The Lilli doll was based on a popular character appearing in a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. ĭuring a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company.

At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. The first Barbie doll was introduced in both blonde and brunette on March 9, 1959. This is an increase from the $950 million the brand sold during 2017. In 2020, Mattel sold $1.35 billion worth of Barbie dolls and accessories and this was their best sales growth in two decades. Sales of Barbie dolls declined sharply from 2014 to 2016. Writing for Journal of Popular Culture in 1977, Don Richard Cox noted that Barbie has a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence, and with her multitude of accessories, an idealized upscale life-style that can be shared with affluent friends. Since its launch, Barbie has transformed the toy business in affluent communities globally by becoming a vehicle for the sale of related merchandise (accessories, clothes, friends and relatives of Barbie, etc.). īarbie and her best male friend Ken have been described as two most popular dolls in the world. From the following year until 2017, the films were broadcast regularly on the Nickelodeon cable channel in the United States. The brand has expanded into a media franchise since the late 1980s, including a long-running media/multimedia franchise of computer-animated films that began in 2001. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parodies of the doll and her lifestyle. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.īarbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls.

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc.

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