If it weren't for a comic strip about a confident, blond secretary published in a German newspaper in the 1950s, Barbie wouldn't be filling the shelves of toy stores around the world today.
"Oh, sure, there were so-called fashion dolls ... But these dolls had flat chests, big bellies, and squatty legs – they were built like overweight six- or eight-year-olds," Handler wrote. She wanted a doll for girls who were too old for baby dolls and that could inspire Barbara like the toys that allowed her son to imagine himself as a firefighter or astronaut."Everybody would kind of turn me off," Handler wrote in her autobiography."So I stopped mentioning it.
But over time, the doll also became popular with children and was accompanied by a full suite of accessories, including houses and furniture. Her outfits included office wear, tennis gear, and a traditional German Dirndl dress, though they couldn't be bought separately from the doll. A"The 'Lilli' doll was the embodiment of an idea I'd pitched to Elliot and our other Mattel toy designers some five years earlier," Handler wrote.
Handler tweaked Lilli's look. Her curved eyebrows were swapped for dramatic arches and her lips were softened. Handler also gave Barbie tiny individual toes, unlike Lilli, whose legs simply transitioned into her shoes. Lilli's hard plastic was switched for a softer material, Barbie's hair was rooted, and she was made less"curvaceous," Handler wrote.