Mattel makes a lot of Barbie dolls. While most are part of the line of dolls you’d expect to find on the shelves of your local store, according to Kim Kardashian, she has a prototype Barbie made in her own image.
Last week, Kardashian retweeted a photo of herself circa 2011 noting that the image was meant to be the inspiration for a Kim Kardashian Barbie that never quite came to fruition. However, one Kim Kardashian Barbie does exist, Kardashian went on to explain, because her husband Kanye West convinced the toymaker to make the prototype just for her.
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Have the best story about this look! I had a Barbie deal & she was going 2 wear this exact look! Then the deal got cancelled, the Kim K Barbie would no longer B produced. Kanye knew how sad I was, called Mattel & made all my dreams come true by having my prototype made just 4 me! //t.co/F1r2Ai8WWC
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 11, 2019
Kardashian offered no additional details about the doll nor did she post a photo of the prototype — a move that makes sense if there is any possibility that a Kim Kardashian Barbie were to ever make it to production at some point in the future — but the one-of-a-kind doll isn’t the reality star’s first experience with the iconic doll.
Back in 2017, Kardashian took fans on a walk down memory lane in a Snapchat video revealing that her modeling debut was in a 1988 issue of Barbie Magazine. In the photos, a young Kardashian is seen reading star maps for the “special California issue” of the publication.
As for the Kim Kardashian Barbie situation, while it appears that the doll isn’t likely to happen anytime soon — Mattel has, at the time of this article, not commented on Kardashian’s claims — Mattel does have a long history of creating dolls in the image of celebrities and pop culture figures. Last March, the toymaker created a Patty Jenkins Barbie as part of their Shero program which aims to inspire young women with dolls fashioned after a diver series of role models. Other dolls in the series include fencing champion Ibthiaj Muhammad, snowboarding champion Chloe Kim, and director Ava Duvernay.
While not all of the role model dolls are available for purchase, Mattel also makes dolls as tie-ins to popular entertainment as well. A doll fashioned after Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor from Doctor Who is a recent addition as is the Mary Poppins Returns dolls.
And, when it comes to working with Mattel to make special dolls, Kardashian and West aren’t alone. An Arizona couple recently met with Mattel, hoping to persuade the toymaker to make same-sex Barbie wedding sets, a meeting that seemed to go well according to Matt Jacobi’s Instagram post.
“We had a wonderful meeting with the @Mattel Team today, and so excited to part of the @Barbie family!” Jacobi wrote. “We are confident in the direction Barbie is taking to make their line the most inclusive doll line on the market.”
Are you surprised that Kim Kardashian has her own Barbie? Let us know in the comments below.
