50 Fun Facts About Barbie Trivia for Kids

Barbie was named after whom?

Barbara Handler grew up hating being known as the girl the doll was named for.

Which toy company makes the doll?

Ruth Handler co-founded the company with her husband Elliot in a Los Angeles garage in 1945.

In which year did Barbie first go on sale?

She debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, which is now celebrated as her birthday.

What did the very first Barbie doll wear?

She had a topknot ponytail and came as either a blonde or a brunette, for $3.

What is Barbie's full name?

Her parents are George and Margaret Roberts of Willows, Wisconsin, according to 1960s storybooks.

Barbie's hometown is a made-up town called Willows in which US state?

She has since moved to Malibu, California, at least in the TV shows.

Ken, Barbie's boyfriend, is named after whom?

Kenneth Handler was Barbara's brother, so Barbie and Ken were named after a real brother and sister.

In which year did Ken first appear?

His full name is Kenneth Sean Carson, and his first year of hair was made of felt that fell off when wet.

What was wrong with the very first Ken doll's hair?

Mattel switched to moulded plastic hair the next year; collectors call the originals flocked-hair Kens.

Barbie has three younger sisters. Which of these is one of them?

The other two are Stacie and Chelsea, who was called Kelly until 2011; Midge, Christie and Teresa are friends.

Barbie's littlest sister Chelsea used to have a different name until 2011. What was it?

She narrates the very first Barbie movie as Kelly, listening to Barbie tell the Nutcracker story.

Barbie's teenage sister was created in which year, the first member of her family to be added?

She was the first member of Barbie's family to be added.

Barbie's friend Midge is easy to spot because of what on her face?

She first appeared in 1963 and later married Ken's friend Allan.

Allan was introduced in 1964 as whose friend?

He was sold as being able to wear all of Ken's clothes, a joke the 2023 movie repeats with Michael Cera.

Barbie's Dreamhouse first went on sale in 1962. What was it made of?

It had only one room, at a time when it was rare for a woman to own her own home.

Which two features are famous parts of the modern Barbie Dreamhouse?

Life-size Dreamhouses were built in Malibu and England for the 2023 movie.

Barbie's careers over the years have included Miss Astronaut Barbie. In which year did she first go to space?

That was four years before real astronauts landed on the Moon; Doctor Barbie came in 1988 and Nascar Barbie in 1998.

Barbie's cars have included pink convertibles of which two makes?

She has also owned trailers and Jeeps.

Which 1992 doll had locks all the way down to her toes and became the best-seller in the line's history?

Her hair was 11.5 inches long and she made $100 million in her first year.

Barbie's friend Christie, who first appeared in 1968, was the first doll in the line to be what?

She has been one of Barbie's closest friends ever since.

What was the first animated Barbie movie, released in 2001?

It was also the first Barbie movie made with computer animation, with Kelly Sheridan as Barbie's voice.

In the first animated movie, based on a famous Christmas ballet, who is the girl shrunk to toy size?

She and her Nutcracker go looking for the Sugarplum Princess to break the spell.

In the 2002 Rapunzel movie, who is the wicked witch keeping Rapunzel as a servant?

Rapunzel escapes with the help of a magic paintbrush and a baby dragon called Penelope.

The 2003 Swan Lake movie is based on a ballet by which composer?

He also wrote The Nutcracker, so he is behind two of the first three Barbie movies.

Which 2004 movie was the first musical in the film series?

Barbie plays both Princess Anneliese and the look-alike Erika.

In Fairytopia, Elina is a flower fairy who is different from the others because she has no what?

She still saves Fairytopia from the evil fairy Laverna, with her puffball friend Bibble tagging along.

In the Diamond Castle movie, Barbie and Teresa play two best friends named what?

They set out to find the mysterious castle with a girl trapped in a mirror.

In the 2010 movie about Merliah Summers, the surfing champion discovers she is secretly what?

She dives into the ocean kingdom of Oceana to rescue her long-lost mother, the queen.

In Princess Charm School, Blair Willows wins a lottery to attend a school training girls to be royal ladies and what?

She lives in the kingdom of Gardania, and it turns out she has a royal secret of her own.

The 2012 web series Life in the Dreamhouse is set in a doll version of which California town?

Barbie has had more than 135 careers there and is still humble about it.

Dreamhouse Adventures first streamed in 2018 on which service?

After the series ended it spun off four TV movies with the Roberts family.

About how many animated Barbie movies have been made since 2001?

Most of them aired on Nickelodeon in the United States between 2002 and 2017.

Who plays the title role in the 2023 live-action movie?

Amy Schumer and then Anne Hathaway had been attached before Robbie was cast in 2019.

Who plays Ken in the 2023 movie?

He also sings the big ballad I'm Just Ken, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Who directed the 2023 live-action movie?

She wrote it with her husband Noah Baumbach, and it became the biggest movie of 2023.

What is the name of the world where all the dolls live in the 2023 movie?

It is a place created by the collective imagination of everyone who has ever played with the dolls.

Which character tells the 2023 film's heroine to find the child playing with her in the real world?

Kate McKinnon plays her, complete with chopped hair and marker on her face like a doll played with too hard.

Which mysterious older woman helps the heroine escape from the toy company's headquarters in the movie?

She turns out to be the ghost of Ruth Handler, the woman who invented Barbie.

Who narrates the 2023 movie?

She also narrated the trailer, in the same wry voice.

Building the movie's sets used so much of which colour of paint that it caused a worldwide shortage?

Rosco Laboratories ran out of its whole stock, though supply-chain problems and freezing weather did not help.

The 2023 movie came out on the same day as which other big film, creating the Barbenheimer craze?

Fans watched both films back to back as a double feature.

Which Billie Eilish song from the 2023 movie won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

She wrote it with her brother Finneas, and it also won the Grammy for Song of the Year.

Which group's 1997 hit song Barbie Girl topped the charts around the world?

Mattel was not amused and took the band's record label to court.

Barbie was inspired by a doll bought on holiday in Switzerland. Which country was that doll from?

The Bild Lilli doll was based on a newspaper cartoon, and Mattel bought the rights to it in 1964.

Besides Barbie, which famous toy cars does the same company also make?

They launched in 1968, designed by a team that included a car designer and a rocket scientist.

Ken has had more than 40 jobs. What was his job in the 2023 movie?

Not lifeguard, just beach: standing in the sand and looking at the waves.

About how tall is a standard Barbie doll?

At 1/6 scale that would make her about 5 feet 9 inches tall in real life. Toy makers call this size playscale.

Where did Barbie make her very first public appearance on March 9, 1959?

That debut date is now celebrated as Barbie's official birthday. She sold about 350,000 dolls in her first year.

In 2016 Barbie got three new body shapes: tall, petite and which other?

The new shapes came out in the Fashionistas line, and the curvy doll even made the cover of Time magazine.

Barbie has owned more than 40 pets. Which of these unusual animals was one of them?

Her pets have also included a lion cub and a zebra, alongside plenty of cats, dogs and horses.