What Barbie Would Look Like With Proportions Of A Regular Teen
What Barbie would look like if she had proportions of the average woman.
Aris Leoven | Canva I knew at a pretty early age that there wasn't anything life-like or real about Barbie. I still loved her, but I knew I could never be her. I'd never have the Dream Home, the sports car, or the impossibly small waist. I would've loved a doll that was more like a real teenage girl, but at the time Barbie was my only choice. Everything has changed since I was a little girl, playing with fashion dolls.
Nickolay Lamm has created a real-life Barbie doll that has the proportions of an actual teenage girl.
Lammily / X
Yes, the Lammily doll is shorter and stockier than Barbie. Several years ago, Lamm became obsessed with Barbie's distorted body. As he said, "I have lived through my share of insecurities. Back in high school, I starved myself and exercised to exhaustion to have a set of six-pack abs. After achieving my desired BMI, I looked and felt terrible. The experience taught me to keep things in perspective. Every one of our bodies is different, so we should not be aspiring to some idealized standard."
Lamm decided to create a doll using the proportions of an average American 19-year-old. "I feel that this is as close as you can get to a real-life representation of a Barbie-proportioned woman standing next to an average-sized woman," Lamm said. The average 19-year-old woman was modeled using these measurements, according to the National Library of Medicine.
- 64.29" height
- 33.62" waist
- 14.09" upper-arm length
- 14-45" upper-leg length
- 20" head circumference
- 15" neck circumference
Barbie would have the following measurements:
- 69" height
- 36" bust
- 18" waist
- 33" hips
- 22" head circumference
- 9" neck circumference
It's no wonder so many girls have unrealistic expectations about body image when your favorite doll has an 18" waist.
According to the National Library of Medicine, 20-40% of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. Put Barbie next to an average person, and the differences are shocking. Barbie is tiny compared to the average teen. She's 5 inches taller, and her waist is half the size of the average young woman. Plus, she's way beyond thin. The closer you look, realize how freakish Barbie is with her tiny hands, smaller torso, and large bust, not to mention that she's missing a rib cage.
Once Lamm knew what he didn't want, he set to work and created his "average is beautiful" doll. He says, "I see 'average' as inclusive of all of us, not a standard which excludes. I want to show that reality is beautiful, that life is beautiful, and there should be a line of dolls that reflects this fact."
Diva Plavalaguna / Pexels
The brand is called Lammily, but that's not her first name. You get to name your doll. It isn't just about fashion for the Lammily doll, as she enjoys working out, too.
Since the Lammily doll is a real-life doll, she experiences regular things, like getting her arm in a cast. Even kids can tell the difference. A video of how second-graders in Pittsburgh reacted to the Lammily doll in comparison to Barbie is a heart-warming reminder that real equals remarkable.
In the future, Lamm would like to have a line of Lammily dolls from different ethnicities and body shapes. He'd also like to have special edition dolls based on inspirational role models from sports or acting. For now, Lammily is representing the average and real-life girl.
Christine Schoenwald is a writer, performer, and frequent contributor to YourTango. She's had articles featured in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Bustle, Medium, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and Woman's Day, among many others.