Ruth Marianna Mosko was born on November 4, 1916, in Denver, Colorado, to Polish-Jewish immigrants. The youngest of ten children, Ruth was raised primarily by her older sister after her mother fell ill.
Her early life was shaped by the immigrant spirit—grit, resourcefulness, and ambition. She would later say:
“My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”
Even as a teenager, Ruth was driven. She moved to Los Angeles with her high school sweetheart, Elliot Handler, where she studied at Art Center College of Design. They soon married, and Ruth worked as a secretary while Elliot explored industrial design.
From Picture Frames to Playtime
In 1945, Ruth and Elliot co-founded Mattel (a blend of “Matt” for their partner Harold Matson and “Elliot”). They started out making picture frames from leftover materials. But it was the toys made from the scraps—particularly dollhouse furniture—that captured attention.
Ruth’s business instincts were razor-sharp. She pushed Mattel toward toy manufacturing and pioneered one of the earliest forms of television advertising. While many dismissed it as a fad, Ruth saw it as the future. Mattel soon became a household name.
“We didn’t know we were doing something revolutionary. We just did what we had to do.”
Inspiration from Europe
The defining moment came during a family trip to Switzerland in the mid-1950s. Ruth noticed her daughter, Barbara, preferred playing with female paper dolls rather than baby dolls. In Germany, she saw a risqué doll named Bild Lilli—and had an idea.
Ruth returned home determined to create a three-dimensional fashion doll that little girls could use to imagine grown-up futures. In 1959, Barbie—named after her daughter—made her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York.
“My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be—not just a housewife or mother.”
The launch was a massive success. Barbie broke gender norms of the time, offering a new kind of role model. Despite criticism for her appearance, Ruth always maintained that Barbie represented choice and empowerment.
Ruth Handler always insisted that Barbie wasn’t just a doll; she was a symbol of freedom and potential. Long before conversations about women breaking glass ceilings became mainstream, Barbie had already been an astronaut, doctor, CEO, and even a presidential candidate.
The Fall from Mattel
By the late 1960s, Ruth Handler had become one of the most powerful women in American business. She was the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, and Mattel grew into a global toy empire under her leadership.
But trouble emerged in the 1970s. In 1974, financial irregularities were discovered. Ruth and Elliot resigned from Mattel. In 1978, Ruth was indicted for fraud and later convicted of false reporting to the SEC. She paid a fine and performed community service.
This was a devastating chapter in her life. Yet Ruth, true to her spirit, didn’t allow this to define her.
“It’s what you do with what happens to you that makes you a winner or a loser.”
Ruth and the Fight Against Breast Cancer
In 1970, Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Frustrated by the lack of natural-looking breast prosthetics, she founded Nearly Me, a company that created lifelike breast forms to help women regain confidence.
This venture, in many ways, was more personal than Barbie. Ruth personally fitted women, often meeting them in dressing rooms across America.
“Barbie was my first baby. But Nearly Me was my gift to women like me who needed to feel whole again.”
Legacy and Final Years
Ruth Handler passed away on April 27, 2002, at the age of 85. Her legacy lives on in every Barbie doll sold (over a billion worldwide), in every child who imagines a bigger world, and in every woman who found comfort through Nearly Me.
This idea, planted in the late 1950s, grew into a global cultural movement—inspiring generations of girls to dream beyond limitations.
Today, Ruth is remembered not just as the creator of Barbie, but as a bold innovator, a pioneer for women in business, and a survivor who turned pain into purpose.
“I created Barbie to fill a void for my daughter, to let her dream.”
“I wanted to create a doll that would inspire little girls to be whatever they wanted to be.”
“I believed it was important to develop a doll that would allow little girls to imagine themselves as anything they wanted to be—doctors, lawyers, astronauts, even presidents.”