When you're a little kid, you don't think much about the greater implications of a Barbie doll. Sure, she doesn't have a name that people use anymore, and maybe she's held every job in the world, but that's just how she is. However, when you grow up, you start to see the beloved childhood toy through adult eyes, and you notice some things you never did before. From the true market value of a Barbie Dream House to the harm the doll can do to someone's body image, let's take a look at some things that only adults notice about Barbie.
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00:00Remember picking out your first Barbie? Back then, you probably couldn't imagine the scrutiny
00:04the doll has experienced over the years. From the origin of her name to the bizarre proportions,
00:08here are some of the things you probably didn't notice about Barbie when you were a kid,
00:12but that are almost impossible to ignore now that you're saving for your own dream house.
00:16Did you ever think about where the name Barbie came from? After all, there's a good chance you
00:20didn't know any other Barbies growing up. The name is uncommon enough that maybe you thought Barbie
00:24was just what that specific doll was called and not a name at all. But the name Barbie
00:28used to be more common. It's actually short for Barbara. And according to the Social Security
00:32Administration's record of top baby names, Barbara was the third most common name for
00:36girls born between 1930 and 1949. By 1959, the year the Barbie doll was invented,
00:42the name Barbara was still in the top ten — number six, to be exact. And one of those
00:46girls was the daughter of Barbie creator and Mattel founder Ruth Handler. In an interview,
00:50Handler admitted she was Barbie's creator in more ways than you may realize.
00:54I knew that I had to name the doll after my daughter, who had really inspired the entire
01:00project. So we named the doll Barbie. As you know, Barbie is nearly 59 years old.
01:06What's her secret to looking so young? Plastic surgery. Tons and tons of plastic surgery.
01:11Sean Fitzgerald, vice president of corporate communications for Mattel,
01:14told the San Francisco Chronicle that between 1959 and 1997, Barbie went through three new faces,
01:19received bendable knees and elbows, and even an opposable thumb. In the fall of 1998 came even
01:25more radical plastic surgery — smaller hips, reduced bust size, wider waist, and flat feet.
01:30Barbie also stopped smiling with teeth in favor of a closed-mouth grin, and her luscious locks
01:35became straighter and more three-dimensional as different shades were incorporated.
01:38Why all the changes? Fitzgerald explained that it all came down to the target audience of girls
01:42aged 3 to 11. They wanted Barbie to be cooler. They wanted Barbie to be more reflective of
01:47themselves. It might be hard to imagine that preschoolers would picture themselves as young
01:51adult Barbies, but nevertheless, Fitzgerald explained the physical changes of Barbie
01:55is part of the doll's history.
01:57Both before and after her extensive plastic surgery in the late 90s,
02:01Barbie's body never really made any sense. Galea Slayan, author of The Huffington Post
02:06article The Scary Reality of a Real-Life Barbie Doll, actually made a full-scale
02:10replica of a Barbie. It all started with two pieces of wood. After hammering them together,
02:14she had a stick figure frame that was roughly six feet tall. Using balloons and paper mache
02:18for Barbie's bust and solely paper mache for her skin, Barbie came to life. Slayan wrote,
02:23"...we created a body that wasn't much thicker than a stick figure,
02:26but had the womanly and unattainable curves and proportions that impressionable young
02:30girls idealize. She stands at about six feet tall, with a 39-inch bust, 18-inch waist,
02:35and 33-inch hips."
02:36While Slayan's Barbie replica fits comfortably in a size 00 miniskirt,
02:40the average American woman wears a size 16 to 18.
02:43Slayan went on to add even more frightening statistics about Barbie's proportions in her
02:47article. Because of Barbie's incredibly low body mass index, she would fit the criteria
02:51for being anorexic. In addition, due to her disproportionate features, she would also need
02:55to walk on all fours. You can admit it, you cut your Barbie's hair just to see what would happen,
03:01didn't you? It's okay, we've all been there. Sadly, as it turns out, her hair just doesn't
03:05grow back. Barbie's hair is synthetic, made from either a fiber called conicalon or a type
03:09of plastic called polysauron. Her hair is rooted differently, making her locks more voluminous,
03:14even before styling. Stephanie Tarmichael, Barbie's official hairdresser since 1988,
03:19creates a prototype and then ships it overseas with step-by-step styling photos. Tarmichael
03:23is also responsible for making sure Barbie's hair is in vogue, which is challenging considering all
03:28hairstyles are selected a year before the doll is expected to arrive at toy stores.
03:32With her physique, her professionally styled hair, and her responsible-sounding name,
03:36you would think Barbie would have no problem finding steady work. No such luck, it seems.
03:40Sure, Barbie can get a job, but she just can't seem to stay employed at one place for very long.
03:44In 1959, Barbie started out as a teenage fashion model, and by 2008, she had held more than 75
03:50additional positions. That's not to say she's taken that many positions all within the same field.
03:55No, she is something of a Jane of all trades.
03:58I drew this when I was five years old. I wanted to be a dancer,
04:02doctor, astronaut, and princess when I grew up."
04:06Over the years, Barbie has been employed as an astronaut, a pop star, a super spy,
04:10a presidential candidate, and even a Major League Baseball player. When Barbie fills
04:14out the Employment History section of a job application, we're guessing she needs a few
04:17extra sheets of paper. Can you recall the first time you saw the Barbie Dreamhouse?
04:22Chances are you looked right past the steep numbers on the price tag and decided the house
04:25was an absolute necessity. The first Barbie Dreamhouse from 1960, as depicted in an original
04:30commercial by Mattel, was quite different. It featured a large closet to store all of Barbie's
04:35clothes, as well as a fashion shock. An article for Huffington Post dubbed it the
04:39six-room mega dollhouse, and at four feet long and three feet tall, it isn't hard to understand why.
04:45It was also retailing for a whopping $110 in 1960, which, as the article explains,
04:50would have roughly equated to $350 in 2012. However, the Dreamhouse was not quite what it
04:56seemed. An online real estate brokerage said a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu would
05:01cost around $107,000. The reason it's so affordable? Its size. Blown up according
05:06to scale, Barbie's home would be what the article called a, quote,
05:09laughably small, 126-square-foot footprint. Perhaps Barbie was just ahead of her time
05:14all these years. Maybe her dream mansion was more of a dream tiny home all along.
05:19Where there is Barbie, there is also Ken. Ken was introduced just two years after Barbie
05:23hit the shelves. Why the name Ken? Just as Barbie was named after Ruth Handler's daughter,
05:28Ken was named after her son of the same name. So does that mean Barbie and Ken are brother
05:32and sister? Considering what we know about their relationship, that seems a little strange.
05:37Well, I guess you don't know everything about women yet.
05:45Of course, just because Barbie and Ken's namesakes were siblings doesn't mean the
05:48dolls were brother and sister, too. That probably isn't a big surprise. But what might be?
05:52In addition to not being brother and sister, Ken and Barbie also weren't ever married.
05:56According to an interview for Today with Russell Aarons, vice president of marketing at Mattel,
06:01Barbie and Ken dated for 43 years, but they never tied the knot. In 2004 came their shocking
06:06decision to split. What caused the two to part ways after so many seemingly wonderful years
06:11together? Aarons made some hints during his interview that separation could be because
06:15of Ken's reluctance to marry Barbie, which is fair. If after 43 years you can't propose,
06:20maybe it's time to get back on those dating apps. In Ken's defense, the fact that he never
06:24knew whether he would be dating an astronaut, a pizza chef, or an international spy from week to
06:28week may have helped fuel his fear of commitment. Don't worry, though, because Barbie and Ken
06:32ultimately patched things up in 2014. Regardless of how small Barbie's dream
06:36house might be, Barbie's pad is certainly crowded enough with just Ken and herself.
06:40Yet that doesn't seem to matter much to Barbie. She's still filled her home and her life with
06:44quite a few pets. According to Entrepreneur, at this point, Barbie has 17 dogs and five cats.
06:50Bad news, Barbie, that isn't even legal. In Barbie's hometown of Malibu, California,
06:55four dogs is the limit. Barbie's five cats, however, may be allowed to stay.
06:58Barbie doesn't just stop at collecting house pets, either. She also has three ponies and
07:0212 horses. It's surprising Barbie hasn't ended up on an episode of Hoarders by now.
07:07She's simply out of control.
07:09Barbie has always been pretty money-driven. She upgrades her house every few years,
07:13and all of her homes are in Malibu. She likes what she likes, apparently.
07:16Barbie's home upgrades have been pretty spectacular. The 2014 Dream House featured
07:20two elevators. Why two? Well, she needed one just to transport her clothes, obviously.
07:25Even more mind-blowing was Barbie's upgrade in 2017, named Barbie Hello Dream House. It's a
07:30smart home that can respond to over 100 voice commands, and it has an electronic staircase
07:35that turns into a slide.
07:37Hello, Dream House. Turn the staircase into a slide.
07:46In addition to having the snazziest houses, Barbie also owns more vehicles than she probably
07:50knows what to do with. Her first car was a 1962 two-seater sports car. Since then,
07:55she's had a Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet Corvette, among others. Apparently,
07:58her temporary breakup with Ken led to a shopping spree, during which she acquired
08:02even more vehicles. Will anything she buys ever be enough?
08:06Barbie is beautiful, but have you ever wondered what she would look like without all that makeup?
08:10No doubt she's naturally attractive. Nikolai Lamb is an artist and researcher from Pittsburgh,
08:15Pennsylvania, who makes dolls without makeup and with imperfections like acne and even
08:19stretch marks. Lamb spoke to Today about Barbie's makeup, saying,
08:22"...I think it's a little bit too hyper-sexualized,
08:24and I think people don't say anything because makeup has been on dolls for so long."
08:28Lamb, along with another artist, photographed four dolls and digitally removed their makeup.
08:32The result? Barbie is still gorgeous.
08:35Lamb told Today,
08:36"...the Barbie dolls look better, more natural without makeup,
08:38and I feel that without the makeup, they still look good. Why don't they sell them
08:42without makeup as well?"
08:43Barbie, for better or for worse, has been a big part of many girls' childhood memories.
08:48The popular dolls are often viewed as safe playthings by parents and favorited by young
08:52children across the globe. However, are Barbies truly as harmless as they initially appear?
08:57According to a study on the effect of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls,
09:01the answer is no, or at least possibly not. In the study, 162 girls within the age range
09:06of 5 to 8 were shown different pictures and then were asked to complete assessments of body image.
09:11The findings indicate that girls exposed to pictures of the Barbie doll had, quote,
09:15"...lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape than girls who
09:18were either shown pictures of other dolls or pictures featuring no dolls at all."
09:22The study continued,
09:23"...even if dolls cease to function as aspirational role models for older girls,
09:27early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage
09:31girls' body image." Of course, that's not the whole story about Barbie's impact on kids,
09:35and the culture at large.
09:37As Mattel president and COO Richard Dickinson argued, Barbie may, quote,
09:41"...represent female empowerment." But it could be argued that until recently,
09:45instead of representing the everywoman, Barbie was a representation of affluent white women.
09:50The first true African-American Barbie doll didn't hit shelves until 1968. Prior to that,
09:55Mattel did make an attempt at releasing the first ethnically diverse doll in 1967,
10:00a doll called Colored Francie. However, this Francie was not generally accepted as an accurate
10:04African-American representation because she used the exact same mold as a white Francie doll,
10:09but was instead just colored brown. Christie, however, came along in 1968 and utilized a new
10:14mold that more accurately represented African features, giving her a unique place in history.
10:19Mattel seems to have realized the errors of their ways,
10:21and is becoming more and more representative of diversity. As of 2016, Mattel started selling
10:26Barbies with three additional body types — curvy, tall, and petite — and seven more skin tones.