Real-Life Barbie

Source: NY Daily News

Artist recreates Barbie with real-life proportions

Would a Barbie doll with real-life proportions sell in stores? Pittsburgh artist Nickolay Lamm thinks so. He created a 3D model of Barbie if she had the proportions of an average 19-year-old woman

As a real woman, Barbie is a bombshell.

She has curves in all the right places, arms that could actually lift things and feet that look like they could fit into real, adult-sized shoes.

Artist Nickolay Lamm, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recreated the iconic Mattel doll using proportions of the average 19-year-old woman, according to the CDC.

“I wanted to see if an average-sized Barbie had market potential,” Lamm, 24, told the Daily News in an email.

It turns out, she does.

With the same bright pink fashions and bleach-blond hair, Barbie 2.0 is just as pretty as her predecessor. Only, she’s shaped like a real girl.

“I’m pretty pleased with how the normal model looks and was personally surprised by how well she turned out,” Lamm said.

His Barbie’s waist is 33 inches around, compared to the original’s 18-inch waist, if she were a real person.

Her neck is nearly twice as wide, her legs shorter and her head a tiny bit smaller.

Lamm first created a 3D version of the doll using real-life proportions, and then used Photoshop to add Barbie’s color and packaging.

“I feel there’s a good chance Barbie negatively affects young girls’ body image,” he said. “If skinny models get so much criticism, shouldn’t we at least consider the possibility that Barbie affects a young girl’s self-image?”

Lamm isn’t alone in his inquiry.

In April, a website published a chart illustrating how anatomically impossible it would be for Barbie to exist in real life. With her extreme proportions, she would be forced to walk on all fours and incapable of carrying anything in her skeletal arms.