Netflix film Black Barbie shows how three women revolutionised billion dollar doll

Ruth Handler walked across the factory floor of Mattel, the toy company she founded with her husband, and watched the workers producing her most famous creation.

A couple of years earlier, in 1959, the world had been introduced to Barbie. Named after Ruth’s daughter, she would go on to become the best-selling doll of all time.

Today, thanks to Ruth and the work of three trailblazing women, there is a Barbie for everyone. She is available in 35 skin tones, with 97 hairstyles and nine body types. But in the early 60s, she was still all blonde hair and blue eyes. That changed when Ruth took a walk across the factory floor, and met Beulah Mae Mitchell. Beulah had one request: “We want a Black Barbie!”

Against the powderkeg background of the Civil Rights Movement, this was “a little act of revolution,” according to Dr Patricia Turner, an African American studies professor.

But in Ruth, Beluah had an ally. “Good!” she replied. “We’ll see!”

Ruth Handler the creator of Barbie doll

“I loved Ruth,” says Beulah, who worked at the factory from 1955 to 1999. “She was very personable. She would come over and watch us, and we would be working so fast, and she would ask us ‘do you have any suggestions on what I should do?’.”

By 1968, Barbie had a black friend, Christie. But the path to the first true Black Barbie was a long one.

In the end, it took three influential women to truly make it happen – Beulah, 86, and designers Kitty Black Perkins, 76, and Stacey McBride-Irby, 50.

(L to R) Stacey McBride-Irby; Kitty Black Perkins; and Beulah Mae Mitchell reunite for the Black Barbie documentary

Stacey says: “I’m so proud to stand alongside Beulah and Kitty.

“It all started with Beulah. She passed on the baton to Kitty, who passed it on to me - and gave me a chance to design dolls that looked like my daughter.”

For Beulah, the impact of that first conversation is obvious and she is now proud of her doll collection for one reason: “I have more black dolls than white dolls!”

It’s still a happy surprise for Beulah to see how far America has moved on from when she was growing up, as she reveals in a new Netflix documentary, Black Barbie, released today.

Growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, Beulah had always loved dolls - even making them out of glass jars as a child, but says: “Playing with a black doll never occurred to me.”

Born in 1938, Beulah was a child of segregation - she attended black schools and was forbidden to sit at the front of the bus that would take her to school because of the colour of her skin.

Black Barbie made her dazzling debut in 1980

By the age of 13, she was working as a cook in the home of a white family and in 1953, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister and got a job at Mattel - after lying about her age on her application.

Beulah was there to witness the birth of the very first Barbie doll.

She recalls: “Ruth went overseas and came back and wanted to make this doll with breasts. We were just shocked.”

By then, Beulah had been promoted to the first line in the factory and “lead girl.”

The first Black Barbie in 1980 was modelled on Diana Ross pictured here with the supremes

Ruth named the new doll after her daughter Barbara. She wore a black-and-white bathing suit with her blond hair in a ponytail. Two years later Ken was introduced, named after Ruth’s son.

By the time Barbie made her first appearance Beulah had been promoted to the first line in the factory and “lead girl”. Christie was soon joined by another Black doll, Julia – named after a TV sitcom featuring Diahann Carroll, who went on to star in Dynasty. By 1970, Beulah’s career at Mattel had progressed to the company’s shiny offices in LA. Kitty arrived a few years later and was keen to spearhead further changes.

On her second day at Mattel, Kitty met Beulah, who recalls: “Kitty drove a sports car. We thought she was a real Black Barbie!” It was Kitty who inspired the first Black Barbie.

Beulah recalls how Kitty “called us together and she said: ‘Don’t you think they should be able to make a doll of Black features?’.”

Less than five years after joining the company, Kitty designed the first black doll that was a Barbie rather than a friend - and with a more authentic look.

She was modelled on one of Kitty’s favourite singers, Diana Ross.

Kitty says: “We made her lips a little bit fuller; we made her nose a little bit wider. I gave her bold colours, bold jewellery, short hair and a wrap skirt that could actually show skin.”

Black Barbie was available in different skin tones

Dressed in a dazzling red gown, Black Barbie was introduced to the world as: “She’s Black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!”

Despite the doll’s popularity, she was not easily available in stores and many black girls still played with their white Barbies.

Barbie designer Stacey McBride-Irby was one of them. She says: “Mine was not a wealthy household but Barbie was rich! She lived in a big house, had a fancy car, fancy clothes and different jobs. It was a fantasy world that I loved escaping into but it also made me ambitious. Barbie taught me to dream.”

Later, at college, her father gave her a newspaper article about Kitty.

“Dad gave the cutting to me… he wanted me to be inspired because Kitty looked like me,” says Stacey. “After graduating, I was jobless and struggling. I remembered the article and decided to cold-call Kitty.”

Now there is great diversity in the Barbie world

It worked and soon after starting, she met Beulah who was now Mattel’s receptionist.

“Beulah used to call me Little Kitty!” Stacey says. “I wanted to create dolls that represented my daughter and girls in my community.”

Stacey went on to create the ‘So in Style’ Barbie dolls, which featured mixed race dolls in 2010.

Barbie is now available in 35 skin tones with 97 hairstyles and nine body types and the Greta Gerwig film, which was nominated for nine Oscars and won one, showed many of them.

The film, starring Margot Robbie, America Ferrera and Issa Rae, made well over a billion dollars at the box office, giving Mattel an estimated revenue boost of $125 million - just under a £100 million.

From left to right Stacey McBride Irby,Kitty Black Perkins, Beulah Mae Mitchell Lagueria Davis, Director of the film at the Black Barbie premiere

Barbie’s had 250 careers and dozens of celeb incarnations, including Nicki Minaj, Zendaya and Mariah Carey. But those huge strides forward began many years earlier.

For Stacey, Beullah and Kitty, Barbie embodies how dreams really can come true - though there is still more to be done and Kitty is working on a new black Barbie for 2025.

Stacey adds: “Barbie was an inspiration for so many little girls - black, white, brown - [she] inspired us to live a fun, fabulous, exciting life. And who doesn’t want that?”

Black Barbie is released on Netflix today