story film series (1995–2019), with a 1983 Barbie and Ken being featured as main characters in Toy Story 3. In 2023, Warner Brothers released a live action Barbie movie starring actor Margot Robbie as the titular character.

Impact

As Ruth Handler had envisioned, her Barbie doll was a three-dimensional representation of paper dolls that encouraged young girls’ imagination and fantasies. Like the paper dolls, Barbie had interchangeable clothing and realistic accessories that could be purchased separately. Barbie also symbolized the classic American teenager. From her debut in 1959, Barbie has been a top-selling toy. Each year brought improvements and innovations, such as more culturally diverse Barbies, several series of dolls who were relatives and friends, clothing by world-famous designers, and Barbies in various occupations. The Barbie doll became an American icon, an integral part of popular culture, and a collector’s item. At the same time, the doll, particularly its body type, continued to be a subject of controversy and debate over whether the toy has any negative influence over the young girls who might grow up playing with Barbie.

The film Barbie (2023) found substantial success at the box office when it was released in July 2023, and by August of that year it had grossed more than $1 billion globally. Equally successful was the film's soundtrack, which featured songs from such popular artists as Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj, and Billie Eilish (each of which received more than 100 million streams on Spotify shortly after their release). Additionally, the Barbie soundtrack itself debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, which tracks the most popular albums in the US.

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