The Barbie doll is famous the world over as the leggy, blonde teenage model toy for girls.

The doll was first released by the Mattel Corporation in the spring of 1959, ultimately becoming not merely a toy but a cultural phenomenon. A clear departure from the babydoll toys which were popular during that period, she was one of the first dolls to offer a window into an “adult lifestyle,” replete with such fashion outfits as “Dinner at Eight,” “Enchanted Evening” and “Picnic Set.” She spawned the creation of her steady boyfriend Ken, along with countless additional product tie-ins, including the Barbie game, the Barbie van and numerous doll outfits, fashion accessories and doll sidekicks (younger sisters and African American and ethnic clones). As a powerful cultural icon, she helped shape the way generations of children conceptualize gender, class, race and ethnicity in contemporary society. Many feminists have argued that Barbie reinforces gender stereotypes, but consumers continue to support the ponytailed doll wholeheartedly.

Although Barbie was in effect “born” in 1959, the Mattel Corporation was founded in 1945 in Southern California by art student Elliot Handler, his wife Ruth and their onetime foreman Harold Matson (hence the name “Mattel,” formed by fusing the names Matson and Elliot—though Matson sold out in 1946). Barbie was essentially invented by a working woman—Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler. Both Barbie and Ken have real-life counterparts, since they are named after Ruth and Elliot’s actual children. Although Barbie is in many ways synonymous with rigid, unrealistic, Eurocentric ideals of feminine beauty, it is important to note that Barbie was from the start a “career girl” (complete with requisite fashion accessories of course). Although she eventually found Ken, she has never been a wife or a mother—though she did have a bridal outfit.

Barbie is truly all-American, for she has roots in foreign lands. She was modeled after “Lilli,” a plastic German sex toy for men (in turn modeled after “Lilli,” a character in a popular comic strip in a German newspaper) that Ruth discovered while travelling in Europe. This may account for her impossible dimensions if projected life-size. Ruth’s then teenaged daughter Barbara spotted the doll in a store and wanted one, and Ruth realized that this was the doll she had been imagining. While observing her daughter play games as a young girl in which she and her friends imagined their “grown-up” lives, Ruth knew that an adult woman doll for young girls would be a huge hit. Lilli’s sultriness was toned down to make way for Barbie’s Californian wholesomeness, and Barbie doll was born. Since that time, there have been numerous efforts to create ethnically diverse and global Barbie counterparts, but Barbie remains an enduring symbol of the deeply entrenched “tall, thin and blonde” ideal of female beauty in American culture.