Barbie is more than a brand; it’s a cultural legacy recognized by generations. In 1959, Ruth Handler introduced a doll named after her daughter that revolutionized the toy industry, and she later struck gold again with another iconic toy, this time inspired by her son.
Handler co-founded Mattel with her husband, Elliot Handler, and Harold Matson in 1945. One day, she noticed her daughter, Barbara, playing with dolls made out of paper. It wasn’t out of the ordinary by any means, but what caught Handler’s interest was how her daughter was playing with the dolls.
Barbara was acting out future adult roles or events. Back then, a majority of toys catered to young girls focused on being caregivers, future mothers, and wives. It soon led Handler to realize there was a huge gap in the toy market that stopped her daughter from envisioning a larger life for herself. Paper dolls also limited creativity in terms of wardrobe, and Handler began tinkering with the idea of an adult-bodied doll that could transform into any career role.
At the time, the directors of Mattel weren’t sold on the idea. They believed parents wouldn’t buy a doll with a voluptuous frame and breasts. It wasn’t until Handler and her children were on a trip in Europe in 1965 that she stumbled upon a German toy doll called Bild Lilli that had been launched a year earlier and was largely sold to adults.
The trip and doll proved to Handler that her idea was worth investing in, and she returned to the U.S. to work with a local inventor named Jack Ryan to reinvent and redesign the doll. They also worked with fashion designer Charlotte Johnson to develop the wardrobe that was hand-stitched in Japan.
On March 9, 1956, the first doll was officially debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. Named after her daughter, the first Barbie doll was designed to be blonde or brunette and wore a black and white zebra dress striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail. Mattel sold an estimated 350,000 in the first year.
“My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be,” Ruth wrote in her 1994 autobiography. “Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”
Handler would develop the next doll in March 1961, named Kenneth Sean Carson. Ken, for short. The doll was named after her son and created as a response to letters Mattel received from fans. Ken was created to be Barbie’s love interest after many complained about Barbie’s single life.
He wasn’t created with boys in mind, seeing as they had numerous action figures and toys that took on different roles and careers. For many, Ken was seen as the arm candy for Barbie, a male counterpart.
“Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world,” Barbie director Greta Gerwig told Vogue. “That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”
Since their debut, Barbie and Ken have undergone countless transformations, with evolving looks, wardrobes, careers, and iterations. While the dolls have faced criticism over their body proportions, initial lack of inclusivity and influence on young children, their underlying mission was to inspire kids to imagine who they could become as adults, whether an astronaut, an engineer or an actor.
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