Who is Barbara Millicent Roberts?

Can a toy be a hero? It can if it brings joy and entertainment to generations of girls. It can if it becomes a household name, an icon, a symbol of this, a symbol of that, a symbol of… take your pick. And a toy is certainly a hero if, instead of referring to the toy as it, you feel more comfortable saying she. And she is Barbie.

She is a hero because she is a best friend, a companion, a confidante. She can be shared with others or played with alone. But most importantly, she is always there when needed-a reflection of ourselves and our times.

What made her Toy Superstar?

The Barbie doll is one of the most popular toys in history. From her creation in the late 1950s, there have been millions of the dolls and accessories sold. The toy is still much sought after by collectors and little girls of all ages and is a $1.9 billion a year industry. Mattel, which markets the doll, says that approximately three Barbie dolls are sold every second.

Mattel had very humble beginnings before the Barbie doll helped make it one of the most successful toy companies in the world. It was founded by Ruth and Elliot Handler. The company slowly grew into a more structured business and by the mid-1950s, the Handlers found themselves with less and less input in the creative side of the company.

Handler noticed that her daughter, Barbara, did not play with baby dolls. She preferred to play with dolls that were adults. Handler realized that there was a hole in the market, a hole that could be filled with an adult doll. She was excited about what she believed was a sure-fire success and took the idea to the executives who were now running Mattel. They quickly brushed aside Handler’s adult doll idea as being impractical, and too expensive to create and market.

Handler was still convinced she had a great idea, but was unsure how to proceed. Finally, during a visit to Germany with her daughter, Barbara, Handler found in a German shop window a doll called the Bild Lilli. The doll, made to look like an adult, was the type of doll that Handler had in mind, and she bought three of them (one for her daughter and two to take back to the naysayers at Mattel).

Doing her research, Handler found out the Bild Lilli doll was based on a popular character that appeared in a comic strip for the German newspaper, Die Bild-Zeitung. The character was a society girl with a head for fashion. She knew what she wanted and was not above manipulating men to get it. Ironically, the doll was originally marketed in 1955 to men and was sold in tobacco shops. It eventually caught on with children, who dressed her in outfits that were sold separately (a brilliant marketing move that vastly increased profits). The doll became very popular and was exported overseas, including the United States.

Handler finally persuaded Mattel to let her change the doll and showcase it at various toy shows to gauge its popularity. She worked with engineer Jack Ryan to revamp the concept of the doll into what is still the basic design. She gave it the ail-American name of Barbie after her daughter Barbara.

Barbie made her official debut at the New York International Toy Fair on March 9,1959 (which is listed as Barbie’s official birth date). Interest was immediately strong and Mattel finally realized they had a potential blockbuster on their hands. In 1964, to cement their hold on the market, they purchased the rights to the rival Bild Lilli doll and discontinued its manufacture.

The original Barbie dolls were either blonde or brunette and wore a zebra-striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail. Later Barbies would feature other hairstyles and hair colors. The genius of the marketing of the doll was to feature it as a teenage fashion model so that girls could be encouraged to build up a large wardrobe of clothing and accessories. Much of the early Barbie wardrobe was designed by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson, who took her inspiration from the New York and Paris fashion runways.

During the next few years, Mattel would introduce the Ken doll as her boyfriend and Skipper, her little sister doll. Other dolls would come and go from Barbie’s circle. During the 1960s, the Mattel designers gave Barbie bendable legs (making it easier for owners to change her clothes) and a redesigned face that had Barbie look straight ahead at attention. She was also given the power of speech.

Not only did Mattel make billions of dollars on sales of the actual dolls and clothing, the company also profited by the creation of Barbie cars, boats, workplaces and the famous Barbie Dream House. All these items were sold separately. Barbie also started to take on very different personas based on the type of occupation with which the individual doll was associated. Over the years, these occupations included astronaut, gymnast, rapper, soldier, doctor, paleontologist, rock star, firefighter, McDonald’s employee and even a candidate for president.

Barbie, her friends, fashions and accessories quickly moved from being toys to being much-sought-after collectible items. Mattel has estimated there are over 100,000 avid collectors who buy as many as 20 Barbie dolls every year. The collectors created special terms for the merchandise they were purchasing and trading, including collector edition (designed for collectors 14 and older), customized (designed exclusively for specific retailers), limited edition (collector editions made in limited quantities), vintage and modern (dolls made before and after 1972, respectively) and OOAK (one-of-a-kind dolls that have been modified by an individual artist).

The doll has her own biography that identifies her as Barbara Millicent Roberts. She was born in Willows, Wisconsin, and attended Willows High School and Manhattan International High School in New York. Besides her friends, she has 38 known pets, including cats, dogs, horses, pandas, lion cubs and a zebra. Some of the world’s top designers have created outfits for the doll. Barbie has also become a multimedia presence, featured in books, cartoon videos, music and video games.

The Legacy of the Toy Superstar

Fans of Barbie respond to criticism of how the doll represents life to a little girl by stressing the number and variety of occupations Barbie has done over the years. The critics believe that Barbie presents a type of body image that most girls will never achieve and could possibly lead to eating disorders. In addition, Barbie is seen as an example of Western materialism and is not popular in all countries of the world (especially in the Middle East).

Besides problems with the body image the doll presents, many critics have also pointed out that there is negative stereotyping associated with the doll-talking models that can only remark about going out and shopping for clothes. Mattel continued to respond to these critics and has recendy widened the doll’s waist and created more ethnically diverse versions.

Of course, anything as popular as Barbie was bound to create its own types of satire and parodies. A series of real-life Barbies were released with such names as Trailer Trash Barbie. The character was the subject of the song Barbie Girl by the Danish pop-group Aqua, and has been lampooned on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show. The doll, renamed Malibu Stacy, is Lisa’s favorite toy on The Simpsons.

Despite the critics’ use of Barbie as a derogatory name for a shallow female, Barbie’s future seems secure. She is now on her own, having separated from Ken in 2004 (supposedly because he would not marry her) and still occupies a special place both in the hearts of little girls and on the shelves of collectors.

Courtesy

Mattel has created a variety of videos and books based on Barbie and her friends, all of which are easily available. There are a variety of Websites for Barbie fans of all ages with www.barbiecollector.com being a particularly popular site.

Books about Barbie include The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book: Identification and Price Guide, Krause Publications, 2004; The Story of Barbie Doll, Collector Books, 1999; The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty, Touchstone, 1999; and The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Barbie Dolls, Collector Books, 1984.