45 Facts About Barbie

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc and launched on 9 March 1959.

Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls.

Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parodies of the doll and her lifestyle.

Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line.

Barbie was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors.

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Barbie's gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel.

The first Barbie dolls were manufactured in Japan, with their clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers.

Around 350, 000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production.

Barbie additionally claimed that Mattel "falsely and misleadingly represented itself as having originated the design".

Ruth Handler believed that it was important for Barbie to have an adult appearance, and early market research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll's chest, which had distinct breasts.

Barbie's appearance has been changed many times, most notably in 1971 when the doll's eyes were adjusted to look forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original model.

Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys.

In 2006, it was estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls had been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second.

Since the mid-to-late 1980s, Barbie-branded products included not only the range of dolls with their clothes and accessories, but a large range of branded goods such as books, apparel, cosmetics, and video games.

Barbie is well-known for her appearance as a virtual actress in a series of computer-animated feature films starting with Barbie in the Nutcracker in 2001, which were distributed on home video formats and broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States until 2017.

In 2015, Barbie began appearing as a vlogger on YouTube called Barbie Vlogger where she talks about her fictional life, fashion, friends and family, and even charged topics such as mental health and racism.

Barbie's was portrayed by Australian actress Margot Robbie in a live-action film adaptation which was scheduled to be released on 21 July 2023 by Warner Bros.

Barbie's has an on-off romantic relationship with her then-boyfriend Ken, who first appeared in 1961.

Barbie's has three younger sisters: Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea.

Barbie's friends include Hispanic Teresa, Midge, African American Christie, and Steven.

Barbie was friendly with Blaine, an Australian surfer, during her split with Ken in 2004.

Barbie has had over 40 pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra.

Barbie's has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Beetle and Corvette convertibles, trailers, and Jeeps.

Barbie's holds a pilot's license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight attendant.

Barbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world.

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Outsider artist Al Carbee took thousands of photographs of Barbie and created countless collages and dioramas featuring Barbie in various settings.

From her early days as a teenage fashion model, Barbie has appeared as an astronaut, surgeon, Olympic athlete, downhill skier, aerobics instructor, TV news reporter, vet, rock star, doctor, army officer, air force pilot, summit diplomat, rap musician, presidential candidate, baseball player, scuba diver, lifeguard, fire-fighter, engineer, dentist, and many more.

Criticisms of Barbie are often centered around concerns that children consider Barbie a role model and will attempt to emulate her.

One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic.

Unrealistic body proportions in Barbie dolls have been connected to some eating disorders in children.

Mattel said that the waist of the Barbie doll was made small because the waistbands of her clothes, along with their seams, snaps, and zippers, added bulk to her figure.

The first African-American doll in the Barbie range is usually regarded as Christie, who made her debut in 1968.

Black Barbie was launched in 1980 but still had Caucasian features.

Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone with whom young girls could play after class and share "America's favorite cookie".

In Muslim-majority nations, there is an alternative doll called Fulla, which was introduced in November 2003 and is equivalent to Barbie, but is designed specifically to represent traditional Islamic values.

Fulla is not manufactured by Mattel, and (as of January 2021) the "Jewish" Barbie brand is still available in other Muslim-majority countries including Egypt and Indonesia.

In November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as being inept at computers and requiring that her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she accidentally infects her and her sister's laptop with a malware-laced USB flash drive.

Mattel later removed the book from sale on Amazon in response to the criticism, and the company released a "Computer Engineer Barbie" doll who was a game programmer rather than designer.

In March 2018, in time for International Women's Day, Mattel unveiled the "Barbie Celebrates Role Models" campaign with a line of 17 dolls, informally known as "sheroes", from diverse backgrounds "to showcase examples of extraordinary women".

On September 26, 2006, a Barbie doll set a world record at auction of £9, 000 sterling at Christie's in London.

In recent years, Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain versions, vintage reproductions, and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from film and television series such as The Munsters and Star Trek.

In 2004, Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector's edition Barbie dolls including pink, silver, gold, and platinum, depending on how many of the dolls are produced.

Barbie allowed the company to continue selling the dolls until the winter holiday season ended.

Barbie's stated that she has only had breast implants and relies heavily on make up and contacts to alter her appearance.

Similarly, Lacey Wildd, an American reality television personality frequently referred to as "Million Dollar Barbie" has undergone 12 breast augmentation surgeries to become "the extreme Barbie".

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