You Don't Own Me: The Court Battles That Exposed Barbie's Dark Side

by Orly Lobel

“Inspiration can really come from anywhere. It can come from something you see or a magazine, book, people on the street.” It can, of course, come from a combination of all these things.

For the first time, girls were imagining themselves as the doll, not the caretaker.

They dressed Barbie in high fashion, made up a busy social life, and dreamed about growing up to be her. Barbie guided these girls to adulthood.

and in fact could also now find an outlet for their imagination and dreams.

From the beginning, Mattel positioned Barbie as a real person, not a doll. Barbara Millicent Roberts had a story and a life. She had careers and prospects. She had family, friends, a boyfriend, then a husband, and then an ex-husband.

In the first Barbie commercial a woman sang: “Someday, I’m gonna be ‘xactly like you / Til then I know just what I’ll do / Barbie, beautiful Barbie, I’ll make believe that I am you.”

For 40 years Barbie was the only doll in town. And then Bratz came in and knocked her off her pedestal. —MGA AT TRIAL

Anais Nin, who said, “My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.”

We find that when creators do not receive some stake over their talent, their motivation and performance are significantly depressed.