After becoming the topic of conversation around the world, due to the great success of the movie ‘Barbie‘, many have been intrigued by the origin of the famous Mattel doll, revealing the heartbreaking and sad story that its creator Ruth Handler lived.
Ruth was born in 1916 in Colorado, United States, but her origins come from Eastern Europe, more specifically Poland, her parents migrated to the American continent in search of a new life, but this would become complicated after her mother died, leaving her in charge of her older sister.
Later Ruth was employed in her sister’s small business where she met Elliot Handler, they married in 1938 and with no money they moved to Los Angeles, where her husband worked as a craftsman and she sold the products.
With their great effort, they managed to make their income grow more and more, until Harold Mattson appeared, who proposed that they become partners and create a toy company. They named the organization with the union of both, Harold’s nickname Matt and part of Elliot’s name, ‘Mattel‘.
In the midst of all the success that ‘Barbie’ won, the doll inspired by her daughter Barbara that surpassed toys like plastic babies and kitchens, Ruth Handler suffered from breast cancer:
“Breast cancer destroyed my self-confidence. My self-image was shattered. I wanted to keep my femininity in a man’s world“, she shared on a few occasions, later helping create the first breast prostheses.
Four years later the businesswoman and her husband were accused of fraud in their own company, “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found Ruth guilty of submitting a false report. He was sentenced to a fine of $57,000 and with 2,500 hours of service to the community“.
Despite all the problems and the fact that after its launch the doll also experienced some controversies due to the mentality of the people at that time, Ruth and her team managed to overcome all these challenges and turn ‘Barbie’ into a complete success that to this day is a icon.
