Chip Chick
Since Greta Gerwig’s brilliant “Barbie” movie came in July 2023, countless people have continued revisiting their own fond memories of the Barbie brand and dolls.
Barbie was essential to many kids’ childhoods, as the dolls opened up an entirely new world of playtime possibilities.
While the “Barbie” film briefly touches on the ideation of the Barbie doll and how it impacted young women’s lives and the play industry as a whole, here’s a bit more of an in-depth history of the famous toy.
Ruth Handler is the woman who thought up and invented the Barbie doll. She was the wife of Elliot Handler, the founder of the Mattel toy company.
While raising her daughter, Barbara, Ruth noticed that she primarily played with baby and paper dolls and couldn’t find any dolls portraying adults on the market.
Then, during a vacation in Europe with her family in the late 1950s, Ruth actually came across the Bild Lilli doll, a German doll who was portrayed as an adult woman influenced by a comic strip character. Ruth wound up proposing the idea of putting an adult doll on the market to Elliot, and together, they got to work.
The pair ultimately designed the Barbie doll, named after their daughter. The initial version of Barbie was debuted in 1959. She wore an iconic black and white one-piece swimsuit, black open-toe heels, a spunky ponytail with curly bangs, gold hoops, and rocked a red mani-pedi.
After that launch, Barbie became an instant success, and 350,000 dolls were sold in the first year she was released. The creators of the Bidi Lilli doll, who Barbie was inspired by, also sued Mattel for copyright infringement, but Mattel decided to buy the rights to the doll in 1963 for a little over $21,000.
Ken, Barbie’s infamous male companion, was named for Ruth and Elliot’s son and released in 1961. From then on, Barbie began producing dolls like crazy. However, what was so exciting about Barbie was that she came in different outfits and had varying career pursuits and personalities.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
