If anything inspired me to create this website, it was the Barbie movie with Margot Robbie. Sitting in a crowded theater of women who most likely also at some point owned a Barbie was exonerating. It gave me a small spark to start looking up prices of Barbie Dolls again, but I'll admit I didn't buy one until months after seeing the flick.
Last week, I unboxed a dust covered Top Model Hair Wear Summer Doll that I hid from myself in the corner for months because of how it made me feel—sad. Why? Because most of my other Barbies are gone. Lost in moves, or sold when i needed a quick buck. However, after I unboxed it I felt a sense of childhood joy that I hadn't felt since, well, being a child. Most of the dolls I collected, I always kept in the boxes and didn't allow myself to play with. Why should I? I'm a 28 year old woman. But, I'm also a 28 year old woman who had an uneventful childhood. One of my favorite memories was playing Barbie Dolls with my older sister. So why not play with them again?
You bet that box was ripped to shreds with excitement. I reveled in wonderment as I put that small hair piece into Summer's ponytail. I took the stand out and proudly placed her on the shelf in her deboxed glory.
It's not easy to debox Barbie Dolls as it turns out, they are secured onto that cardboard pretty well. Maybe as a kid I unboxed them so easily because I got them for holidays. They'd get ripped out of those boxes, and the boxes would fall onto the floor into piles of colorful wrapping paper. Usually cleaned up by an adult. And that adult who has to clean up the mess from deboxing the doll is me now. It doesn't destroy the magic, maybe in a way it creates more. When you're more mature, you get to revel in every inch of that unboxing.
Hello Top Model Hair Wear Summer, goodbye past Barbie Dolls. Time to purchase more Barbies.
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