To celebrate the sixty-fifth anniversary of the world’s most popular doll of all time, Barbie has partnered with Assouline to create a book following her fascinating history.

Barbie, created by Mattel founder Ruth Handler, defied the conventions of the 1950s, disintegrating this idea that a woman could only be a wife and a mother. Handler, a game-changing feminist visionary, wanted the Barbie to have an identity outside of her family. Assouline’s Barbie will comprehensively explore the Barbie’s evolution from 1959 to the present, using interesting facts, insights, and never-before-seen imagery to track the history and identity that makes Barbie.

With a cover fabricated in signature Barbiecore colored silk and words written by bestselling author and coauthor Susan Shapiro,  Assouline’s Barbie parallels sixty-five years of cultural, political, and sociological moments. Before Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly to space, Barbie had already become an astronaut in 1965. During the midst of the civil rights movement in 1968, Barbie had an African American friend Christie. Barbie became president in 1992, although we continue to wait for that to happen.

Today, Barbie has held over 250 careers with over a billion Barbie dolls purchased worldwide, offered in an array of diverse nationalities, ethnicities and body types and has continued to encouraged girls and women everywhere to follow through with their fantasies, whether it be becoming a doctor, an Olympic gold medalist, or a rock star. With the book containing historical insight into Barbie’s impact on the landscape of pop culture, with the addition of a never-before-seen image of the first-ever Barbie as the book’s cover among many other unreleased snaps of the doll herself, actor Margot Robbie who notably played the blonde icon in the summer blockbuster hit Barbie by Greta Gerwig provides a special quote alongside a photo of her from the film’s opening scene.

Assouline’s Barbie is now available for purchase on assouline.com.

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