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Ruth Handler

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description Ruth Handler Overview

Ruth Handler was an American businesswoman best known as the co-founder of the toy manufacturer Mattel and the creator of the Barbie doll. In 1959, she introduced Barbie, named after her daughter Barbara, after observing that her daughter preferred playing with adult-figured paper dolls rather than baby dolls. Handler served as president of Mattel for several years, guiding the company to become a major corporation. Following her battle with breast cancer, she later founded a company that manufactured realistic breast prostheses.

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What famous toy did Ruth Handler invent?

Ruth Handler is best known as the inventor of the Barbie doll, which she introduced to the world in 1959. She created the fashion doll after noticing her daughter, Barbara, preferred playing with paper cutouts of adult women rather than baby dolls.

What company did Ruth Handler co-found?

Alongside her husband Elliot Handler and business partner Harold "Matt" Matson, she co-founded the Mattel toy manufacturing company in 1945. Mattel would eventually become one of the largest and most influential toy companies in the world.

What inspired the creation of the Barbie doll?

During a trip to Europe in the 1950s, Handler discovered a German adult-figured doll named Bild Lilli. She bought a few, brought them back to the US, and used the concept as the foundation to design what would become Barbie.

Did Ruth Handler work on any other major projects besides Barbie?

After being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing a mastectomy in the 1970s, she left Mattel and founded a new company called Ruthton. There, she invented the "Nearly Me," a line of realistic prosthetic breasts for other mastectomy patients.