Love her. Hate her. Want to be her. Want to be anything but her. Want your daughter to be anything but her. Become overwhelmed with nostalgia watching your daughter develop the same love-hate relationship you did with her.Whatever your feelings may be about Barbie, you've got to agree, the girl's got staying power.
Yesterday, March 9th, happened to be Barbie's 50th birthday (OK, so she's had a little work done . . . why do you think they call it *plastic* surgery?). Now, a day late and 259,200 Barbies later, I offer a few factoids about America's favorite teenage fashion model I didn't know (and I thought we were close!):
1. Her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she's from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin.
2. Ruth Handler, the wife of the co-founder of the Mattel toy company, is credited with creating Barbie, but the doll is really a knock-off of a German doll named Bild Lilli.
3. Barbie and her boyfriend, Ken Carson, are both named for Handler children.
4. Mattel claims that three Barbie dolls are sold every second.
5. If Barbie were real, then she would be 5 feet 9 inches tall, and have measurements of 36-18-33.
6. Barbie's head is the same circumference as her waist.
7. In 1997, Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist.
8. In 1971, Barbie's eyes were adjusted from the demure sideways glance of the original doll to a straight-forward gaze.
9. Barbie has had over 40 pets － from dogs, cats and horses, to a lion, panda and zebra.
10. Barbie has had dozens of careers, including as a sign-language and a spanish teacher, an officer of all military branches, a Canadian Mountie, a flight attendant and a pilot and an astronaut, a nurse and a surgeon and a veterinarian, a McDonald's cashier, a hair stylist, a paleontologist and an Ambassador for world peace.
11. Barbie has also been involved in two rock bands － Barbie and the Rockers and Barbie and the Sensations.
12. In 1983, Barbie's longtime friend, PJ, was inexplicably billed as her cousin. This notation lasted just one year and was never mentioned again.
Happy Birthday, Barbie!! :)
1 comment:
Yay, Barbie! I didn't play Barbies as a child, but my daughters could not get enough. I still have a considerable collection stored in the garage. I used to do a great job of keeping the clothes and shoes together and staying orgnanized, but at some point, there was just too much. Hundreds of years hence, archeologists will dig up what used to be my garage and marvel at the Barbie-ric wonders contained therein.
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