Would you buy Barbies for your children?

"No... she is a terrible representation of an actual person. I want my children to grow to love how they turn out not grow up constantly disappointed that they aren't as "beautiful" as Barbie."


-Loraine, 19, Caucasian, heterosexual, female from the United States 

When did you stop playing with Barbies? Why did you stop?

"[W]ell I stopped playing with barbies when my best friend became interested in Bratz about 7 or 8 years ago, and then we collected and played with Bratz instead"


-Jeanie, 19, Caucasian, pansexual/questioning, female from Canada

Would you buy Barbies for your children?

"If they wanted them, sure. Though not if i really disapproved of the particular model for any reason. Because thinking about my childhood, I just wanted one to fit in with the other girls and play dress up, and that's harmless enough."


-Emma, 20, Caucasian, heterosexual female from the UK 

Did you ever cut Barbie's hair?

"I did cut my Barbies hair. I always regretted it afterwards because Barbie hair does not grow back (believe it or not!). I think that those dolls ended up being played with less unfortunately. Looking back on it, I should have embraced those dolls as my own creation and an extension of my own individuality BUT as a little kid I'm sure I just thought, 'Oh shoot now Barbie isn't as pretty and her hair is all spiky, waaaah!'"


-Nancy, 23, Caucasian, heterosexual, female from the United States

Do you think Barbie is a good role model for children?

"Barbie's not a role model at all because she doesn't actually do anything. Barbie is a tool for a child's imagination, and in that definition, she should come in all sizes, colors, shapes, and occupations. Barbie allows a child to build their own role model. Unfortunately, the role model a kid can imagine is limited by the media, and what accessories the doll comes with."


-Marcie, 21, Caucasian, heterosexual female from the United States

How did other people influence the way you played Barbies?

"I never felt comfortable playing with toys when other people were around because a lot of it involved, like acting out conversations and whatnot, that I figured would've looked silly (talking to myself and whatnot) if someone else saw me."


-Addison, 20, Puerto Rican, gynesexual, androgynous individual from the United States 

"[M]y best friend and I had an on-going game of several barbie families, I rarely played alone"


-Jeanie, 19, Caucasian, pansexual/questioning, female from Canada

Do you think Barbie is a good role model for children?

"No! I don't look like that and I know that the majority of women don't look like that so why would I want my child to think she should look like that? If Barbie were a real person, she would be 6' 0", weigh 100 lbs., and wear a size 4. Her measurements would be 39"/19"/33. That is not healthy and not realistic."


-Loraine, 19, Caucasian, heterosexual, female from the United States

Has playing Barbies as a child affected who you are today?

"I don't think it has affected me in a positive or negative way really...except maybe helped me figure out my female body?"


-Nancy, 23, Caucasian, heterosexual, female from the United States

Do you still have any of your Barbies?

"The ones I ever played with were ones I stole out of my older sister's room I was always careful to put them away where she had them stored after awhile. She either still has them stored somewhere, or gave them as hand-me downs to our cousins, or Good-will or something. Neither of us really ever collected them, though. We just played with them. Most of them were hand-me-downs, too."


-Addison, 20, Puerto Rican, gynesexual, androgynous individual from the United States

What occupation did your favorite Barbie doll have?

"One of them was a vet but usually they were just full-time mothers."


-Tiffany, 23, Caucasian, heterosexual female from Britain

How did other people influence the way you played Barbies?

"When I played by myself by Barbies were usually naked! I remember my Barbies frequently having "sex" with eachother...or whatever my child mind thought sex was. I definitely did not do that with friends or my parents around."


-Nancy, 23, Caucasian, heterosexual, female from the United States 

Did you ever cut Barbie's hair?

"I never cut their hair but my sister cut one of my Barbies hair and I was very upset at her for it. After her hair was cut she became the ugly Barbie and I rarely played with her again unless I wanted to use her as a bad character."


-Tiffany, 23, white, heterosexual, female from Britain 

Do you think Barbie is a good role model for children?

"I think it depends largely on how they play with it. I think the way it's packaged and marketed isn't necessarily good image/role model for young girls (from what I've seen/heard about how they're marketed, I don't really remember alot about it, though)."


-Addison, 20, Puerto Rican, gynesexual, androgynous individual from The United States 

How did other people influence the way you played Barbies?

"My friends were freaked out by the bondage (I was always contriving some way to get them tied up-guys and girls alike) and crime related plots. My siblings were annoyed by my obsession with fantasy, insisting that wizardry and hobbits not be involved. Also, my father's failed attempt to get me to give up my favorite doll (who was black) and comments by some kids was something that influenced how I thought of racism (mainly that the doll was still as beautiful and perfect as ever, but that people were mean)."


-Reese, 22, White and Native American, genderqueer individual from the United States

"My best friend had the Barbie house. That had such a WOW factor!! Later on when we were around 16 an other friend and i started turning them into a creepy kind of deal. Like car crash Barbie. We didn't have much anger in us, but we did both feel, at that age especially, that it wasn't an icon we wanted to measure up to."


-Carly, 24, Caucasian, bisexual, female from the UK

Would you buy Barbies for your children?

"It's hard to say. I would like to say that I probably wouldn't, or that I'd have, like conditions or something. I'd like to think that I'd make sure to only give them toys that helped them, um, develop and whatnot, and that I'd try rather to make sure that whatever they played with had more of a creativity/individuality element to it, I guess. However, it is really hard to say for sure. You don't really know for sure what you will or won't do as a parent until you have a child, hold that child in your arms for the first time, etc. ...I wanna say that I know what I would or wouldn't get for them, but I could also see myself not being able to help but spoil the crap out of them. As far as I can speculate, though, I probably wouldn't get them Barbies."


-Addison, 20, Puerto Rican, gynesexual, androgynous individual from The United States

Did you ever cut Barbie's hair?

"One of my moms old dolls had short hair (which she'd cut when she was younger). In my Barbie world the others would beat her up. I was probably making up for being bullied myself."


-Carly, 24, Caucasian, bisexual, female from the UK

How did other people influence the way you played Barbies?

"I think I changed the way my friends played with them more than the other way around - I had crazy sex scenes with my Barbies, and got my friends into it too."


-Lily, 19, heterosexual, cis-gendered female from Canada 

Do you think Barbie is a good role model for children?

"No. While there are a vast number of careers that she has shown, the body issues and the consumerism inherent in buying into the Barbie Fandom is problematic."

-Ally, 25, Caucasian, bisexual, female from New Zealand

Did you ever cut Barbie's hair?

"I did not cut my Barbie's hair, though my best friend did to one of her Barbies. That particular one was also missing a leg (she had an older brother) and it became the Evil One in all our games. I remember being very disappointed with how tangled and matted Barbie's hair became."

- Ally, 25, Caucasian, bisexual, female from New Zealand

New Site

In my desperate struggle to diversify this project, I have turned to other blogging sites. While The Barbie Interviews home site is currently on Tumblr, this is now another space for people to read other folk's Barbie memories and to reminisce on their own childhood.

Basically, this site asks the question "How did you play with Barbie?" and uses these anecdotes to explore how our culture, societal structures and gender roles influenced our childhood games. Quite often these responses are very telling of our society's values and biases. I've been surprised by how quickly children--in particular, young women--come to understand these institutions, albeit subconsciously, and that this is often reflected in how they play with Mattel's iconic doll. While Barbie may represent society's unrealistic expectations for women, she is often seen very differently through the eyes of a child.

I hope that many new and interested people find this project now that it's available on blogger! I look forward to hearing how you played with Barbies.