The History of Barbie DollŪ The idea of Barbie all started in 1959 when Ruth Handler, Barbie’s creator, noticed her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls and imagining them in grown up roles such as college students, cheerleaders, and adults with careers. Ruth realized that dolls on the market at that time were all baby dolls, and that there was a need for a doll that would inspire little girls to think about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Thus the idea for the Barbie doll, the teenage fashion model, was born. Ruth named the doll Barbie, after her daughter and now, 40 years l