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Barbie will soon be 60 — and is still going strong
EL SEGUNDO, United States, Jan 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – She is turning 60 this
year and still doesn’t have a single wrinkle.
Blonde or brunette, slender or curvy, black or white, princess or
president, Barbie is a forever favorite for young girls, even if she has
caused controversy over the years.
The iconic doll has evolved to keep up with the times — check out her
Twitter feed.
And despite fierce competition in the toy industry, 58 million Barbies are
sold each year in more than 150 countries.
“In an industry where success today is three to five years, 60 years is a
huge deal!” said Nathan Baynard, director of global brand marketing for
Barbie.
Around the world, Barbie is as universally known as Coca-Cola or
McDonald’s, Baynard said during a recent visit to Mattel’s design studio in
El Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles.
In all, more than one billion Barbie dolls have been sold since she made
her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.
She was invented by Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, who was
inspired by her own children to create the doll.
“Her daughter Barbara was limited in the choices of her toys — the only
ones were baby dolls,” Baynard recounted.
“The only role she could imagine through that play was caregiver, mother,”
whereas Handler’s son “could imagine being an astronaut, cowboy, pilot,
surgeon.”
Barbie is, of course, a shortened version of Barbara.
The doll was supposed to teach girls “that they had choices, that they
could be anything. In 1959, it was a radical idea!” Baynard said. Barbie was
an instant success. In the first year, 300,000 dolls were sold, he added.
– Unattainable ideal? –
From the start, Barbie’s pinup measurements didn’t immediately seem all
that feminist, and would spark criticism for decades to come.
“In 1959, her body structure was exaggerated to match the aesthetics of the
time and the fabric available,” said Barbie designer Carlyle Nuera.
Since the blonde beauty first hit stores, and after a torrent of complaints
over what was seen as unrealistic proportions, Mattel has made many changes –
– introducing multiple body types and dozens of skin tones.
MG Lord, author of “Forever Barbie,” also argued that the original
criticisms were unwarranted.
“She is what the child wants her to be. How a child sees the Barbie doll is
often framed by how the mother of that child feels about the idea of
femininity,” Lord told AFP.
“The problem here is not an 11.5-inch plastic object. The problem is the
larger culture and the idea of femininity.”
In 1965, four years before Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, Barbie became
an astronaut. In 1968, the first black Barbie doll, a friend named Christie,
hit store shelves.
Lisa McKnight, senior vice president and global general manager for the
Barbie brand, said that today, 55 percent of the dolls sold around the world
have neither blonde hair nor blue eyes.
Mattel has more than 100 people working in the El Segundo design studio, a
massive hangar-like building wedged between Los Angeles International Airport
and a freeway.
Designers begin with a simple sketch. From there on, every bit of a
prototype is made by an army of experts — from sculpting the doll using
state-of-the-art software and 3D printing to painting the face, styling the
hair, choosing fabrics and crafting the clothing patterns.
The entire design process for a new Barbie can last 12 to 18 months. Then,
the prototype is sent from the California workshop to factories in China and
Indonesia for mass production.
“Sometimes, you see her on a shelf and then it gets back to you: oh yes, I
designed this one!” Nuera said with a smile.
– Instagram photo shoots –
Barbie is not only a toy store success — she has a massive social media
presence, and is something of an “influencer,” with millions of followers.
She has an actual identity: Barbie Millicent Roberts, who hails from the
made-up town of Willows in the Midwest.
And now, she speaks directly to girls about her life, and important current
topics.
In 2018, the brand launched a sweeping campaign to help young girls close
the so-called “Dream Gap” — using Barbie to teach them to believe in
themselves, and not to buy into sexist gender stereotypes.
Barbie has a hair stylist, makeup artist and photographer who travel with
her “for real” in the United States and abroad for Instagram photo sessions
(check out @barbiestyle). The account has nearly two million followers.
So, does Barbie have it all as she hits 60, but remains forever young,
still single and without kids (so far)?
“The narrative of the Barbie brand is that she’s a young woman and she’s
independent and pursuing careers,” McKnight said.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1753 hrs