Did you know that the Barbie doll was invented by a mom?
As of 2009, the infamous Barbie is turning 50 years old. This is a toy that generations of mom’s had the benefit of playing with, saw their children play with, and even watch their grandchildren play with today.
Ruth Handler, with the help of her husband and a business partner, managed to build what we now recognize as one of the largest toy empires in the US, Mattel.
When she introduced Barbie at the 1959 Toy Fair in New York, no one, not even Elliot, thought Ruth could persuade American moms to buy their little girls a doll with “breasts.” But Ruth had watched daughter Barbara (for whom the doll was named, as the Ken doll was named for her son) and her friends play with paper dolls and saw that girls imagined themselves as adults through the dolls.
While Ruth died in 2002, at the age of 85, the doll that many love to hate has continued to live on with each new generation and as a symbol for the years that have passed since it’s creation.
Photo by virgirm