20 Things You Should Know About The Barbie Doll

in the immortal words of aqua life in plastic it's fantastic most of us have fond memories of barbie dolls but little did we know she was based on a less than family friendly doll we'll take a look at what the first ken was missing and why some parents thought her pal midge needed to be a better role model lily mattel co-founder ruth handler wanted to make a child's doll that didn't look like a child so when she saw the german lilly doll she was over the moon about the fact that her figure was just what she had in mind for her next big toy venture there were just a couple of problems the first was that lily was a rather risque character and she was actually supposed to be a gag gift for adults the second was that lily's manufacturer griner and hauser sued mattel for copyright infringement they ended up settling out of court and they later bought the rights to lily just to be safe barbara ruth wanted to create a hard-working doll to inspire her daughter and her daughter ended up inspiring the name for the doll barbie's full name is barbara millicent roberts but the real barbara wasn't necessarily a fan while she appreciates the sentiment the novelty wore off by the time she was an adult and she grew to resent the comments and jokes people made about her association to the famous toy rocket science while ruth handler is widely credited with the doll's creation a man named jack ryan claims he was the brains behind barbie before he was hired by mattel jack ryan worked for an aerospace company and helped design the hawk and sparrow 3 missile systems which is quite an interesting background for a toy maker he and mattel argued over who should get credit for barbie with ruth claiming jack couldn't think of anything original and had merely helped execute her ideas jack ended up suing mattel and just like with the lilly situation they settled out of court that's a lot of courtroom drama for a single doll hometown we know barbie has a malibu dream house but her hometown is significantly more humble according to the official barbie website she hails from the fictional town of willows wisconsin although willow's only exists in our imaginations the state has embraced its connection with this famous doll and featured an early version of her in the wisconsin historical museum wisconsin may be where she grew up but sunny malibu is where we saw barbie smile for the first time she showed her pearly whites in 1971 when mattel introduced the infamous malibu barbie featuring an open-mouthed smile the mickey mouse club commercials have a way of making even the most boring toys looks super exciting but there was a time before advertising toys was normalized mattel made the revolutionary decision to become the first sponsor of the mickey mouse club in 1955 and started airing barbie commercials on the show blonde hair the old expression blondes have more fun just might be true when it comes to this famous doll although she's known for her long blonde locks now she was originally offered to customers as both a blonde and a brunette back in 1959. given the choice between the two hair colors customers overwhelmingly favored the blonde version so that's what mattel stuck with going forward even to this day kids seem to prefer blonde barbies although there are tons of options available ken if you thought seeing barbie as a brunette was strange just take a look at the first version of ken this poor guy didn't even come with a shirt when he was released in 1961 just a pair of swim trunks and a towel by now barbie's had just about every career imaginable while her boyfriend showed up as low effort as possible and didn't even bother to wear a shirt no wonder they broke up for a bit in 2004 although she was seen with australian surfer blaine during their break so maybe barbie just has a type family tree barbie is a popular doll who has no shortage of friends fashion accessories or family members she has seven siblings we could be here all day going over her family tree but one interesting entry is her cousin francie who hails from england twiggy speaking of english dolls the very first celebrity barbie ever created was based on supermodel and cultural icon twiggy this doll came out in 1967 and showed off twiggy's iconic mod style since then there have been tons of celebrity dolls including ones of prince william and kate middleton marilyn monroe and audrey hepburn first job over the years barbie has had over 200 different jobs try fitting all of that onto a one-page resume but we all have to start out somewhere even barbie do you know what barbie's first ever gig was this doll's inaugural official title was teenage fashion model even though she's a toy barbie knows the value of a hard day's work she's been seen as a ceo a surgeon and even an astronaut as if venturing into outer space wasn't impressive enough astronaut barbie landed on the moon four years before neil armstrong did and we're guessing she looked a lot more fashionable while doing so hello barbie barbie's had a lot of jobs over the years but was spy one of them when hello barbie was released in 2015 the toy was considered controversial because of its defining feature she could connect to wi-fi and basically function like apple's siri or amazon's alexa for kids having a toy that can talk back sounded like a good idea in theory but there were some issues parents worried about the dolls being hacked or about private conversations getting recorded via barbie we know barbie's no snitch but mattel chose to discontinue the toy anyway just to be safe collector be honest how many of us were determined to collect as many barbies as humanly possible when we were growing up some of us haven't lost sight of that dream including bettina dorman who received her first barbie back in 1966 when she was just 5 years old since then she's amassed over 18 000 barbies which earned her a spot in the guinness book of world records she also repairs dolls in her barbie clinic and displays her collection for visitors bettina turned her love of barbies into a lifestyle and career and has toured her collection all over the world andy warhol we know barbie is a work of art and so did legendary artist andy warhol he's known for his iconic pop art and was determined to create a painting of jewelry designer billy boy but instead of being honored billy boy wasn't interested and the two argued about his refusal to model eventually the young designer told his artist friend that if he wanted to paint him so badly he might as well just base his likeness on his beloved barbie dolls and he wasn't just being glib while he wasn't quite on bettina's level he did own over 10 000 barbies and he agreed which is why he ended up creating his now iconic piece of artwork design process we've talked about how the first barbie was created but even to this day a ton of work goes into creating each new doll each year mattel sells about 58 million dolls so they're constantly creating new ones the barbie design team is 100 members strong and although many people tend to associate the name with a blonde haired blue eyed doll that's not necessarily accurate these toys are sold all over the world and 55 of them do not have blonde hair or blue eyes barbie prototypes are designed using special software and 3d printing and the process can take between 12 and 18 months from start to finish christy everyone loves barbie dolls so it's not surprising she has tons of friends in 1968 the first african-american barbie was introduced and her name was christy she's one of barbie's oldest and closest friends and there have been many different versions of her over the years side eye when you compare modern versions of barbie to the original you can see she's changed greatly over the years hey who hasn't one notable feature are her eyes when she made her debut in 1959 barbie had a serious and quite frankly fabulous side eye going on she continued her sideways gaze all the way until 1971 when she finally had enough of throwing shade and decided to look straight ahead instead or at least she looks a little less eager to spill the tea now midge there have been some awesome dolls over the years and some that were considered quite controversial like poor midge although kids love barbie right away some parents claimed she was a bad role model based on her outfits and appearance so mattel tried releasing some more family friendly dolls including midge who just so happened to be pregnant this went over about as well as you'd probably expect and many barbie fans were furious because mitch appeared to be both young and unmarried keep in mind this was before the hit mtv show 16 and pregnant premiered mattel eventually brought mitch back giving her our wedding ring and a husband named alan to stave off any complaints surgeon barbie has had over 200 different jobs and for a period of time she worked as a surgeon a female surgeon might not raise many eyebrows now but 1973 was a different time in fact barbie having this occupation was actually quite revolutionary at the time don't forget elizabeth blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in 1849 and progress was slow there for a while in 1970 five percent of physicians in the united states were women and in 1980 only two percent of surgical residents were women in this sense barbie was really ahead of her time weight loss but while barbie has been progressive at times there have definitely been some dolls over the years which haven't aged well to put it mildly a babysitter barbie should have been fine except for the fact that she's reading a book called how to lose weight which includes the helpful tip don't eat yikes then there's the slumber party barbie and mattel seemed to think you can't have a slumber party without bringing your scale along not to mention that the scale was set to 110 pounds and since barbie is supposedly five nine this would make her bmi underweight fashionistas barbie at least tried to be inclusive in 1997 by introducing the share a smile becky but there was just one problem her wheelchair didn't fit into the elevator in barbie's dream house seriously barbie you couldn't have dreamed of a handicap accessible house later there was a fashionista barbie with a prosthetic leg which inspired fellow prosthetic user chloe newman she raised enough money to buy hundreds of these dolls for kids at shriner's hospital for children in massachusetts there have been so many barbies over the years let us know which one of these iconic dolls was your favorite are there any potential career options you'd like to see her explore share your thoughts with us in the comment section below and don't forget to click on the subscribe button for more new videos from us here at the taco thanks for watching

Channel: TheThings Celebrity

Views: 621,381

Rating: 4.9008188 out of 5

Keywords: Barbie doll, true facts, company Mattel, real name, Barbara Milicent Roberts, Ruth Handler, Kenneth Handler, Ken Doll, Jack Ryan, Bettina Dorman, Andy Warhol, controversial doll, fashion model, family tree, barbie, mattel, toy doll, dolls, barbie dolls, dollhouse barbie, dollhouse, barbie toys, toy dolls, bild lilli, doll, toy, toys, girl doll, blonde barbie, barbie and ken, kelly barbie doll

Id: xV5d9BOAuZA

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020