The makers of 'Barbie' shared her real first and last name and people are shook
We used to play with her, Aqua wrote a song about her, and at one point, we all thought that she embodied womanly perfection. Yes, in all of her iterations, the humble Barbie doll has followed us from childhood into early adolescence. However, Mattel's creation has faced a great deal of backlash in recent years. Barbie has long been accused of promoting an unhealthy body image, what with her impossibly tiny waist, skeletal frame and stick thin legs. In fact, critics have asserted that if Barbie were a real-life woman, she wouldn't even be capable of menstruating given her proportions.
The company behind the popular children's toy has endeavoured to update the doll, however, and has brought Barbie more in line with society as it stands today. In her biggest update since 1959, Mattel unveiled three new body types, all of which are more representative of a healthy, everyday woman. They feature buxom busts, curvy hips, plump stomachs and in some models, even hormonal acne and stretch marks.
But while the Barbie that we know and love has undergone such dramatic transformations of late, it appears that we didn't know her as well as we thought. Certainly, the internet was recently stunned to discover Barbie's real first and last name.
For years, we have just known Barbie as simply Barbie - but prepare to have your plastic fantastic worlds blown, folks - as it appears that everyone's favourite playmate has a full name after all - and it is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Upon hearing this news, the internet found itself divided. Some were up-in-arms about the discovery, while others were quick to inform the entirety of Twitter that they already had deep and intrinsic knowledge of Barbie's name, her ever-revolving coterie of friends, and even the finer details about her turbulent relationship with Ken.
"Barbara Millicent Roberts — get with it people!" one social media user wrote, while another asserted "I didn’t realize Barbie had such strong stans that use Twitter I’m sorry for questioning your Queen’s legal name omg"
A third individual added, "I used to have a barbie book as a kid her full name is barbara millicent roberts lmao a great teen name".
Others asserted that Barbie was actually named after the creator's daughter. "Close! She was actually named after the creators daughter Barbara Handler."
The internet also had some questions and concerns about Barbie's sisters, or lack thereof. I mean, over the years it does feel like Barbie has had many sisters - many of which have mysteriously disappeared.
"The real question is, when did she get sisters besides Kelly," one Twitter user wrote, while another added that she's had "Stacie ( anstasia), skipper and Chelsea are her sisters .. Chelsea replaced kelly and kelly became Stacie [...] She used to have twin younger siblings (until like 1970) called tutti and todd".
Well, there you have it folks - not only does Barbie have a problematic history, but she also had a past that we were all completely unaware of.