UPDATE: The winner is…Pansy Petal!
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In honor of National Barbie Day, I’m sharing my Barbie experience, and I’d love to hear about yours!
My parents didn’t have much, but we kids never knew it. I had a couple of Barbies, and my mom made me a Barbie case full of Barbie clothes to play with. Not that Barbie was huge for me for very long. I preferred the library and learning about plate tectonics, dinosaurs, quasars, and ancient civilizations. Yes, I was a science book nerd. I even kept my own personal set of encyclopedias—notebooks with handwritten book reports about the topics I loved. I mean, what kid doesn’t write an article about volcanoes and tar pits and the like? But there were still Barbies. My mom even used to make Barbie Birthday Cakes with a Barbie stuck in the middle with a skirt of frosting!
Now, I’m lucky I still have a child in the house. A girl-child, at that. She’s ten now, and caught between loving biographical and historical books (she loves WWII stories) and her love of Squishmallows and Barbies. In fact, the one gift she wanted from Santa this past year was a Barbie Dream House. Thankfully, he brought her one. 🙂
She has a huge collection of dolls–some gifted new, and some “treasures” she’s found at flea markets, a trunk full of Barbie clothes, and a rolling plastic cart that holds accessories. She’s not spoiled at all.
So, you know, this past summer, the Barbie movie was high on our list of movies to see in the theater. We did the whole “Barbenheimer thing” (I even have the T-shirt!)—the adults seeing Oppenheimer on a Thursday afternoon, and then all the girls, my daughter, the 19-year-old, the 15-year-old, the 10-year-old, and I saw Barbie on Saturday. We loved it! And to a person, our favorite scene in the movie was the “I’m Just Ken” musical number. If you haven’t seen it, take a look here. Ryan Gosling was truly born for the role.
I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday! Do something that gives you joy!
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me about your “Barbie” experience.
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I bought Barbies for my kids. My daughter kept cutting off their foot, because she is missing hers and the other girls got upset.
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Original Barbie and lots of homemade clothes that my mom had made for me as she didn’t sew. Do I still have it nope it was played with hard and when I grew up it was probably given to a little girl that would not have had a Barbie if my parents hadn’t given it away.
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I had to grow up very fast and didn’t get the chance to really play as a kid. So as an adult with zero children my husband and I are enjoying having the toys we couldn’t have as kids. And our “collections” are massive
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Never had a Barbie moment. Never had a Barbie. Never wanted one. We played outdoors as kids–in the dirt, in the woods, in the creek. Made swords and bows and arrows. We chipped slate into arrowheads. That wasn’t a Barbie thing. Ken was a wimp. Now the original GI Joe (also 12″ tall). That was the doll to have. Him, and his cheaper colleague, Stoney Smith.
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I had the Barbie with frizzy black hair and dark skin, so I could pretend she was Black. We had no Ken doll so teddy bears and other toys played that role. I also had Barbie’s sister, Skipper and a pink convertible.
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My favorite Barbie was a gift from my grandma… she gave me a Midge one. Also had Derek… was never a fan of Ken.
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I wasn’t much of a Barbie girl. My daughter liked to collect them at yard sales and then try to dress them up pretty.
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didn’t have one
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I haven’t seen the Barbie movie yet (or Oppenheimer), but I will eventually. I had several containers of Barbie’s I had from the 60’s – I played with them, my niece played with them, and last year I cleaned them all up, mended where needed, and gave them to my great-niece.
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I was about 5 or six when I got my first Barbie for Christmas. I had no clue who, or what Barbie was, she was that new on the market. Due to a divorce and remarriage, I had an extra set of grandparents. On holidays, we visited each in turn. The year I got Barbie, we started at my dad’s parents. I got a lovely cigar box full of small doll clothes. How nice. I didn’t have a doll these would fit. Next was my mother’s mother. I received a doll case with accessories – shoes, purses, clothes hangers and a couple outfits. Again nice, but I don’t have a doll that fits. The last grandparents, my mother’s father, I got a couple of gifts. Being young, I opened the largest one first. Another box of clothes, for a doll I didn’t have. Buy this time I was very frustrated. I was taught to be thankful for whatever we receive. But really? I was in tear by now. What was I going to do with all these doll clothes too small for any of the baby dolls I had? Finally, the very last package I opened was the doll. All was well again. Turned out that not only was among the first in class at school to get a Barbie, mine was also the best dressed doll in school. All those grandmas who could sew and knit.
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I had several a barbies and the plane which I took great care of but my mother made me give them to my little sister when she thought I was too old for them and she destroyed them! She had more of the accessories than I did like the camper, house and the box for the clothes and shoes. What my sister didn’t destroy then my mother sold them in a yard sale.
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Never had a Barbie or any other doll.
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I had three Barbies, a Skipper, and. couple Ken dolls, along with 3 Barbie cases of clothes that were mostly made by my aunt. Played with a couple, the rest stayed put away. When I was about 15, I gave them to my 4 year old cousin who did not have dolls. Her and her little friends played with them for a few years until most turned up missing a few at a time ( she still believes it was one of her friends taking things a little at a time).
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We always wanted a Barbie, but we didn’t have a lot of money. We did get a hand-me-down one who’d been given a pretty brutal haircut. My sister and I created a lot of outfits that involved hats or kerchiefs 🙂
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My Aunt Mary showed me her original Barbie and collection. I lost the few things I saved up for on one of my moves. I love going to garage sales. I had one horse.
My goal is to create my own homemade version of a barbie house for free and fun by being creative. I always wanted one of those.
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I grew up playing with Barbies. I wish that I still had them all. I still collect some of the collective ones.
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The winner is Pansy! The story of the torture she received from her relatives one Christmas was just too funny!