Spoiler alert: She’s nowhere near the age you probably think she is.
The world of Barbie has never exactly been subtle. For 50 years, the franchise dominated the toy industry. Then the 2023 feature film, helmed by director Greta Gerwig and producer-actress Margot Robbie, quickly became a blockbuster smash, generating $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office. This landed Barbie a spot in an iconic list: The top 20 most successful films in cinematic history.
Barbie is now nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera), Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design, and Best Original Song (“I’m Just Ken”).
Commercials, themed products, and film bonanza aside, the history of Barbie is actually more interesting than you might think. The origin story of that magical little doll will stun you, and the money being paid for certain collectors’ editions might disturb you.
Just in time for the upcoming Academy Awards, here are some misunderstood elements of Barbie’s story, and surprises about the most famous doll in the world.
How old is Barbie? Older than you might think
Barbie, formally known as “Barbara Millicent Roberts,” was born in 1959, which would technically make her 65 years old — except for the small fact that she was born as a 19-year-old.
Yep, that’s right: The first ever Barbie was officially 19 years old, which would make her age closer to 84 years old. And when you consider what a long, storied life she has led, with over 100 careers and hundreds more fashion endeavors (we’ll get to all of that below), 84 starts to make a little bit more sense.
With that said, Mattel has previously claimed that Barbie is permanently stuck in time as a 19-year-old, TODAY reports — which, given that poreless complexion and wide-eyed plastic gaze, makes about as much sense as anything else in the Barbie universe.
The first Barbie was designed by a Pentagon missile engineer
The idea for Barbie was initially conceived in the 1940s by a woman named Ruth Handler, who started to think about making a fashion doll after she came across her daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls of adult women. Children’s dolls were usually made to look like babies or little girls, so the idea of an adult doll was compelling to Handler.
At the time, Handler was the president of Mattel, a company she had co-founded with her husband in the 40s. They’d originally created the company to sell furniture, but when sales fell in World War II, the company shifted toward the production of toy furniture instead. Handler was always on the lookout for the next great idea, though, and when she saw her daughter playing with those paper dolls, she realized the next great opportunity: a three-dimensional doll that embodied the future for young girls, rather than the present.
Together the Handlers enlisted a former Pentagon engineer named Jack Ryan, who dreamed up a design for a plastic doll with a movable torso and hinged limbs. (You can learn more about the engineering behind the Barbie doll on the Netflix show, The Toys That Made Us.) They named the doll “Barbie” after their daughter. The first doll was sold in 1959, and the rest, as they say, was history.
Over 100 Barbie dolls are sold every minute
Since the toy’s launch in 1959, over a billion dolls have been sold. (Yes, that’s billion, with a B.) Over a hundred dolls are sold every single minute, and a Barbie Dreamhouse is sold every two minutes.
At first, the doll cost $3 to purchase, but over the years that price has obviously increased. Now, a standard Barbie doll will run you around $10 — but there are plenty of models that cost way more. For example, this 80s-themed Barbie featuring “nostalgic details and an over-the-top look” costs $45, and this resortwear-themed Barbie and Ken combo set costs $154.
Oh, and if you’re looking for a vintage collectible Barbie doll, get ready to liquidate your retirement account. An original 1959 Barbie will run you upwards of $25,000, for example, and plenty of other recent Barbie editions cost thousands of dollars, too.
If these numbers are blowing your mind, then you might want to sit down for this one: In 2010, a custom-designed Barbie with a four-carat diamond necklace (yes, real diamonds) was sold at a charity auction for $302,500.
Nearly everyone on earth knows Barbie
According to Mattel, the Barbie brand has 99 percent global awareness, which means (if you can even fathom it) that 99 percent of the people on earth know what Barbie is. That translates to 7.8 billion people — another billion with a B. For reference, Coca-Cola, the drink with the highest overall brand awareness, apparently has about 95 percent brand awareness — which means, amazingly, that more people would be able to recognize a Barbie doll than they’d be able to recognize a can of Coke.
With a brand that recognizable, it’s unsurprising that Mattel maintains certain consistency with the Barbie vibe, even as it continues to provide variation with her jobs, celebrity likenesses, aesthetic themes, and more. One major aspect of Barbie that never wavers is her signature color.
Is there any hue more instantly recognizable than that bubblegum pink? Barbie’s trademark color has actually been labeled in the Pantone color list as “Barbie Pink,” also known as Pantone 219 C. Yes, there is even a Barbie Collector’s Doll in a Pantone dress.
Barbie has worked in over 200 different jobs and has even run for president
Over the last half-century, Barbie has been a very busy woman, to say the least. Barbie has had over 250 careers in her (infinite) life, including stints as an astronaut, a firefighter, a journalist, a surgeon, and even a presidential candidate.
This is nothing to say of all the celebrities who have been memorialized in the Barbie universe. The first person to receive the ultimate Barbie honor was Twiggy, who, in 1967, became the first-ever celebrity to become immortal as a Barbie doll. Since then, countless individuals have received the honor, from Cher to Nicki Minaj to Amelia Earhart.
Given all those Barbie doll iterations through the years, it’s probably unsurprising that this versatile lady has found herself in hot water from time to time. No, we’re not talking about the hot tub at her Dreamhouse. We’re talking about the ongoing controversy over her wildly unrealistic body proportions (yes, that includes their new “curvy” Barbie dolls, which experts estimate are similar to a woman’s size 6). It’s not just the size of the doll that promotes unhealthy ideals; Slumber Party Barbie came with a scale stuck at 110 pounds, and Babysitter Barbie came with a book titled How to Lose Weight that suggested, “Don’t eat!”
Of course, there’s been criticism over the lack of inclusivity in Mattel’s designs, and their initial attempts to diversify the line were often disrespectful. Remember Oreo Barbie, which featured a Black doll? Mattel designers were apparently unaware that “oreo” is a derogatory term for a Black person who “acts white.”
It takes over 100 people to create each new look for Barbie
How does Mattel decide how to create each signature look for Barbie? The answer is so much more complex than you could ever imagine.
According to a 2009 Forbes interview with Evelyn Viohl, senior vice president of Barbie design, each Barbie design comes together through the work of approximately 100 people.
This includes designers, pattern makers, seamstresses, and hair and makeup stylists. Per Viohl, Barbie fashion works like other major fashion houses, with the release of spring, winter, and holiday collections every year. Each collection is composed of multiple looks, half of which are proposed by the marketing team (these often involve cross-brand collaborations), and half are proposed by the design teams (these are more fashion-focused).
Each look begins with a basic mood board, Viohl said. That mood board then gets passed to fashion illustrators, who come up with various design ideas. Once a design idea is established, the pattern makers come in and work on mock-up outfit ideas, which involve not just clothing design but fabric selection as well. When the outfit is decided upon, the makeup and hair stylists come in and create a completely unique hair and makeup look.
From there, Barbie still has to move through several more steps, including accessory selection, package design, and body positioning inside the box (AKA deciding how Barbie should be positioned behind the plastic seal). The whole process for a single Barbie look takes over 18 months, Viohl confirmed.
All of the care, time, and literal manpower that goes into the Barbie franchise is pretty overwhelming when you think about it — but especially when you consider how many kids rip that doll out of the box and immediately start coloring the face with Sharpie.
