Now, at the age of 65, Barbie has taken over the Design Museum, filling its galleries with a behind-the-scenes look into the creation of her pink plastic universe.
If you're still reeling from the tidal wave of Barbiemania unleashed by last summer's hit film, don't turn away just yet. This exhibition delves deeper than Greta Gerwig's movie, exploring the fashion, architecture, design and body-image stories behind the world's most popular doll.
It is a 29cm-tall tale of shifting attitudes to women's career choices, domestic tastes, waist-tohip ratios, furniture fads, hairstyles and more, as viewed through the savvy eyes of America's most cunning marketeers.
It shows how pre-teen aspiration has been cleverly honed, manufactured, packaged and monetised. And it reveals the unlikely influence that Barbara Millicent Roberts has had on the world around us.
If our homes are a reflection of ourselves, there is nothing more revealing of Barbie's inner psyche than the evolution of her Dreamhouse. The first was launched in 1962, three years after Barbie appeared, as a canny way to get people to buy more accessories.
But it also became a powerful symbol of independence. At a time when women were denied mortgage applications on the basis of their sex or marital status in the US, Barbie owned her own home, complete with a carrying handle.
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