Fictional Barbie's real YouTube career

Barbie is a popular doll who is known for her unrealistic body, blond hair and her various careers. Throughout the years Barbies has had over 200 occupations and she has recently added vlogger to her repertoire. Through short videos on YouTube, Barbie gives children a look into her life and tries to educate them along the way. Her YouTube channel has over nine million subscribers and Barbie uses her platform to talk about her life, do challenges and talk about topics that are important to her. The doll seems to be more lifelike than ever in animated videos and acts similar to other lifestyle vloggers on YouTube. Barbie becomes authentic and ‘real’ because of the way she is animated, her character, and the message of her vlogs. By analysing Barbie’s vlogs, this paper will answer how Barbie’s vlogs on her YouTube channel combine non-fiction elements with fictional content in regard to animation, character, and message.

Who is Barbie?

Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, co-founder of the company Mattel, who made the doll for her daughter Barbara. The doll was first presented in 1959 at the New York Toy Fair and has since been sold over 1 billion times ([The history of Barbie], n.d; Agence France-Presse, 2019). Barbie’s appearance, clothing, accessories, and occupations have changed a lot since the 1950s but Barbie’s goal of inspiring little girls has never changed ([The history of Barbie], n.d.). As Handler explains herself, Barbie was meant to represent the fact that women have the ability to choose their future (Venard, 2019). Handler’s perspective on the fact that girls no longer needed to only become mothers, made her realize that toys marketed towards girls could be more than just babies or mother or housewife characters (Venard, 2019). Her idea was to design a toy that reflected a woman’s ability to work and be autonomous (Venard, 2019).

Barbie has always been controversial and the general consensus during her debut at the Toy Fair was dislike or even hatred. There were mostly male executives present who were not impressed but small stores still wanted to sell the doll which turned out to be a huge hit (Kahn, 2019). Later on, Barbie was criticised for the portrayal of an unhealthy body image, the lack of diversity, and various other controversies including a sexist doll from 1992 that said “math class is tough” which portrays a stereotype that girls are not smart enough for more science-related courses. (Hains, 2014).

Despite all of this, Barbie still exists 60 years later and is still successful. Mattel reported that sales of Barbie had reached a five-year high in 2019 after the company started selling more diverse Barbies, including a Barbie in a wheelchair and a curvy black Barbie with an Afro (Whitten, 2019; Cramer, 2020). Barbie as a brand keeps reinventing itself to make sure that the doll stays relevant which also included her start as a Youtuber. The first video uploaded to her YouTube channel on 19 June 2015 was a video titled 10 things about me and has since been viewed over 3 million times (as of 14/06/2020).

Animation

Barbie’s vlogs are all fully animated and her mannerisms and movements are based on other (lifestyle) Youtubers. The progress of the animation used in Barbie’s vlogs can clearly be seen throughout the years. The animation becomes more detailed and ‘life-like’ in the more recent vlogs. This can be seen in the way that little movements, such as Barbie tucking her hair behind her ear, are included and the way in which her face and hair look even more real due to added shadows and (slightly) more realistic proportions.

Barbie animates her stories by gesturing with her hands and arms. For example, when she lists things, she will actually put up one, two, or three fingers to make her point. She also moves like a real person would: when talking, her body, head, and hair move. She will close her eyes and tilt her head back when she is exasperated and moves her whole body when she laughs. This is all possible because of actress America Young who wears a motion-capture suit when voicing and acting out Barbie’s vlogs (Vice News, 2018). By basing Barbie on actual human movements, she comes across as even more authentic.

The authenticity in Barbie’s videos are enhanced because of reality effects. Roland Barthes essay titled The Reality Effect contains a passage that explains said effect: “the very absence of the signified, to the advantage of the referent, standing alone, become the true signified of realism” (Barthes, 1986). Reality effects can thus be understood as the small details that do not add anything to the narrative but do enhance the atmosphere and make the story feel real (Oxfordreference.com, n.d.). Reality effects in her vlogs include a shaky camera when she is vlogging, her pulling her arm back in the beginning of the video as if she has just pressed record on her camera, and cut outs in the video as if she had to edit something out. By animating these little things that technically add nothing to the narrative, Barbie as a vlogger becomes more real. This is a very simple strategy that brings Barbie to life.

When comparing Barbie’s vlogs to other popular lifestyle vloggers, there are various comparisons that can be drawn. In Barbie’s vlog Feeling blue? You’re not alone, she normalises feeling sad by telling that she sometimes feels blue and what she does to help that feeling. Zoella, a popular lifestyle vlogger, has made a video back in 2012 talking about panic attacks and anxiety. While Zoella’s topic might be a bit heavier and more explicit in content, both Barbie and Zoella talk about mental health and give their audience tips. They both film their videos in their bedrooms with their brightly coloured décor and just talk to the camera. Another comparison that can be drawn between both Youtubers is the way they hold themselves and use their hands to emphasise certain points. They both gesture with their hands and sometimes touch their hair or face in a self-conscious manner.

By basing Barbie’s animation on an actual actress and taking inspiration from fellow lifestyle Youtubers, fictional Barbie looks and acts like a real person would. This combination of non-fiction elements with fictional Barbie allows the audience to connect with Barbie’s character.

Character

Barbie’s character is an important part of her vlogs because character is what attracts an audience to watch the videos. According to Batty, characters enable the audience to understand media (Batty, 2014). Characters are used to populate a narrative and make it feel credible, as well as to guide us through the narrative so as to elicit meaning (Batty, 2014). Batty writes about the structure of sympathy, a model created by Smith that reminds us that the way an audience interacts with and understands a narrative is through a structured character journey. We become attached to characters on the basis of values or qualities that are similar to ones we possess. Because Barbie comes across as ‘relatable’, the audience feels sympathy for her and is able to understand the narrative.

Barbie becomes relatable in the way she addresses the audience. Barbie is very precise in the words she uses and how she describes certain events. Julia Pistor, executive producer and writer, explains that Barbie’s main character trait is curiosity (Mattel, n.d.). She has after all had over 200 careers, so some curiosity can be expected. Pistor says that they have made her grounded, not perfect, and unafraid to make mistakes or be herself (Mattel, n.d.). “Barbie is conscious of language and words; she talks about intention and she’s self-reflective. … While we might use words that kids sometimes need to look up, we try to be true to Barbie being a 17-year-old influencer” (Mattel, n.d.). This is very important because this self-reflective nature of Barbie’s character allows her to discuss difficult topics in such a way that it inspires children to think about and discuss those topics as well. Barbie treats her audience as equals, she never talks down to them and acts like the viewer is a good friend of hers. Her audience is mostly girls ages 6 to 11 while she is 17 years old but this does not mean that Barbie ‘dumbs down’ her words to make herself understandable for her target audience.

At the end of every vlog, Barbie makes a peace sign and says ‘pace’ which stands for ‘positive attitude changes everything’. This is something that Barbie reminds her audience of every vlog and shows us something about Barbie’s character. She encourages girls to think about the phrase which shows that Barbie is self-reflective.

Barbie talks about important topics in her vlogs such as bullying, female empowerment, and depression. In her vlog titled Sorry Reflex, Barbie talks about how girls in particular often say sorry even when they have nothing to be sorry for. When she introduces the topic, she starts her sentences with “I think” which reinforces her intention and self-reflectiveness. She gives examples to illustrate her point, explains why she believes that girls say ‘sorry’ too often, and gives concrete examples on how to change this learned reflex. One example is “If you feel sad, instead of saying sorry, you say ‘thank you for understanding my feelings’” (Barbie, 2018). This normalises these feelings and explains to girls that it is not necessary to apologise for your feelings. This ties in with Pistor’s explanation that another key part of Barbie’s character is her natural intention to empower and inspire girls (Mattel, n.d.). Barbie’s message here is that there is more power in saying ‘thank you’ than saying ‘sorry’ and actively tells girls to watch how many times they say sorry and change that into saying thank you.

Message

Barbie is first and foremost a product and her vlogs are a way to market that product to (young) children. However, Mattel combines meaningful lessons with fun videos in order to change the general negative perception of Barbie. When Mattel designed a new dreamhouse toy that they needed to market, Barbie renovated her house and uploaded a room tour to her YouTube channel (Vice News, 2018). This is of course reminiscent of other Youtubers that advertise their merch but the interesting twist is that Barbie is not just selling a product, she is the product herself (Vice News, 2018). That is a fine line to walk because Mattel is presenting Barbie as a ‘real’ person while wanting to sell as much as possible.

Barbie as a brand and Mattel as a company both have a different message. Barbie’s main message is to inspire and educate girls while Mattel’s ‘message’ is to sell as much as possible. According to McKnight, senior vice-president and global general manager for the Barbie brand, Barbie’s narrative is that she is a young independent women who is pursuing various careers (Agence France-Presse, 2019). As Pistor says, “Barbie is not just a doll – she’s a brand. The vlog gives her emotional equity, and it makes our business better when people feel she’s someone they can root for” (Mattel, n.d.). There is a potentially problematic aspect to portraying Barbie like this. Young children tend to believe that advertisements are fair, accurate, balanced, and truthful (Dittmann, 2004). This potentially becomes more problematic when children are not even watching ordinary advertisements but a doll acting and talking like a real person. Barbie never directly talks about buying anything related to Barbie-products but the repetition might still prove an effective way of influencing children to want a Barbie doll.

Barbie uses her platform to educate her audience. Some videos are already in a more educational format. Videos such as Feeling blue?, I’m only “joking…?”, and what’s the dream gap? afocus on one topic that Barbie explains and teaches the audience about. But her other videos also usually contain various educational messages. In a recent vlog, Barbie shows what she brings to the beach (Barbie, 2020). While discussing all the things that she has in her bag, she talks about the importance of sunscreen (“Seriously, I lather sunscreen on all day”), the benefits of journaling daily, and how sunglasses are stylish but also protect your eyes (Barbie, 2020). So, even while making a video that seems trivial, Barbie manages to squeeze in some small lessons on taking care of your body and mind.

At the end of the video, she even raises the topic of social media awareness. She says that being at the beach, completely unplugged from social media, feels good and that it made her realise (again showing her character trait of self-reflection) that people are rarely totally unplugged. “I feel like I waste a lot of time on social media. Not just connecting with people but scrolling and scrolling. And I’m just comparing myself to other people and that does not feel good” (Barbie, 2020). By saying this, Barbie is first of all showing her relatability. Her audience probably can relate to this feeling of wasting time on social media and Barbie is pointing that out to them. She then comments on the fact that the constant scrolling makes her compare herself to others and that she does not like that. Pointing out the fact that Barbie compares herself to others, might make her audience realise that Barbie, their role model, does that too which normalises that feeling and might make them realise that they should not compare themselves to others.

Even though Mattel is already educating children through Barbie’s vlogs, the company could potentially do more than that and educate children on issues of racism and privilege. However, it seems like they are not likely to make that step which becomes clear when McKnight explains that “we don’t want to be divisive. … We don’t want to alienate anybody. We want to be inclusive and we want every girl to find a way into the brand” (Vice News, 2018). Here, we can clearly see that the goal to sell more is in direct conflict with the ability to educate children. Mattel consciously makes the decision to not talk about racism or privilege because according to them, it might alienate people from the brand. Barbie is able to educate and inspire children through easy and quick vlogs without seeming to be instructing the children or being patronizing. But she could do even more in educating young children.

Fictional Barbie as a real vlogger

In conclusion, by having Barbie upload vlogs, Mattel is combining non-fiction elements with fictional content in three aspects: animation, character, and message. By animating Barbie with the help of a motion-capture suit, Barbie looks, moves, and sounds like a real human vlogger would. When comparing her to other lifestyle Youtubers, such as Zoella, Barbie really holds herself like a real vlogger would. Her character consists of various key traits, the most important being curiosity, self-reflection, and being unafraid to be herself. These three traits are things that girls can look up to and aspire to. She treats her audience as equals and never talks down even though her audience is younger than she is.

The message Barbie sends with her vlogs is empowering and inspiring for younger children. But Mattel’s message is intertwined with hers. Barbie is being presented as a role model by Mattel but their ultimate goal is to make money from the profits of Barbie dolls. Whether the use of marketing in such a way is problematic could be interesting for future research. By making Barbie feel authentic, real, and inspiring, the company behind Barbie is able to successfully combine non-fiction elements with fictional content in order to boost sales of Barbies and improve the public’s general perspective on the doll.

References

Agence France-Presse. (2019). 60 years of the Barbie doll: the controversies, the triumphs and how a brand new doll is made. 

Barbie. (2018, June 1). Sorry Reflex | Barbie Vlogs. 

Barbie. (2020, June 3). Pack with me for the beach! My summer bag must-haves | Barbie vlogs.

Barthes, R. (1986). The rustle of language. (Trans. Howard, R.) New York: Hill and Wang.

Batty, C. (2014) Me and You and Everyone We Know: The Centrality of Character in Understanding Media Texts. Real Lives, Celebrity Stories. Bronwen Thomas and Julia Round (eds.) London, Oxford: Bloomsbury.

Cramer, M. (2020). After all these years, Barbie is still reinventing herself. 

Dittmann, M. (2004). Protecting children from advertising. 

Hains, R. (2014). 5 reasons not to buy Barbie for little girls (it’s not just body image!). 

Kahn, M. (2019). There’s something about Barbie. 

Oxfordreference.com. (n.d.). Reality-effect. 

[The history of Barbie]. (n.d). 

Venard, B. (2019). The real story of the Barbie doll: strong female leadership behind the scenes. 

Vice News. (2018, October 19). Barbie is officially woke – and a YouTube vlogger (HBO). 

Whitten, S. (2019). Mattel shares soar after strong Barbie sales fuel surprise profit.