Barbie History is an interesting example of how women, even in the position of housewives, are talented enough to create and push an empire. And that's inspirational for all women.
Barbie was created by Ms. Ruth Handler, a woman who got inspiration in Germany in 1956, when she saw a doll named Bild Lilli, intended as a collectible pieces for adults. It had blond hair, tall and curvy body, and served as an inspiration for Ms. Handler to create a doll, when she saw her daughter, playing with paper dolls and giving them adult personalities.
She realized the missing gap in the toy industry and believed that a Doll as Bild Lilli could be sold by her husband's toy company: MATTEL.
She told her husband about the idea, and even thought he wasn't sure about it, she starting designing the first Barbie dolls that eventually were launched in 1959.
Initially, the Barbie production was made in Japan. And as we know now, she has been the dream of many girls and lately, the nightmare for others.
Personally, I always loved Barbie Dolls because they are beautiful and as a kid, I didn't care about the marketing, the lawsuits, or about Barbie as negative figure to follow by girls, specially for the standards of beauty that she represents for many people.
My thought about this is that children don't look up at a toy as a figure to follow, but to the values parents teach and practice at home. So enjoy Barbie the same way we did as kids.
This post is about Barbie Stories, specifically the story about how I got my first Barbie doll ever. It was back in 1987, when my mother took me to a very nice store in a city we were visiting. The store had a big aerostatic balloon on the roof and very colorful. I remember the unlimited options I had to choose a Barbie Doll, and suddenly I chose a nice box with the picture of a fancy Barbie Doll, dress in pink and serving food. I was sure I wanted that one, so my mommy paid for it and we walked out of the store. When we made it to the hotel room, I opened my new "Barbie" box and as shown in the picture I got very nice table and set of chairs to complete the Dining set, but not a Barbie Doll. My mom had not paid attention in that very tiny detail written in the box, that stated Barbie not included... So we went back to the store and after my mom tried to negotiate an exchange, finally she got it and quickly I chose my very first Barbie Doll: The Tropical Barbie. I saw her and she had everything I ever wanted: long-blond hair that over the time I had brushed and brushed until the hair became matted, and eventually she lost her nice head and she became a fat-headed Barbie Doll, as before not many people and less a 4 year-old kid would not now how to fix the head-off the body of the Barbie dolls at that time, so I just put it back where it suppose to belong... insert it on the neck :)