Perhaps no toy of the 20th century in America was more iconic, more popular, and more widely known than the ubiquitous Barbie doll.
![](https://heardeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Handler-Ruth.jpg)
do you know the doll was named after a real girl named Barbie? Her mother was a woman named Ruth Handler, who was a co-founder of the Mattel toy company.
Handler told her story in a 1994 book. And that’s when I talked with her.