Born: 4 November 1916, United States
Died: 27 April 2002
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler is best-known as the creator of the Barbie doll, named for her daughter, as well as Barbie’s male counterpart Ken, named for Handler’s son. Born in 1916, she and her husband started Mattel in their garage in 1939. But it would be 20 years before Handler, inspired by German Bild Lilli dolls which were in turn based on a comic strip, released the first Barbie doll in 1959. Although the company had been successful, Barbie was a runaway success, earning more than a billion dollars in sales over her first three decades. Within five years, the Saturday Evening Post reported that Barbie products supported 5,000 workers in Japan and 800 in California, as well as press agents and advertising executives. The company received 20,000 fan letters a week and by 1968, the Barbie Fan Club had 1.5 million members in the U.S.
Like many people, cancer caused a turning point in Handler’s life. She lost confidence, a breast, and control of the company as a result of her illness in the early 1970s. During this period, Mattel came under investigation for financial crimes and was fined; in 1975, Handler was forced out of the company she had founded. But for all the cancer took from her, it also gave her a new purpose. Unable to find a decent breast prosthesis, she decided to make her own, founding a new company called Nearly Me to help thousands of women in her position. In the early 1980s, Handler told a reporter, “When I conceived Barbie, I believed it was important to a little girl’s self-esteem to play with a doll that has breasts. Now I find it even more important to return that self-esteem to women who have lost theirs.”