Fall 2024

Barbie

From Doll to Cultural Icon

From the Series Gateway Biographies

  • Interest Level: Grade 4 - Grade 8
  • Reading Level: Grade 5

Barbie changed what a doll could be. Before her, many dolls were baby dolls. Girls would care for these dolls and practice being mothers. But Barbie let girls imagine other futures. The iconic doll had many careers, inspiring girls to dream of new possibilities for themselves and for women.

In the early 1950s, Ruth Handler was watching her daughter, Barbara, and her friends play with paper dolls. The dolls resembled women. Handler saw how the girls imagined themselves as the dolls. But paper dolls were flimsy and delicate. Handler thought the kids’ imaginations could take off even more if they had durable dolls. This led her to create Barbie dolls. These days about two Barbies are sold every second. Barbie has her own movies and TV series. The 2023 blockbuster Barbie dominated the box office. Learn more about Barbie and her impact.

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Interest Level Grade 4 - Grade 8
Reading Level Grade 5
Genre Social Studies
Category 5 Kinds of Nonfiction, 5KN: Narrative Nonfiction, Biography
Copyright 2025
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Lerner Publications ™
Language English
Number of Pages 48
Publication Date 2024-08-01
Text Type Narrative Nonfiction
BISACS JNF056000, JNF023000, JNF025210
Dewey 688.7/221
Dimensions 7 x 9
Lexile 810
Features Bibliography/further reading, Index, Source notes, and Timeline

Author: Liz Sonneborn

Liz Sonneborn has written more than fifty books for children and adults, including several titles for the North American Indian Nations series. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Lerner eSource™ offers free digital teaching and learning resources, including Common Core State Standards (CCSS) teaching guides. These guides, created by classroom teachers, offer short lessons and writing exercises that give students specific instruction and practice using Common Core skills and strategies. Lerner eSource also provides additional resources including online activities, downloadable/printable graphic organizers, and additional educational materials that would also support Common Core instruction. Download, share, pin, print, and save as many of these free resources as you like!

Gateway Biographies

Discover the human side of newsworthy, historical, and pop culture figures, and learn about people leading key social movements or handling crises. Each biography in this easy-reading series is peppered with quotations and stories, accounts of successes and failures, and descriptions of… View available downloads →