Barbie has been a household name for little girls since its release in March 1959. The credit for the dolls creation goes to an American named Ruth Handler. She got the idea for the doll when she noticed most dolls at the time were representative of infants, even though she saw her own children playing with their own paper dolls by giving them adult roles and thought that there might be a market
. gap she could fill. She pitched the idea to her husband Elliot Handler who was co-founder of the Mattel toy company, and he then brought it to his board of directors but they were not too excited about the idea.The original barbie was marketed as a teenage fashion doll, with interchangeable clothes designed by Mattel and sold separately. The first dolls were produced in Japan with the clothes being handmade by Japanese homeworkers and sold 350,000 dolls in the first year. Barbie was one of the first toys to have an almost exclusive television marketing strategy and since then has been the marketing style of choice for many toys. It has been estimated that over a billion dolls have been sold and they continue to sell strongly today.Nowadays Barbie remains the top choice of little girls everywhere, and has become so much more than just a doll. There are play sets, bikes, videos and even entire parties can be thrown with everything having Barbie or her name on it. Some people even download the font used on Barbie toys and accessories called barbie at http://fonts101.com/fonts/view/Brandname/40297/Barbie.aspx and make their own cards and party favors for their children's parties. Barbie has been a powerhouse in the toy industry since her inception a little over half a century ago and shows no signs of dying out any time soon. More reference links: http://barbiestyle.barbie.com/history.aspx http://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Barbie-Doll-History.html
