Barbie is in her mid-60s & still going strong, but she's not an antique yet. Pull back the pink curtain & discover the history of a cultural touchstone.

I made a 2-year-old cry. I put her cheese stick in her little hand and quickly put the plastic wrapper in the wastebasket under the kitchen sink. The pipsqueak, my great-niece, Lily, began to sob ...

Created in 1959 by Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel with her husband Elliot Handler, Barbie was inspired by “watching their daughter play with make-believe paper dolls of adult women”.