Golden Years

Jasmine Sanders, aka Golden Barbie, proves she’s much more than meets the eye.

- Thomas Freeman

Nothing feels artificial about Jasmine Sanders, except maybe her nickname. Many know the rising model, famous for her bronze skin and flaxen hair, as Golden Barbie. It’s a moniker Jasmine and her sister coined on a whim. “It kind of stuck with me. It was supposed to just be for Twitter and Instagram, nothing serious,” she tells Maxim. “I had a lot of friends who used to call me a Barbie Doll, and one of my teachers used to always call me Goldilocks because of my curly hair. Somehow [my sister and I] came up with Golden Barbie, and it stuck.”

Jasmine, 28, does indeed have the blue eyes and radiant smile of a Barbie Doll come to life. Her Instagram feed, a confection of Moschino looks and bikini photoshoots with 3.5 million followers, is only missing a Dreamhouse. Still, Jasmine does not speak with the squeaky cheeriness one attributes to her namesake. Her voice is gravelly, and her tone is easygoing. She tells it like it is. Her jawline is stronger than that of the iconic doll, and her physique is more athletic. She is also biracial, the daughter of a German mother and an African-American father. They raised her in South Carolina, not Malibu. People may see a life-size Barbie at first blush, but Jasmine is no piece of plastic.

“I really wanted people to attach Jasmine Sanders to my name instead of just Golden Barbie,” she says of realizing her Instagram handle’s staying power. “I tried to change it, and everybody still called me Golden Barbie. They got angry, so I changed it back. She will forever be Golden Barbie… I’m proud of it [now]. It’s fine. I’ll take it.”