Barbie Forever: Her Inspiration, History, and Legacy presents a detailed, fully authorized portrait of this beloved doll through all-new interviews, original sketches, vintage photos, advertisements, and much more—including a foreword by Olympic fencing medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad. A double-sided foldout timeline showcases important moments in Barbie history. Explore how the doll came to be, what it takes to create one of her many looks, and how her legacy continues to influence the world. Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has been breaking boundaries and highlighting major moments in art, fashion, and culture. She has been an interpreter of taste and style in every historic period she has lived through and has reflected female empowerment through the more than 200 careers she has embodied. Today, an international icon, Barbie continues to spark imaginations and influence conversations around the world. Barbie Forever is a vibrant celebration for the "Barbie Girl" in all of us.

Barbie is a strong, independent doll. But is she a feminist icon? It’s complicated. Since her introduction in 1959, Barbie’s impact has been revolutionary. Far from being a toy designed by men to oppress women, she was a toy invented by women to teach women what was expected of them, for better or for worse. Whether tarred-and-glittered as antifeminist puffery or celebrated as a feminist icon (or, at any rate, an important cultural touchstone in understanding feminism) Barbie has undeniably influenced generations of girls. In Forever Barbie, cultural critic, investigative journalist, and first-generation Barbie owner M. G. Lord uncovers the surprising story behind Barbie’s smash success. Revealing her low origins as “Bild Lilli,” a risqué doll for adults sold as a gag gift in postwar Germany, Forever Barbie traces Barbie’s development and transformation, through countless makeovers and career changes, into an international pop culture icon and now “traditional toy.” Though not every doll in the line has been a hit—with pregnant Midge and Growing up Skipper among the more intriguing disasters—Barbie’s endurance, Lord writes, speaks as much to Mattel’s successful marketing as it does to our society’s overall ambivalence toward femininity. With new accessories, including a preface on the latest developments in the Barbieverse, Forever Barbie “will make you think of America’s most celebrated plastic doll in ways you never have before” (Susan Faludi).

This book uses one of the most popular accessories of childhood, the Barbie doll, to explain key aspects of cultural meaning. Some readings would see Barbie as reproducing ethnicity and gender in a particularly coarse and damaging way - a cultural icon of racism and sexism. Rogers develops a broader, more challenging picture. She shows how the cultural meaning of Barbie is more ambiguous than the narrow, appearance-dominated model that is attributed to the doll. For a start, Barbie’s sexual identity is not clear-cut. Similarly her class situation is ambiguous. But all interpretations agree that, with her enormous range of lifestyle `accessories', Barbie exists to consume. Her body is the perfect metaphor of modern times: plastic, st

Take an enthralling and richly illustrated trip through the official real-world story of the Barbie™ doll—from groundbreaking toy to beacon of female empowerment. Created in partnership with Mattel to celebrate Barbie doll’s 65th anniversary and featuring rare images from their archives, Barbie: Her Inspiration, History, and Legacy is a stunning tribute to the beloved pop culture icon that has echoed the taste, style, and events of every decade she has experienced. Recall the joy of opening a brand-new Barbie box with this sumptuously designed book chronicling every step in the beloved doll’s journey, from entrepreneurial pioneer Ruth Handler’s creation of Barbie in 1959 to the record-breaking film in 2023, and beyond, including: The Birth of Barbie – Learn how Ruth Handler came up with the idea of a doll that allowed little girls to play at being women, then overcame a parade of challenges—including disbelief from her male colleagues that mothers would buy their daughters an adult doll with full-grown breasts—and persevered to create the wildly successful Barbie doll and prove her doubters wrong. Breaking Boundaries – Follow the path that Barbie took from teenage fashion model to over 200 different careers, including trailblazing roles like astronaut in 1965, beating the first American woman, Sally Ride, into space by nearly 20 years, to surgeon in 1973, at a time when the total number of women physicians in the US was around 5 percent, to other male-dominated roles like Marine Corps sergeant, a business executive, and President of the United States. Reflecting Diversity – See how a doll that started with a choice of either blonde or brunette hair now boasts 35 skin tones, 97 hair styles, and 9 body types, with those numbers growing each year. Barbie in Fashion and Art – Explore how the fashion and art worlds have influenced and been influenced by Barbie, from limited edition Barbie fashions from premiere designers like Christian Dior and Michael Kors to a portrait of Barbie by Andy Warhol. Barbie in Pop Culture – Discover all the ways that Barbie has influenced pop culture, from Barbie bloggers and collectors to how her movie smashed records as the highest-grossing domestic release in history, granting its female director, Greta Gerwig, the prize for the highest-grossing film directed by a woman. Barbie: Her Inspiration, History, and Legacy reveals how Barbie is more than a toy—she is an ideal that lives forever, encouraging girls to persist through to become whatever they dream to be.

Featuring striking photographs and lively, insightful commentary and histories, The Best of Barbie is a full-color visual feast that novice and experienced collectors alike will treasure. Scattered throughout the book are trivia facts that test the reader's knowledge of America's favorite doll. Plus, accompanying each photo is a handy identification and value info bar - facts readers need at a glance. With complete descriptions, 300 magnificent color photos and more than 1,200 price listings, collectors, appraisers, buyers and fans will have the tools to identify the most influential Barbie Dolls including Barbie #1 Ponytail Style, Bubblecut Barbie, Barbie Fashion Queen, American Girl and many more.

This fun, affordable and fact-filled guide allows you to bask in the beauty of Barbie, while providing details to help you identify and assess the value of the dolls in your collection, or those you dream about owning. The perfect size to use at shops, garage sales, and during online auctions, this guide contains fashion sets and nearly 50 years of the most valuable and collectible Barbie dolls.

Today, Barbie has taken over global headlines! By transforming to better match the world around her, Barbie remains in the hearts of children. Text on today's popular and inspiring dolls is paired with a brief history on important cultural events and womens' roles of the 2010s and early 2020s. QR codes and bright, exciting photographs keep readers engaged through the whole book. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. DiscoverRoo is an imprint of Pop!, a division of ABDO.

“A hair-raising account of a Barbie Dreamhouse-size Jarndyce and Jarndyce.”—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker This provocative work spotlights the legal battles between behemoth Mattel and audacious MGA over incredibly successful toys and the ownership of an idea. Law professor Orly Lobel deeply researched this riveting story, interviewing those involved, to draw attention to the contentious debate over creativity and intellectual property. She also explores female images and how we market cultural icons, from the doll that inspired all-American Barbie to the defiant, anti-establishment Bratz—the only doll to outsell Barbie in any year.

Barbie Magazine and the aesthetic commodification of girls' bodies (I.M. O'Sickey). This year's girl: a personal/critical history of Twiggy (L. B. DeLibero). A woman's two bodies: fashion magzines, consumerism and feminism (L.W. Rabine). No bumps, no excrescences: Amelia Earhart's failed flight into fashions (K. Jay). Sonia Rykiel in traslation (H. Cixous). From Celebration (S. Rykiel). Off the (W)rack: fashion and pain in the work of Diane Arbus (C. Shloss). An erotics of representation: fashioning the icon with Man Ray (M.A. Caws). Seduction and elegance: the new woman of fashion in silent cinema (M. Turim). Madonna, fashion and identity (D. Kellner). Fragments of a fashionable discourse (K. Silverman). Womenrecovering our clothes (I.M. Young). Fashion and the homospectatorial look (D. Fuss). Terrorist chic: style and domination in contemporary Ireland (C. Herr). Paris or perish : the plight of the latin american indian in a westernized world (B. Brodman). Tribalism in effect (A. Ross).