For decades, we have played with Barbie, made her our best friend, taken her along to almost all family picnics, movies, styled her hair and even chopped them off trying to become a good hair stylist for her beautiful long blonde hair. She has been a style icon ever since her birth and enjoys a life that one can only imagine! But, did you know that the makers of Barbie were actually a company who sold plastic furniture and picture frames. It was during a family trip to Switzerland that co-founder of Barbie, Ruth Handler came up with the idea of making a fashion doll and that’s when Mattel Corporation helped her make the world’s first Barbie.
Here are some absolutely interesting and amazing facts about Barbie that almost all Barbie fans must know. Make sure you read them all and share it with all your Barbie friends.
FACT 1: BARBIE HAS GERMAN ROOTS
Yes! We all thought that Barbie was all American, but sadly she has her roots back in Germany. Barbie may have been born in USA, in the small fictional town of Willows in Wisconsin, but in reality Barbie was first modelled from a German doll called Lilli.
Ruth Handler came across this doll during her family trip to Switzerland, when her daughter got herself a grown-up paper doll. That’s when Handler got the idea to make plastic fashion dolls for little girls like her daughter.
FACT 2: INSPIRED FROM PAPER DOLLS
The 3-D looking fashionable paper dolls were highly in demand in the market in Europe, sometime during 1956. So, Handler picked up several fashion paper dolls from the market and brought them back to USA for Mattel to design and make a look alike rubber or plastic doll.
FACT 3: BARBIE WAS DESIGNED BY A MISSILE ENGINEER
Once Handler and Mattel discussed about the 3-d fashion doll, they took it to Jack Ryan, a designer who had graduated from Yale and worked for a famous aerospace company. Ryan had a pretty strong and interesting resume. He was the same designer who had previously helped the USA government in designing the Hawk missile and the Sparrow III missile.
FACT 4: BARBIE WAS FIRST SOLD AS BOTH, BLONDE AND BRUNETTE DOLL
After the first Barbie was launched, the company manufactured both Barbies’ with blonde hair and Barbie’s with Brunette hair. However in America, the Barbies’ with blonde hair became a huge hit. And soon, the brunette Barbies’ had to be soon pushed back into the back shelves.
FACT 5: BARBIE DOLLS NEVER SMILED FOR THE FIRST 12 YEARS OF HER LIFE
For the first 12 years after her birth, Barbie has just simple plain pursed lips and no smiles. She looked quite serious. Then later in 1971, Mattel designed the new Malibu Barbie that smiled with her perfectly white teeth.
FACT 6: THE TOTALLY HAIR BARBIE IS THE BEST SELLING BARBIE OF ALL TIME
The Totally Hair Barbie is claimed to have sold almost 10 million dolls since its release in 1992. Wow, can you believe it?
FACT 7: ALMOST EVERY 3 SECONDS, A BARBIE DOLL IS SOLD
According to a survey performed in 2003, it was claimed by Fortune that almost every 3 seconds a Barbie is purchased.
FACT 8: BARBIE DONS ALMOST 200 CAREERS
Right from being a politician, model, doctor, rapper, Mountie and palaeontologist, Barbie has portrayed almost 200 careers.
FACT 9: BARBIE HOUSE IS FULL OF PETS
Compared to her 200 career options, Barbie has a still decent number of pets. The makers of Barbie reported that Barbie has almost 40 pets comprising of 21 dogs, 14 absolutely stunning horses, 6 cats, 3 ponies and a parrot and a small little fluffy panda.
