The Creation of Barbie and Her Friends!

We are exactly two weeks away until Greta Gerwig's live action Barbie hits theaters. Starring Margot Robbie (DCEU's Harley Quinn) as the titular diva herself and Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, LaLa Land) as her on/off again boyfriend Ken, this movie has a $100 millon budget and they are holding no punches with their marketing.

From jewelry, outfits, bedding, dolls modeled after the actors and even an Airbnb of Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse that Ken will be hosting; this movie is going to make sure the color pink is everywhere for the rest of the year.

But I don't think a lot of people who are eager to watch the movie, truly knows the doll's herstory or let alone how this blonde 11.5inch icon came to be.

Well let's buckle up in our pink Corvette Convertible and take a trip through Barbie land!

Barbie was created by Ruth Handler on March 9, 1959. She came up with the idea after seeing her daughter Barbara (who she named the doll after) playing with a set of paper dolls. Handler knew a fashion doll would be popular amongst young girls, unfortunately her husband, Elliot—and co founder of Mattel- didn't think so. His colleagues at Mattel agreed with him.

It wasn't until the Handlers along with their children, Barbara and Kenneth (who the Ken doll is named after) went to Europe in 1956, that Ruth purchased a German fashion doll named Bild Lilli.

Who The Heck is Bild Lilli?

Bild Lilli was a fashion doll from Germany launched on August 12th, 1955 and created by German cartoonist Reinhard Beuthien. This doll was based on the cartoon character Lilli, created for the tabloid paper Bild.

Lilli's comic portrayed her to be an ambitious, post war sassy, "golddigger and floozy". Readers would often see her at times either undressing while talking or wearing something provocative, after all she was created for the male gaze.

Seeing her cartoon popularity rise, Reinhard thought it would be funny to hire Max Weissbrodt from the Hausser/Elastolin company, to produce physical dolls. These dolls were sold at smoke shops and some toy shops serving nothing more than gag gifts for adult males. Of course, she was too unique and beautiful that it wasn't until she was desired by little girls who saw her as nothing more than a fashionable doll they had to get.

The company saw the doll's popularity rise with little girls that they focused on creating more dolls that focused on her fashionable side rather than her risque side.

It wasn't long until Bild was found on the shelves of alot more toy stores throughout the country, which brings us to that fateful day in Europe 1956 when she ended up in the hands of the woman who would be the reason for her untimely demise.

Ruth brought Bild because she was a doll that no one had ever seen before. Ruth's daughter Barbie, wasn't into baby dolls which were very popular during that, instead she focused on playing with paper dolls.

Ruth brought three dolls that day. She gave one to Barbie (who ended up loving her) and the other two to the designers at Mattel. Fast forward, three years later to March 9th, 1959, where Barbie debuted at the New York Toy Fair!

Well this didn't sit well with the new company that has been producing Bild dolls, Louis Marx and Company, who sued Mattel in 1961, the story took a crazy turn when Mattel purchased the license from Louis Marx and Co. in 1964 and stopped production of Bild. Since Mattel had rights to the character this caused her cartoon to end it's run as well, causing her to disappear into the abyss, as if she was a victim of Thanos' snap.

When the production stopped, the company already made a bunch of head molds for Bild which they ended up selling to other companies. In turn they created parody of Bild dolls. To these days, collectors have these off brand Bild dolls which they think are the originals but are just mere copies of the doll that once was.

Since her creation, Barbie has gone through many changes in her appearances. The Bild inspired look was gone and Mattel went into various directions to keep up with the ever changing fashion and make up trends.

On a side note: thankfully Mattel decided to ditch the 1980 Barbie, she looked downright scary!

Barbie wasn't the only doll Mattel decided to create though. Oh no! Mattel created a whole family line and background story for Barbie which consisted on giving her friends and family.

[I am not going to talk about Barbie's sisters as they weren't really popular amongst consumers throughout the decades.]

Ken made his debut just two years later, he was marketed as Barbie's lover--which is still so weird to me because Ruth named Ken after her son and to have him be the inspiration of the doll that's dating the doll inspired by his sister is an interesting choice.

Barbie's first best friend was Margaret 'Midge' Hadley Sherwood (1963), who received her own doll.

Now, it should be noted that Midge was originally created because at the time Barbie was receiving a lot of heat from parents for being "too sexy" so Midge was their solution to combat the negativity. She wore less make up and had outfits that didn't seem 'too adult'.

Weirdly after her first appearance Mattel decided to ditch her (as if she was Barbara from Stranger Things). She was reintroduced in the 80's.

Once again Mattel decided to revamp her (as if she was Cher giving us another Farewell tour), but this time she was marrying her boyfriend and fellow ginger, Allan!

Now Allan was first created in 1964 and he was marketed as being 'Ken's Buddy'. The doll was named after Barbara's real life husband at the time, so again, interesting choices.

Now Midge and Allan disappeared soon after the 60's to come back in the 80's together and ready to be married!

As you can see Midge and Allan changed looks completely. She looked like a soap opera star and Allan looked like he watched way too many episodes of Miami Vice and made that his whole aesthetic.

But once again they disappeared into the sunset and came back in the early 2000's in a huge way! I don't think Mattel was expecting the backlash they would cause when they gave the world pregnant Midge!

While in this line, her and Allan are married and already have a son (he comes with the Allan doll) they decided to give Midge another baby but this time inside of her. Parents everywhere clutched their pearls in nervousness and disgust. Many of them pointing out that Midge is "too young to have a baby"...others saw this doll as offensive to children.

Alas, Mattel decided to repackage the Midge doll with no belly and just a baby. But the damage was already done and Mattel decided to put Midge in Barbie jail, along with her husband Allan.

With both characters set to appear in Barbie and with Midge appearing as her discontinued doll, it's going to be interesting to watch.

Ofcourse, Barbie’s friends reflected the people who happen to live in the world and society. Mattel made sure to diversify the line and each character was popular in their own right.

Here are just a few of her friends:

The first Black Barbie was named Christie. Mattel created her in 1969, but she wasn’t really known as a Barbie as she was part of a talking line of dolls.

They ended up discontinuing her and incorporated the style of the doll into Barbie’s world calling her Nikki, who is said to be Christie’s sister and one of Barbie’s many best friends.

The first Asian Barbie debuted in 1981 as just a “Barbie Around The World” doll.

It wasn’t until 1985 where they gave her a personality and introduced her into Barbie’s world as Kira/Miko.

And the first Latina Barbie was introduced in 1980 as well as part of the same line as Kira.

They once again, gave her a personality and name, Teresa, and she became Barbie’s other bestie.

Mattel created a whole world for Barbie and many other little boys and girls who wanted to be a part of this plastic world, saw themselves in these dolls.

This became apparent in 2015, when Mattel listened to parents and women who expressed their concern for Barbie and the image of ‘sexy’ she was expressing to young children. They decided to create a line of new dolls that showed every body type, skin color, fashion style and height of regular everyday boys and girls.

Naturally this was decided after the sales of Barbie began to stagger in the previous year.

Young girls were no longer interested in getting the last career Barbie. They didn't care if she was the first female president, if she was a witch, if she was a veterinarian or if she owned another beach house.

They moved on to another Mattel doll line that was making a huge splash years prior and wasn’t slowing down.

That line?

Now it’s 2023 and although Barbie has been doing real well, with their black label line releasing dolls of inspirational women, Tina Turner (R.I.P), Gloria Estefan, Anna May Wong and Trans actress Laverne Cox.

They’re even gearing up to give us—are you ready for it?— a Mariah Carey doll which is rumored to be releasing in the next few months!

Barbie and Mattel aren’t slowing down and even with their movie doll lines already out via Amazon, Target, Walmart etc (with more dolls releasing including Kate McKinnon’s character getting a doll too) these next few months are gonna belong to Barbie.

And with Mattel announcing 45 live action movies they have planned, including:

- a horror Magic 8 Ball film

- A Lena Dunham and Lily Collins Polly Pocket film*

- A Lil Yatchy Uno heist film*

- A JJ Abrams Hot Wheels film

- A Vin Diesel Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots film*

* not sure if these celebrities will still be attached.

Mattel is proving that this live action Barbie is going to be just the beginning.

And as a Barbie fanatic, I cannot wait to see what Barbie has in store for us!

Barbie hits theaters July 21st, 2023.