Loved this book, it was really well researched and I learned a lot. I loved all the photos and getting to know more about Ruth. I loved the timeline at the end. Thanks NetGallery!

Ruth Handler saw her daughter and friends playing with paper dolls of grown women and wondered why they couldn’t have actual dolls. She designed Barbie against everyone’s advice. What mother would allow her daughter to play with a doll with a grownup figure?
Mattel toys placed TV commercials on The Mickey Mouse Club and sales took off. The story of creating all of Barbie’s tiny garments in Japan is amazing. Barbie has always been ahead of the times, breaking new ground for women. She’s been an astronaut, surgeon, everything. Barbie’s motto is See It/Be It.
Her creator thought Barbie would sell for three or four years. Barbie is now 65.

Obviously the timing is perfect for a book about Barbie. I was expecting mostly photographs but was surprised at the amount of information provided on the creation of Barbie. I was unaware of the challenges Ruth Handler faced in creating and marketing Barbie. I loved the chapter of early Barbie creations as I have 1960’s Barbie, Skipper and Ken stored in my basement. Unfortunately, I loved and played with them a lot, as did my daughter so they aren’t going to be collectables. The book continues with Barbie breaking boundaries, reflecting diversity and Barbie in fashion, art and pop culture. I learned a lot about a favorite icon.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group for the temporary ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

Robin Gerber’s “BARBIE: Her Inspiration, History and Legacy” is a cute reference guide of the history of Mattel and Barbie. I loved reading about her story and evolution and the pictures were a fantastic addition to an otherwise fascinating book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy.

Disclosure: I received an advance review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Now I know that Barbie doesn’t really have anything to do with classic rock, but I really enjoyed the Barbie movie and when I saw there was a coffee table book coming out about Barbie available to review, I jumped on it, especially with Women’s History Month happening now and this year being the 65th anniversary of Barbie. If you’re a Gen X, Millennial, or Gen Z, you’ve never lived in a world without Barbie. How awesome is that! With it being International Women’s Day today, I think it’s the perfect day to publish this book review.

I remember when I was younger, Barbie was seen as one of the worst things for women’s rights because she’s skinny, pretty, and blonde. Even in university, I’d see pop feminist graphics that scaled up a Barbie doll and show how unrealistic her proportions are and how that’s bad for women’s self esteem or whatever. People see her as perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards and setting women’s liberation back by decades. This is all a complete misrepresentation of Barbie and we saw that myth dispelled in Greta Gerwig’s film last year. All the women in Barbie Land were Barbie. Barbie is Black, Barbie is Asian, Barbie is Hispanic, Barbie is a doctor, writer, lawyer, judge, president, astronaut, any job out there you can think of! Before Barbie, all the dolls girls would play with were babies and girls would pretend to be mothers, but the introduction of Barbie was a game changer because she’s a grown woman with her own job, no kids, and she’s not married. Nope, Ken is not her husband! Barbie is her own person and she shows that girls can be anything, a very important message during the second wave feminism years of the mid 20th century.

Robin Gerber previously wrote a biography about Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler called Barbie and Ruth and now she’s back with this coffee table book celebrating 65 years of Barbie from its humble beginnings in the 50s with Ruth and Elliot Handler starting a toy company with their friend Harold Matson (Mattel is a portmanteau of Matson and Elliot) to it becoming an ever-evolving cultural phenomenon and more than just a doll.

This book shows how much of an entrepreneur Ruth Handler was. She was calling the shots and coming up with the creative ideas. Early on Mattel made music and cowboy themed toys, but these were nothing compared to Barbie. Before Barbie, girls could play pretend with paper dolls with interchangeable outfits, but she wanted to take that concept from 2D to 3D, a doll would take that to the next level. During the postwar years there was a lot of prosperity so people had more disposable income to spend on things like toys for their kids and finally you had the concept of teenagers – they’re not quite kids, but they’re also not fully grown adults. While Ruth Handler had a lot of confidence in her idea and believed it would succeed, the men at Mattel thought that no parent would buy their daughters a dolls with a fully developed figure. However, during a trip to Europe she saw the German Lilli doll and knew her idea had potential. A lot of work went into designing and manufacturing Barbie and her accessories. It was truly an international effort, as the doll was originally manufactured in Japan and Handler hired a renowned Austrian psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Richter to market Barbie as something aspirational. Finally in 1959, the first Barbie was introduced with her blonde hair in a ponytail, her fringe curly and short, and wearing that iconic black and white striped swimsuit, as modelled by Margot Robbie in the 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired opening scene of Barbie.

Surprisingly Barbie wasn’t a hit straight away and at the Toy Fair in New York, many buyers turned their noses up, but things changed within a couple months and dolls were flying off the shelves and Mattel couldn’t keep up with demand. It took them three years to catch up with the backlog of orders. Ruth Handler expected it to be a fad, but instead it became a cultural phenomenon with a fan club starting in the 60s and the Barbie universe expanding with more characters like Ken, Skipper, Midge, and Christie and more career and sport themed outfits thanks to customer feedback. They even made a Twiggy Barbie – the very first celebrity Barbie! Within a decade of launch, Ruth Handler became a millionaire. Decades later, Barbie became more diverse with celebrities becoming Barbies, like Zendaya, Chloe Kim, Misty Copeland, and Ava DuVernay. Historical figures too! Like Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart, and Katherine Johnson. Barbie also reached out to fashion houses like Oscar De La Renta, YSL, Versace, Dior, Bob Mackie, Moschino, and Christian Louboutin for collaborations and some of their designs were made miniature for Barbie and more accessible to the masses, now everyone can have a piece of designer clothing. Andy Warhol even painted a portrait of Barbie, which his friend BillyBoy* sold for over $1.1 million. Barbie has ended up in museums like the Louvre and is a whole franchise with computer games, publications, books, all sorts of media all about her. Growing up I loved playing the Barbie hair styling computer game, even though I was a bit of a tomboy.

There are lots of beautiful vintage pictures and as a vintage fashion nerd, I love it! If you’re a fan of the Barbie movie and want to know more about the history, it’s a great read. It’s the perfect book for any Barbie enthusiast and if you love the mid 20th century, the aesthetic of the photos is heavenly. So much behind the scenes information on Barbie like the marketing and business side of things and the manufacturing and history of dolls. This book isn’t just beauty, there’s brains behind it too. There are many valuable marketing lessons to be learnt from Barbie. There’s so much more to Barbie than you think!

What a delightful little book! An excellent, to-the-point basic examination of the history of Barbie that would be a terrific foundation for anyone looking to learn more about the iconic doll and her visionary creator, Ruth Handler. (Even better, there are so many gorgeous, full-color pictures of the doll and her world to fawn over!) This was really a lot of fun to read, and makes me even more glad that I have Gerber's other book, "Barbie and Ruth," waiting for me on my pile of books at home - because if this book has any fault, it's that it leaves me wanting so much more!

This book was a great introduction to the history and legacy both Mattel and Barbie have had on the world. I learned so many things about every stage of Barbie’s history and how it came to be the empire it is today! Very good and interesting read if you are curious to know about Barbie and Mattel, and how they beat the odds of toy making. It doesn’t mention it in the book, but since the Barbie dream house paint line released- which this book now has me wanting!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Robin Gerber for allowing me to read this e-arc in exchange for my honest review

Barbie has been everywhere the past year which has led to a bunch of great opportunities to introduce fans old and new to the story behind the iconic doll.

Barbie: Her Inspiration, History, and Legacy has been newly updated to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the brand, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Ruth Handler developed the doll, as well as how the doll has developed over time to become more inclusive.

This is a great primer for anyone that’s interested in learning about how Barbie came to be and all of the iterations of the doll that are out there. And while it’s a great introduction, those who have more background with the doll might find that there isn’t much new information.

All in all, it’s a quick and interesting read that’s perfect prep for Oscar season!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was cute, like a Barbie textbook in a way. I loved the use of pictures and somewhat wished they had even more. The plot informs you of the creation of Barbie as the doll and its significance to this day. It does make the point that Barbie is a fashion icon, so I wish more pictures showed different Barbie fashions. This was adorable for anyone who appreciates Barbie. If you have elementary school children they would appreciate the pictures, but might not be able to understand the written part independently (maybe bedtime-worthy?).

A wonderful book introducing the history of the iconic Barbie doll. The reader learns not only about the circumstances of the doll's creation and her first steps on the market, but also about the wider social context - how Barbie has sought to empower women and inspired successive generations of girls over the years. Of course, this is not the kind of feminism that everyone agrees with, but it was still interesting to learn about these perspectives. I also really enjoyed the beautiful photographs that enhance the whole book. I would love to have a physical copy of this book.
I highly recommend it to all Barbie fans.

I really enjoyed reading through this book, as well as looking at the accompanying images. I absolutely loved the chapter dedicated to how groundbreaking Barbie continues to be, especially with the newest Barbie that just came out. The writing was easy to digest and drew me in to keep reading about Ruth and Barbie's story. I had to knock the book down a star because I found the chapter about how Barbies were literally made to be quite boring, but every single other chapter was so fascinating and full of fun facts.

A beautiful and easy to read history of Barbie. It was amazing pictures throughout the book and would make an amazing coffee book for any Barbie lover!

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A fitting ode to Barbie! It has just the right amount of written pictures to be a light coffee table book.

I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity.

The author has done a thorough and excellent job of telling the history of Ruth Handlers Barbie doll.

The photos included in this book make this book a fun and entertaining read.

#Barbie #NetGalley

Robin Gerber's "Barbie" details the history and importance of Barbie for girls and women empowerment.

Great time for this book to pair with the phenomenon of the new movie. I loved learning more.

This was such an interesting read! From the hype of the movie I figured I would check this one out. It was really cool to learn about Barbie's overall history. I you're a fan of Barbie in any way, I would recommend giving this a read!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC. The book is due for release this April

I’ve been a Barbie fan and collector since childhood, so it’s no surprise I loved this book. I enjoyed the in-depth look into Barbie history. The gorgeous photos were so much fun to look at - the nostalgia! Last year’s Barbie movie reinvigorated my love for the doll and this took that love a step further. Definitely recommend.

I guess I knew a lot more about the hx of Barbie than I thought, so it was the photos that drew my interest more than the text. That said, the whole work left me a little bummed out b/c Modern Barbie is so cheap, frumpy, and dull. I'm a child of the Superstar Era and my Best Day Ever (tm) was my 8th birthday where my stepmom made a special evening of just the two of us and I got my Style Magic Whitney. I still have her and she's holding up better than anything made in the last 20 years.

That difference in quality is what makes the shift from classic and click-knee dolls to the flimsy crud clogging store shelves today so jarring. It's very obvious in these photos that Barbie isn't as smart, pretty, or fun as she used to be. Mattel is jangling keys (diversity! body type!) at buyers and cutting costs everywhere they can.

And, as a quick aside, since the book didn't address this: If Mattel is sooooo proud of Fat Barbie (she's gorgeous, I love her) then why can't she wear more of the clothes? How come she can't wear any of the shoes except those cannibalized off other Fat Barbies? The last thing in the world a chubby kid needs is to go play Barbies with her friends and have a doll that like her can't share clothes and accessories with friends? How alienating is that? **BUT** I also want to point out that Fat Barbie can wear A LOT of Naughty Old Barbie's clothes. While Millie and her horse-faced pals dress in garishly patterned ugly smocks and plastic rags, Fat Barbie is in the Dance Magic dress/Happy Holidays dresses/Hawaiian Fun Bikini and having the time of her life. She shouldn't be trapped at home on Saturday nights b/c she's too big to fit into anything. That makes me think that Mattel is using her as a way to remind Big Grrrls to stay in their lane and stop polluting the visual landscape of socially acceptable skinny minnies.

My cousin always had a large amount of Barbies and all the accessories when we were growing up and to this day still collects special ones. While I played with her Barbies, I did not know any of the history. Even as an adult I only knew a small amount of Barbie history until I read this book. If you want a deep dive into Barbie history this book will check that box.

Any easy to read book with Sooo many sketches, old ad pics, the plethora of Barbie creations (how and why)over the years, boundary breaking stories, and how the art world adopted her, this has something for everyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

“The genius of Barbie has always been that she is what her fans make her.” This quote perfectly encapsulates Robin Gerber’s book, as well as Ruth Handler’s concept for the Barbie doll. As a lifelong Barbie fan, I loved this detailed look into the history and legacy of the Barbie doll! I could go on and on about my own experiences with the Barbie brand, but I enjoyed learning about the creation of the doll, how the Barbie brand has evolved over the years, and everyone who has played a role in the life of Barbie. If you’ve been enjoying the nostalgia of Barbie since the 2023 movie, this is the book for you!