But of course, she didn't just come out of the blue. This is her story:

1945- Mattel was founded by Harold Mattson (Matt) and Ruth and Elliot (El) Handler. They started with producing gift items and via costume jewelry they ended up at gift items and dollhouse furniture. The toy company was born, producing mainly toy guns and musical toys.

Ruth saw her daughter playing with paper fashion dolls and came up with the idea to produce a 3D version of this wonderful toy.

1956- Switzerland- Ruth finds Lilli in Lucerne. Lilli was created by the German Greiner & Hausser company after a comic strip from Reinhard Beuthin in the German newspaper 'Bild Zeitung'. This cartoon featured a blonde bombshell who was always after wealthy men. She was offered in an 11 1/2" and a 7" size.

After Mattel bought the rights to produce such a fashiondoll in the U.S., they went into business with the Kokusai Boeki company with as subcontracter Pony ltd. in Japan.

Now it was time to dress the famous fashion model and give her a decent wardrobe, Charlotte Johnson was the first ever designer for Barbie doll.

Ruth and Elliot Handler had a daughter named Barbara (Barbie, Babs were her nicknames) and a son named Kenneth (Ken). Barbie was named after Barbara, because she was the inspiration for creating the doll. Ken was of course named after Kenneth.