Brief History & Mission Statement

Mission Statement
"My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”  -Ruth Handler (The creator of the Barbie Doll)

Brief History

Ruth (Co-Founder of Mattel/ Created the first barbie dolls) Handler and husband Elliot Handler (Co-Founder of Mattel) 

Ruth and Elliot Handler founded the most well-known toy company in the world, Mattel Creations in 1945. The idea for the barbie doll first came up on Ruth's mind that same year inspired by watching her young daughter Barbera and friends play paper dolls. These girls would use them as make-believe adult or teenagers then make-up their roles as cheerleaders, college students, and even adults with careers. That is when Ruth immediately realized children who create these pretend roles as grown-ups is an important part of becoming older. She also wanted to change the traditional niche of three dimensional dolls of babies and toddlers around the time. Fourteen years of designs later Mattel finally released the brand new teen-aged fashion model at the annual Toy Fair seen for the very first time May 9, 1959. Ever since then, Barbie is still finding new ways to inspire girls from one generation to the next with a long professional resume along with large social network around the world.
Information from http://www.barbiemedia.com/about-barbie/history.html