I want to know the introduction of Ruth Handler, the "mother of Barbie".

Ruth Handler was born in Denver, the capital of Colorado. Her parents were originally Polish, in order to

Ruth Handler

Escape from military service, like countless immigrants who came to the United States to find their dreams, took a hot and dirty steamboat and came to the other side of the ocean.

Ruth's father is a blacksmith and supports Ruth and her nine sisters on a small income. Her mother worked hard for her family all day, but the hardships of life didn't seem to bring much harm to this big family. Mom and dad never lose their temper with their children. Later, Ruth Handler once recalled that as the youngest child, she never lacked love when growing up. It is because there is so much love from childhood that she will have childlike innocence and design a lovely Barbie doll.

/kloc-When she was 0/9 years old, Ruth was only a sophomore. She is not tall, but full of curiosity. Curious about movies, she came to Hollywood alone, but she came to this tempting place not to be a movie star, but to study industrial design. Luckily, she got a job in the famous Paramount photo studio. Here, she met the love of her life, Elliot Handler. They soon fell in love and got married. 1942, ambitious Handler and his wife started their company in a garage. The original product was a wooden frame, Elliot developed the sample and Ruth was responsible for the sales.

By chance, Handler tried to make small furniture from the waste left over from making picture frames and found that it sold well, so the company added another business to design and manufacture furniture for children's playrooms. A few years later, the company began to make money, and its main business turned to producing toys. 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Handler and their friend Manson started a company, which later became the most famous and successful doll production company. The name of this company is Mattel.

), MATT is named after Manson, and EL is named after Elliot.

At that time, Ruth had a daughter. As a mother and a businessman who makes toys, she attaches great importance to children's ideas. One day, she suddenly saw her daughter Barbara and a little boy playing with paper-cut dolls. These paper-cut dolls were not common babies at that time, but teenagers with their own careers and identities, which made her very addicted. "Why not be a mature doll?" Inspiration came into Ruth's mind.

Although inspired, the journey to realize it is arduous. Before Barbie was born, most little girls' toys in the American market were cute little angels, round and chubby, similar to the screen image of the famous child star Shirley Temple. This is an adult's imagination of children's toys, but judging from the interest of older children, this kind of toys is slightly "naive".

What they need is a playmate of the same age, not a baby.

What do you want your doll to look like? Ruth thought hard. Just then, she needed to go to Europe on business, so Ruth came to Germany. Here, she saw a doll named "Lily", which was very beautiful. It was first made in 1955, and it was based on a famous cartoon image in the beard in the West German era. Lily is made of hard plastic with a height of 18 ~ 30 cm. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail and dragged behind her head, wearing a gorgeous dress. The figure is impeccable, all kinds of signs are available, and the clothes are also "exposed".

So Ruth bought three "lilies" and brought them back to America. She told male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a "mature" toy, but they thought that "Lily" clothes were too revealing, which was the product of satisfying male fantasies and not suitable for children.

Ruth was not discouraged. She thought, why can't I combine these two points? What a child needs is a doll that grows up but is not exposed. A little girl needs not only a doll of the same age, but also an ideal image when she grows up. As a result, Barbie's appearance became more and more mature in Ruth's mind. With the help of company technicians and engineers, Barbie was born!

Out of concern for women, Ruth then invited fashion designer Charlotte Johnson to design clothes for Barbie. 1958, they obtained the patent right to produce Barbie dolls. This kind of doll will change an era. She is different from the previous doll. She is an adult, with slender limbs, fresh and moving. Although he has a good figure, he is tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, and his face is as mysterious as Marilyn Monroe's, although his height is only 1 1.5 inches. Finally, Ruth gave her daughter Barbara a nickname "Barbie" for this lovely doll.

The first batch of Barbie dolls were produced in Japan and made their debut at the American Toy Fair on 1959. The name of the exhibition is "Barbie-a role model for girls". But to Ruth's surprise, "Barbie" was not snapped up, but was given a cold shoulder by toy dealers. After all, she is a brand-new thing and an adventure, and the dealers are reluctant to do so, but they just managed to get in a few.

But the market proved that Ruth's judgment was correct. Barbie doll in the corner of the dealer's shelf was warmly welcomed by the children. More and more people began to buy this fresh and gratifying toy, especially the little girl, who was very enthusiastic about it and sold 350,000 toys in the first year.

1960, the dealer completely changed his mind and the order flew to Mattel like a snowflake. It took the company several years to meet the demand for Barbie dolls. 10, the amount of Barbie dolls purchased by the public reached 500 million dollars. However, while Barbie is widely welcomed by the public, it has also been criticized from all sides. American women's organizations first said that Barbie was too sexy and perfect, and set unattainable goals for the little girl. The final result is to hurt their self-esteem and make them feel inferior to their appearance and figure, so she is not a symbol of women's liberation, but plays the role of "persecuting women". Ruth doesn't think so. Barbie is a girl's idol. Idols are naturally perfect, and little girls will not feel inferior because of idols.

To prove that Barbie is not a vase with an empty heart, but a professional woman. Ruth designed more kinds of Barbie dolls. She has more identities, such as a doctor, an astronaut, a businesswoman, a policeman, an athlete and even a UNICEF volunteer. So far, she has engaged in more than 80 occupations. She can be China, Indian or black, and she represents 45 nationalities. She has more than 40 kinds of pets now. The first pet was a horse named Dancer. She has a boyfriend "Ken", named after Ruth's son. She has three sisters herself, namely Qiao Bi listed on 1964, Stacy listed on 1992, and Little Kelly who appeared on 1995.

This is an ordinary toy, but it is so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful and a "thousand-faced girl". On the other hand, she is so close to us because she has her own preferences like any little girl.

Opposition will still ring, but as a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to Mattel's statistics, an American girl of 1 1 may have 10 Barbie dolls, while a French girl of the same age has five. Besides children, millions of adult women also buy Barbie. "To them, no matter how old they are, she is not just a doll," Ruth said. "She has become a part of them." Barbie collectors are even more gender-neutral: a Barbie doll that costs $3 for 1959, if well preserved, may now be worth $5,000.