Barbie turns 50

Washington, March 9: Today is Barbie’s 50th birthday and the world joins together in wishing this famous cultural icon a very 'Happy Birthday'. Celebrations will be held to mark Barbie’s half-century today.

A famous cultural icon, Barbie Millicent Roberts was created nearly half a century ago by Ruth Handler in 1959 at the New York Toy Fair. And she still shows no signs of aging, or for that matter, becoming less popular. Despite a large variety of electronic toys flooding the market, young girls still have a fancy for their Barbie. She is, indeed, still ‘every little girl’s dream come true’.

“It's their favorite toy,” exclaims Christie Nelson of Batavia whose three little princesses, Brooke, Ashley and Carly, have a wide collection of Barbies with them. And the Diamond Castle series happens to be their current favorite.

“You can pretend you're a lot of things,” said 6-year-old Brooke. The youngest of three siblings, 4-year-old Carly, is happy that her sister does not play with the Diamond Castle Alexa doll, which happens to be Carly’s favorite. “She doesn't really play with them, so now I get to!” said a beaming Carly.

The iconic fashion doll has more than one reason to celebrate the occasion in style. In spite of having endured numerous conflicts and baseless criticism of feminists and becoming the subject of lawsuits, Barbie is, today, without a wrinkle on her face.

A voice-mail message from Jill Robertson Toledo, a 49-year-old mother from Cleveland, says it all. “I know Barbie gets a lot of flak from feminists for her body, but she was invented by a woman, Ruth Handler, and at a time when not many women were in business for themselves.

And think of Barbie's theme song: 'We girls can do anything with Barbie.' They could do so much more with Barbie than a baby doll, which you could only change and feed.”

Barbie has adorned different looks and styles over the years. The first Barbie dolls wore high-heeled sandals along with black & white swimming costume while today’s Barbie is a blonde.

“Barbie has always represented that a woman has choices…I believe the choices Barbie represents helped the doll catch on initially, not just with daughters, who would one day make up the first major wave of women in management and professionals, but also with mothers,” stated the proud creator, Ruth Handler.

From being an ambassador, a gymnast, a flight attendant, an astronaut, a NASCAR driver, a baby sitter to a doctor, she has fashioned numerous careers in her journey of 50 years. She teaches girls that they can follow their dreams of becoming anything from an astronaut to even the president.

“Barbie was an astronaut four years before men landed on the moon. She was a doctor, too. She could be anything you wanted her to be. Think of those girls in the '50s and '60s who played with Barbie, and how so many grew up to have careers in the '80s and '90s. You have to think that maybe Barbie wasn't such a bad thing,” stated Toledo.

With more than 1 billion Barbie dolls sold worldwide, she will continue to grow more popular in the years to come. Barbie has been a fashion icon for long and will continue to inspire cute little princesses the world over.