The official name of Barbie is Barbara Millicent Roberts! Barbie is simply her nickname!

Barbie is generally one of the most ICONIC toys ever created and her name has become synonymous with the word "doll"! She is also one of the most inspiring individuals because she is BOTH a model AND an astronaut AND a nuclear physicist, she has completed ALL the Universities and Technical Institutes, and all this with a dysfunctional plastic neck.

Until Barbie was "invented", the only dolls that existed in the market were mainly baby dolls! About sixty years ago, American Ruth Handler noticed that her daughter was playing with her paper dolls and giving them more adult roles!

For example, she pretended that her doll was a firefighter, went shopping, picked olives, patiently waited in line at the supermarket, etc. In this way, Ruth thought that the market was missing a doll that was not necessarily a baby (like most dolls until then) but had more adult characteristics! So, after a trip to Germany in 1956, Ruth saw a doll that existed at that time in the German market, the Bild Lilli (see in the comments how this doll looked!). Ruth bought one of these German "adult" dolls, brought it to the USA, and using Bild Lilli as inspiration, she created Barbie! (she named her after her daughter, Barbara!). The first Barbie was released in 1959 by the toy company Mattel, co-founded by Ruth's husband. (see in the comments how the first Barbie looked!)

FUN FACT

One of those first Barbie dolls that came out back then in the market can now cost over $25,000! Barbie was an immediate success and as you can understand her German friend Bild Lilli dragged her to court for copyright infringement, but Barbie has also brought legal Komotini so the phase ended bloodlessly.

In fact, Barbie was one of the first toys to use television as a marketing strategy! Although Barbie has been criticized many times for reproducing the stereotype that women should all be white, blonde, and thin - now Mattel produces dolls in all colors and shapes for everyone to identify with! - she also brought a revolution to the world of toys! Barbie is the first doll designed and intended for girls (although obviously all children can play with dolls) that could have other cool roles like a dentist, a politician, etc.

Until then, dolls only had the quality of a baby that all you could do was take care of them! Ok, and that's cool, but on the other hand, it's SO beautiful for companies to give other stimuli to girls through toys beyond the concept of housewives-mothers. There is a phase called "THE BARBIE SYNDROME"! People who have this "syndrome" have made it their life goal to resemble Barbie as much as possible. Something that of course cannot be achieved 100%, because the body of the classic Barbie is anatomically impossible to achieve on a human scale!

Cool Fact 

Barbie's friend, Ken, also got his name from Ruth's son, Kenneth! 
It is estimated that over 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold since they were introduced to the market! (Almost one seventh of the world's population!)
 Additionally, a Barbie doll is purchased every 3 seconds! This means that by the time you read this post, approximately 600 Barbies have already been sold!