芭比娃娃的故事要从1959年讲起。Ruth Handler，芭比娃娃的创始人注意到自己的女儿Barbara喜欢玩一些纸质的玩偶，并把这些玩偶想象成为各种人物。Ruth意识到，玩具市场上销售的都是婴儿玩偶，也许小女孩们需要一个玩偶来激发自己的灵感，思考长大后成为怎样的人物。这就是芭比娃娃产生最初的想法。紧接着，这些十几岁的时尚模特产生了，Ruth将这些玩偶以自己女儿的名字命名为：芭比（Barbie）。

Charlotte Johnson，芭比娃娃第一个时尚设计师所有的灵感都是来自于巴黎的时尚界。60年代，芭比娃娃发型的灵感则是来自于美国第一夫人——Jacqueline Kennedy。娃娃的设计随时间逐渐进步，不仅可以随意扭动腰部，腿部也能够弯曲。

到了70年代，芭比娃娃成为美国流行明星，不仅继承了巴黎时尚的造型，同样也有其他的造型，如当时流行的海滩造型。第一届官方芭比娃娃大会于1980年召开，同时，芭比娃娃还推出了黑人娃娃和西班牙娃娃，国际系列娃娃自此上市。

90年代，芭比娃娃的设计来自于全球各个伟大的时装设计师，如Christian Dior、Vera Wang等。2000年以后，芭比娃娃的设计越来越多，不仅推出了时尚芭比系列，还推出了好莱坞电影明星系列。

by Heather Phares
Since 1959, Barbie has been everything from an astronaut to a veterinarian, and her image has graced lunch boxes, makeup, coloring books, and everything in between, so it was only a matter of time before Mattel's plastic queen ventured into pop music. The first album attributed to Barbie was 1991's The Look, a collection of pop songs from the time covered by session musicians. Barbie fell silent until 1998's Beyond Pink, which is credited to Barbie and her friends Teresa and Christie and features original songs that sound inspired by the Spice Girls and other acts from the late '90s teen pop boom. It was in the early 2000s that Barbie music really took off, with a number of soundtracks to Barbie animated movies being released. Barbie Hit Mix and Barbie Hit Mix 2, Kidz Bop-like collections of kids singing along to pop songs, were also issued. The movie Barbie: Fairytopia was turned into a theatrical production, Barbie Live in Fairytopia; its original cast recording arrived in 2007.