“Ruth wanted Barbie to be a positive and fun role model for girls. Some of the careers include an actress, a surgeon, a United Airlines flight attendant, Olympic athlete, downhill skier, and figure skater. In the 1980s careers like business executive, doctor and army officer were added. In the 1990s jobs like engineer, firefighter, and NASCAR driver were added. Today she has been a paleontologist, architect, news anchor and so much more!”
https://www.craftymomsshare.com/2022/03/ruth-handler-fun-facts-about-her-barbie.html
So many of us just focused on Barbie’s outlandish proportions and missed Handler’s real cause: showing girls that they can become anything - from astronauts to zoo keepers! Sure, there were lots of fashion Barbies. Of course.
And there were some misfirings (“Math is hard!” said one Barbie. Oops.) But mostly, Handler wanted her Barbies and their friends to be about empowerment. How about that for a revelation? Yes. I know. I was shocked, too.
Jewish American inventor of the Barbie doll, Ruth Handler, was also the co-founder of the Mattel Toy Company, along with her husband.
She and husband Elliot formed the toy company in their garage in 1939.
Before Barbie, almost every doll was a baby doll or a paper doll. Handler wanted girls to know there were more options out there. She made every kind of Barbie for every possible career.
Barbie, launched in 1959, was named after their daughter Barbara and became the most popular doll in America. Barbie’s friends and family included her boyfriend, Ken, sister Skipper and BFF Midge.
Barbie had fans in many countries, including 80,000 fans in Japan. The doll even had her own secretary to answer the 20,000 fan letters per week.
Handler also created a prosthetic breast for women who, like her, had undergone a mastectomy. She considered this her most important contribution.
Although she started off in a garage, when she died in 2002, her net worth was $100 million dollars.
Original inspiration in black and white on right. Flight attendant Barbie on left.
Ruth Handler made the first non-baby and non-paper dolls for girls.
