Barbie Dolls

Prior to Barbie's debut, most toy dolls were made to look like babies or young children. Reportedly, Ruth Handler was inspired to create a new kind of doll after watching her daughter, Barbara, and her friends, playing with paper dolls. The girls gave their dolls adult clothing and roles, inspiring Handler to create a three-dimensional adult-figured dolls for preteens to play with. During a trip to Europe in the mid-1950s, Handler found a Lilli doll, shaped as a curvaceous adult. The Lilli doll was based on a working-class comic strip character that was not above using her beauty to attract men for material wealth. Lilli was originally marketed to adults, although children played with her as well. Handler believed that there was an opportunity in the toy market to create a similar doll for children to play with in the United States. Handler convinced the directors of Mattel, a company she cofounded, along with her husband Elliot, that an adult doll for children to play with would be profitable. The directors were not initially enthused about the idea.

Handler's vision was realized when Barbie was unveiled at the Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. After years of development, Handler redesigned the doll with the help of an engineer, Jack Ryan, who worked on the shape and production of the doll. She hired Charlotte Buettenback Johnson, a fashion designer, to create the detailed, lifelike wardrobe for Barbie. The doll was marketed as a teenage fashion model; in this role Barbie was cast as having a fun, upscale and glamorous life without being overtly sexy. Although some parents were critical of the doll's adult body, a careful marketing campaign devised by Mattel appealed to both children and parents alike, making Barbie a top-selling toy within a few years of her debut. Mattel used focus group marketing techniques to hone in on the tastes and preferences of the doll's target audience, preteen girls and their mothers. Barbie dolls were one of the first toys to be mass marketed on television, a successful strategy by Mattel that was soon adopted by other companies.

Mattel has resisted providing a lot of information about Barbie's history. Instead Mattel prefers to leave her back-story open, allowing children and adults to engage in imaginative play with her. This trend continues today, as the doll's packaging includes information about the character she is portraying or the profession she is designed to represent, but little else. Barbie's boyfriend, Ken, was introduced in the 1960s. The doll was named after the Handler's son, Kenneth.

Barbie and Ken have had a long relationship, but were never married. To keep Barbie's image of a glamorous, carefree lifestyle part of the fantasy surrounding the doll, Mattel has not included marriage and children as part of her story. In 2004, Mattel announced at a press conference that Barbie and Ken had parted ways. Barbie celebrated her 50th anniversary in 2009 [Page 127]with great fanfare in the media and celebrations hosted by Mattel and devoted fans. Barbie remains one of the most popular toy items in the world, and can be purchased in over 150 countries. By the 1990s, Mattel estimated that three Barbie dolls were purchased every second somewhere in the world.

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