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☆ Barbie and Ken, this summer's hottest couple, were actually named after a brother and sister
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Ruth Handler's children resented the dolls named after them and didn't buy any for their own children. The plastic dolls were actually named for a sister and brother – the children of Mattel cofounder and Barbie creator Ruth Handler. "If people did find out, she'd tell them in no uncertain terms that she was not the Barbie doll." Barbara, meanwhile, said: "I'm tired of being Barbie doll." Timm Schamberger/DDP/AFP via Getty ImagesHandler also named dolls for her children's partners and their children, including Allan, named for her son-in-law.

Persons: Barbie, Ken, Ruth Handler's, They've, Greta Gerwig's, –, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling –, Ruth Handler, Frederic Neema, Handler, Babs, Barbara, Barbara Millicent Roberts, Ruth, Jens, Ulrich Koch, Stache, Cyrus McCrimmon, Lobel, Blaine, Mel Melcon, Mattel Barbara, Elliott Handler, Bettmann, Barbara Handler, Handler's, Barbies . Bork, bimbo, Timm Schamberger, Allan, hadn't Organizations: Service, Mattel, Getty, Los Angeles Times, Hulton, Valentine's, Express, DDP, Getty Images, Denver, Fair Locations: Wall, Silicon, Europe, AFP, Nuremberg, Germany

☆ Barbie and Ken, one of the hottest couples of the summer, were actually named after a brother and sister
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Ruth Handler's children resented the dolls named after them and didn't buy any for their own children. The plastic dolls were actually named after a sister and brother – the children of Mattel cofounder and Barbie creator Ruth Handler. Almost immediately after Barbie hit toy shop shelves in 1959, Mattel started receiving "hundreds of letters from little girls begging us to make a boyfriend for Barbie," Handler wrote. "If people did find out, she'd tell them in no uncertain terms that she was not the Barbie doll." Barbara, meanwhile, said: "I'm tired of being Barbie doll."

Persons: Barbie, Ken, Ruth Handler's, —, Greta Gerwig's, –, Ruth Handler, Frederic Neema, Handler, Babs, Barbara, Barbara Millicent Roberts, Ruth, Jens, Ulrich Koch, Stache, Cyrus McCrimmon, Lobel, Blaine, Mel Melcon, Mattel Barbara, Barbie Ken, Iris Schneider, Elliott Handler, Bettmann, Barbara Handler, Handler's, Barbies . Bork, bimbo, Timm Schamberger, hadn't Organizations: Service, Mattel, Getty, Los Angeles Times, Hulton, Valentine's, Express, DDP, Getty Images, Denver, Fair Locations: Europe, AFP, Nuremberg, Germany

☆ Barbie owes her existence to a 1950s German comic strip
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Barbie likely wouldn't exist if Mattel's founder hadn't stumbled across Bild Lilli, a plastic doll based on a comic strip. The first Barbie doll, from 1959, had Lilli's red lips, high blonde ponytail, and winged eyeliner. But these dolls had flat chests, big bellies, and squatty legs – they were built like overweight six- or eight-year-olds," Handler wrote. The newspaper began making Lilli dolls in 1955 because of the comic's popularity and to market the newspaper. "Here were the breasts, the small waist, the long, tapered legs I had enthusiastically described for the designers all those years ago," Handler wrote.

Persons: Barbie, hadn't, Ruth Handler, —, Ruth Handler —, Mattel —, Barbara, Handler, Lilli, SSPL, Axel Springer publication's, Reinhard Beuthein, Robin Gerber, Ruth, Gerber, Elliot, Frederic Neema, Mattel, Lobel, Greiner, Louis Marx, Marx, Fiona Hanson, Hausser Organizations: Bild Lilli, Service, Mattel, Getty Images, Hausser, Getty, Greiner, Hausser's Locations: Europe, Lucerne, Swiss, Los Angeles, Lilli, New York

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