I'm a Barbie Girl...

I grew up in the 90's so I completely and un-ironically love the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, because I was (and still am) a Barbie girl. This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of Barbie and I am here for it! This photo below is much more pristine version of the 1989 My First Barbie, which was actually one of my first Barbie dolls. She looks like a prom queen princess with customary iridescent 80's pouf sleeves, hot pink lipstick, and blue eye shadow. Her hair is in soft curls and she has some sweet bangs. She is awesome. There were yearly releases of new MFB through the 80's, and each one is a treasure. Here is why I love Barbie so much.

1. She has amazing outfits.
Half the fun of playing with Barbie was dressing her up. Thank you to my mom for always agreeing to brush out the hair of the dolls when I got weighed down in the minutiae of outfit choosing.

2. She has an infinite amount of careers.
I have had Barbies/outfits for the following jobs: police officer, ice skater, teacher, mall rat, rock star, Olympic gymnast, diver, dog walker, tennis player, beach bum, doctor, business lady, and though my own creations, Sandy from Grease. Plus, Barbie takes care of all of her siblings (Skipper, Stacey, Kelly, Chrissy) and drives them around in a minivan (best car ever) because her parents are never around.

3. She's a symbol for the ultimate cool girl.
In the 90's, I would collect Barbie catalogs and magazines (and tradings cards) to make sure my entire life would celebrate Barbie. I owned barbie-themed accessories such as:
CLOTHES: Dresses, shirts, a robe, a giant hair bow, purse, slippers, sneakers
ELECTRONICS AND TOYS: walkie talkies,a walkman, movies, books, cassettes,
HOME ACCESSORIES: sleeping bag, sheets, a suitcase
SPORTING GOODS: roller skates, a bike

4. She's stood the test of time
I regularly visited FAO Schwartz's Barbie area to pay tribute to the original 1960's Barbie in a glass case, and it was a religious experience. She changed with the times, going from a red lipped a high pony-tailed bombshell to a California-cool coral lipped mermaid. Now she comes with different body shapes, earrings, freckles and hair colors (shout outs to Barbie's ride-or-dies, Midge, Christie and Theresa).

5. She's made PINK a power color
Long before Victoria's Secret launched their college-friendly PINK line, Barbie's name was emblazoned in pink. I'm not ashamed to say it's my power color.

Fashion or Foe: Do Not Buy...

     Do not buy clothes that are advertised on social networking sites. I came close to doing this recently and I am glad I didn't. As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I has to part with a beloved pair of Black, just under the knee, suede, non-heeled boots. They were in a word- perfect. I wore them to work, out with friends, and even a few times unexpectedly into a surprise snow flurry. I became crazed over the last 6 weeks looking for a replacement pair for next Fall, hoping to score a deal as Winter boots made their way out of stores for summer stock. But, I struggled. I found "The perfect" boots a few times only to have my hopes dashed. One pair seemed great except for a 2 1/2" platform built inside the boot while another seemed promising but it only came in a Tan suede fabric. A third pair were ideal but the boot shaft height came way over my knees, making it impossible to wear unless I went full Barbie and stopped bending my legs.

One pair of my new boots
(c) SeeHearReadPop

     To make this long story short, I ended up with two different sets of boots one from Sears and another via 6pm.com, Both of which do not fully meet my needs but due to their discounted pieces will work until I find "The Boots." In my brief desperation, I considered ordering boots from an advertisement I saw on Facebook. It seemed too good to be true. A recent Buzzfeed investigative article confirmed my fears, it was clearly some kind of scam when boots are available for $9.99 from a company you've never heard of in China. At first you might think it's just cheap because it's straight from the manufacturer. But the article goes in-depth about customers ordering boots, dresses, tops etc.. from a variety of these sites advertised on social media sites and nearly all of the cheap clothing arrived in a much different condition (color was off, fabric was different, items smelled horrible) than the seller claimed. Of course, trying to reach their customer service is near impossible and many clients have not been successful in trying to get their money back. I recommend reading their in-depth piece before your next online shopping trip.

Barbie Brigade

      From a post I did last month, you may know that I have fond memories of Barbies. I just saw this posting the other night trending on social media and I have to get the word out! A young girl named Gianni in Virginia is collecting 1,000 Barbies to donate to other girls living shelters. Gianni's website 1KBarbiesfor1KGirls offers contact information and photos of her packing up boxes of dolls to send out to shelters. It's truly heartwarming to see a kid that's thinking of other kids in an age where so many kids are focused on themselves and their technology. Gianni takes her kindness one step further by writing individual notes to each recipient and and wrapping the doll boxes in pink paper.  On an unrelated note, this reminds me of a Lifetime movie I watched back in December, The Christmas Gift. Read the review here.

Gimme a Beat

Barbie and The Beat Pkg.
 Image from Pintrest

     Tonight while cleaning I found some old cassette tapes that re-awakened my girlhood love of Barbie. The typical things were there,  radio mixes, the Grease movie soundtrack, the New Kids on the Block first album, but tragically missing was my "Macarena" cassingle tape.
* The Macarena tape was recovered two weeks later!*

     The other hidden gem in this collection was a hot 
pink cassette of singles from the fictional band Barbie and the Beat. I often called her Rocker Barbie (known as Disco Jeans Barbie publicly), but discovered is another Barbie known as Rocker Barbie). Nonetheless, she is one of the best and favorite dolls I have owned. Although Totally Hair Barbie makes it a close competition because you could cut her foot-length hair and style with DEP gel. Not only did my "Rocker Barbie" or "TB" for The Beat come in an awesome 80's outfit with denim jacket and skirt (a true denim suit), tons of pink skirts, a tube top and matching legwarmers, but she also had a tiny clip-in hat and big earrings!

My cassette
(c) PipPepPop

     The greatest part was her lime green plastic guitar! This instrument was tricked out in green and pink with a shiny strap that puts my ordinary acoustic to shame!  I found some images across the web to show barbie in all her glory. I tragically lost the denim suit on a plane ride in about '91 and was forced to dress Barbie in her pink cami top, mini skirt, and swirly crinoline, with matching leg warmers and pumps. Once her ponytail came out, she quit the music biz. My Barbie looks pretty beat these days.

     Best of all, there was an accompanying music cassette for her performances! There are 4 hit singles on this cassette full of girl power and attitude, and they sound very much like early Paula Abdul and a mid 80's Madonna (think Straight Up meets Get into the Groove meets Lucky Star. The cassette includes "Shine", "Jammin'", "The Beat" and one other that I can't read because the label is ripped.

'Robin Sparkles' Gif from
The Odyssey Online

Image from Ebay

     I could see an immediate visual comparison between "The Beat" Barbie and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles, as observed in this photo. But singing was just one of Barbie's many talents in the 80's Sheo also moonlighted as a Bangles-era Rocker Barbie. A list of her other careers can be found here, and another glorious rock star outfit. There were other videos, comics and movies that depicted Barbie's life as a rock star, and she even toured space in one animated movie, titled Barbie and The Rockers: Out of This World.

     My Barbie had the privilege of performing with  NKOTB's Joey McIntyre, who is apparently a rare 1990 collector doll selling for about $50.00 on Ebay. Unfortunately my Joe lost his ring, microphone, and cassette and was punished by my brother for cursing, resulting in a mouthful of soap.  Alas, the doll looks adorable and so does Joey, who just appeared in last week's Angel From Hell.