The creation of Barbie.

      Since I'm taking an economics class, I figured eventually an assignment would come along that has to do with entrepreneurs and learning about them and their ideas and success. Sure enough, the assignment came along and we were given the option to choose an entrepreneur from a list to write about and reflect on. Being a girl, and having played with Barbie dolls up until I was 10 or so, I chose to research Ruth Handler.

       Ruth Handler was born Nov. 4, 1916 in Denver, Colorado. She was the youngest of 10 children in her family; born of Jacob Mosko and Ida Rubinstein who were Polish immigrants. She attended a public school and at nineteen she moved to Hollywood, California. She worked as a secretary for Paramount Studio but eventually moved back to Denver where she attended the University of Denver and married in Elliot Handler in 1938. Not too long after that, they moved back to California and formed their own company, with a business partner, called Elzac.

          Ruth Handler is most well known as the creator of the popular toy, Barbie. The idea came to her when her daughter, Barbara, was just reaching her pre-teen years, she noticed her daughter would play with paper dolls and give them roles of a grown woman. After a trip to Europe and coming across the Bild Lilli doll she decided she would redesign and recreate the doll for young girls to play with. She gave the doll the name Barbie, after her daughter. Despite her husband’s idea that it wouldn’t sell, she showed it off at a toy fair in New York and Barbie instantly became a hit.

          After reading a bit about Ruth Handler and the creation of Barbie I learned that if you have an idea and it seems like it will be successful, it’s definitely worth your time and efforts. Such a simple idea, in this case a doll for young girls to play with that was inspired by her daughter, became so successful that even 50 years later it’s still just as popular. Her husband and his business partner (they founded Mattel) told her that it wouldn’t sell but that didn’t stop her, she still went on to create it. It just goes to show that a simple idea and determination can go a long way.

   Now, aside from learning about her and how Barbie was created, in my lesson I learned that many successful entrepreneurs follow a simple acronym called HUNT. Hunt stands for Harness, Underestimate, Network, and Take; these are the steps taken that help people succeed with their ideas. With that being said, let's apply these with Ruth Handler. 

• Harness your vision: Handler's idea was simply to create a doll that was in the image of an adult woman that young girls could play with. The doll was to be made of plastic, rather than out of paper like the paper dolls her daughter had been playing with.
• Underestimate the roadblocks: I don't believe money and resource would've been much of an issue for her, considering her husband founded the toy company Mattel, but what may have been a roadblock was her husband's discouragement and figuring out how to actually create the doll. 
• Network: Her husband was most likely her big network, being the owner of Mattel, creating and selling the doll would not have been an issue for her.
• Take the first step: The first step she took at creating Barbie was most likely the coincidence the she came across the Bild Lilli doll while in Europe. The first step to introducing it was the Toy Fair in New York that she attended, if she had not attended it, Barbie may not be as successful as she is now.

Information regarding information on the research may be found below:

Wikipedia. Accessed February 4, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Handler.

Wepman, Denis. ANB. Accessed February 4, 2011. http://www.anb.org/articles/10/10-02288.html.

Woman Inventors. Accessed February 4, 2011. http://www.women-inventors.com/Ruth-Handler.asp.