Little girls love Barbie dolls. When I was young, my sisters and I shared an entire playroom full of Barbie dolls and everything that goes along with them. I don’t think a girl’s love for Barbies ever really goes away. To this day, when I’m at the toy store, while my son browses the Wii games, I always sneak over to the pink Barbie section to check out the new stuff.
Did you know that you can get a very good feel for how the trends in society are evolving by watching the new Barbie dolls that are manufactured each year? It’s true. Barbie (her full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts) has been around since 1959 and has had 126 careers. When I was young, the dolls were always very conservative, with clothes and careers appropriate for women at that time.
Barbie’s newest career though is none other than a computer engineer! Wow, have times changed. I was excited when I found this out because I remember years ago, Barbie dolls were programmed to say, “Math is tough,” which always offended me.
As this article in the New York Times explains, Barbie fans got to choose her career this time, and they chose to make her a geek, complete with glasses and a laptop. To me, this is the final affirmation needed to prove that being a geek is cool and attractive. I’m very happy about this, now if they would just make her with a regular girl sized waist, we’d be all set!
Below are some of my favorite Barbie dolls from throughout the years. I hope these pictures give you a very happy and playful walk down memory lane. Of course, I placed the newest Barbie, my favorite of all, the geek, as the first one!
Thank you for the great pictures!
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1883083,00.html
http://collectdolls.about.com/od/barbiemodern/ig/2007-Collectible-Barbie-Dolls/
