For these women, the ‘Barbie’ movie is personal. They share a name with the iconic doll

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

(CNN) — Notifications popped up on Barbie Koelker’s phone for days after a trailer for the “Barbie” movie first came out. Friends were eager to know what she thought.

“They know that I’ve fought for people to just take Barbie seriously,” Koelker says.

The 38-year-old marketing executive in Los Angeles says she was thrilled to catch a glimpse of the film.

The Rev. Barbara Aziz had a very different reaction. When she first heard about the new movie, one thought ran through her mind: “Oh gosh – here we go again.”

For decades, the 57-year-old pastor in Texas has pushed back whenever anyone tried to foist that name on her. “You can call me anything,” she often says, “anything but Barbie.”

Since her debut in 1959, Barbie’s name has been one of the doll’s most well-known features.

Barbie – which in the doll’s case, is short for Barbara Millicent Roberts – was already a nickname for Barbara long before Mattel’s version hit the shelves, and a name some parents gave their children. But as the doll’s popularity grew, a Barbie baby boom of sorts followed.

According to data from the Social Security Administration, 1964 was the name’s most popular year, with 190 real-life Barbies born in the United States. It’s remained a nickname for Barbaras, too – beloved by some who love the doll, and spurned by others who don’t identify with what they think it represents.

“I love Barbie. I could talk about her for hours,” says Barbie Hargrave, 52, of Baltimore.

Of course, when it comes to the iconic doll, it’s not only real-life Barbies who have something to say. The doll’s unrealistic proportions and forever-arched feet have fueled decades of cultural criticism.

But these days, many women who spent their youth gleefully hoisting Dream House elevators, pushing around stylish Corvettes and keeping track of an endless array of tiny high heels are feeling fired up about Barbie’s big-screen moment. (“Barbie” is being released by Warner Bros., which like CNN is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

And who better than real-life Barbies, Barbs and Barbaras to remind us why the doll, and now the movie, mean so much to generations of women? Here’s what some of them had to say when CNN contacted them this week:

She met Margot Robbie on the movie’s ‘pink carpet.’ A video of them saying ‘Hi Barbie’ went viral

Bárbara Miranda, who’s gone by Barbi since her childhood, knew she had to find a way to make it to a premiere of the movie that shares her name.

“I knew that it wasn’t going to be just another movie. I knew it was going to be the movie. I knew it was going to make a statement. I knew that people were going to go crazy. I knew that making a film about an icon such as Barbie, you’ve got to do it great,” she says.

And Miranda, 25, wanted a front-row seat. Because long before she was a journalist with more than 100,000 social media followers who hosts a film and fashion podcast, she was a little girl in Buenos Aires with a huge box full of Barbies under her bed.

For years, whenever she left the house, she’d bring a Barbie doll with her. Sometimes she’d try to wear a matching outfit. She’d make clothes for the dolls with her grandmother and dream of the life she might have someday.

So while she was visiting her sister in Milan this month, Miranda went thrift shopping to find the perfect outfit to wear. And this week she boarded a flight for London, hoping to snag a spot on the “pink carpet” for Barbie’s premiere there. She knew the chances could be slim, but the world of possibilities Barbie had showed her as a kid made her determined to press forward.

“If you go for it, if you work hard, the universe is going to do its thing,” Miranda says.

After waiting in line for hours, Miranda managed to get one of the coveted bracelets for the pink carpet. She attended the event dressed as “journalist Barbie,” wearing a pink blazer, holding a karaoke microphone and toting a fake newspaper she’d written full of Barbie-themed articles.

Then she recorded a moment on her phone that she says she’ll never forget.

As Margot Robbie, the movie’s star, walked by, Miranda caught her attention.

“I said, ‘My name is literally Barbie.’ And she was like, ‘Whoa, no way.’”

Before long, the pair of Barbies were laughing as they acted out one of the movie’s scenes, greeting each other with a perky, “Hi Barbie” salute.

“I still don’t have the words for what I experienced,” Miranda wrote in Spanish as she shared a clip of the moment on Instagram. It was, she says, “the happiest day of my life.”

A professor once told her to change her name. She refused

Barbie Koelker says she’ll never forget what a professor once told her when she handed him her resume: “You have to change your name. No one will take you seriously.”

Koelker stood her ground. Barbie’s been her name for as long as she can remember.

“If people can’t take me seriously as Barbie,” she says, “then I don’t want to work for them.”

Koelker says she endured some playground taunts growing up. And even now she gets double takes sometimes when she tells people her name.

“You hop into an Uber and so many of them go, ‘Oh your name is so cool. Is that your real name, though?’ Do you ask Bills and Bobs if that’s their real name?” Koelker says.

But that doesn’t shake her – or her love of the dolls she grew up adoring. She says they helped give her confidence to be herself.

“If the Barbie doll can be anybody, then Barbie the person can be anybody. Barbie was the first doll where their dollhouse didn’t have a kitchen. She’s an astronaut. She’s a lawyer. She’s a presidential candidate. She’s been every career you can dream of,” Koelker says.

That’s one reason Koelker still treasures the Barbie dolls she grew up with, and why she’s excited to see the film.

“I’m loving that the movie is really embracing pink and not apologizing for it. … It’s not whispering ‘Barbie,’ it’s screaming ‘Barbie,’ and it’s sparking joy,” Koelker says.

She had tickets to see the film with her husband Thursday night, and yes, they wore pink.

Even as an adult, she collected porcelain Barbies in designer ball gowns

Barbie Hargrave says she often gets a question after introducing herself: “Where’s Ken?”

“Because I happen to be 5’10” with long blonde hair,” Hargrave says.

While she does share some traits with the doll, and used to work as a model, Hargrave says the reason behind her name actually is deeper.

She was named after a beloved aunt who passed away before she was born.

“She was called Barbie well before the Barbie doll. She was married with kids by the time Barbie came out,” Hargrave says.

But Hargrave says the Barbie doll has also played a big role in her life.

As a kid, she remembers playing with Barbie’s pool, fashion plaza and airplane.

“It was this imaginary world, and with the cars, it was like this complete way of life. You could make this whole town, this whole life, this whole whatever.”

Even as an adult, she’s collected porcelain Barbie dolls in designer ball gowns and gone out with friends to celebrate National Barbie Day, which marks the anniversary of the doll’s debut.

Her love for the doll hasn’t waned over the years. She’s proud whenever someone draws a comparison between her and the toy.

“I look at that as a compliment,” she says. “It’s a doll that has transcended so many decades, and has morphed along with the times.”

And Hargrave has, too.

“I have a master’s degree in education. I’m very successful in sales now. I’m accomplished in education and in my job, and I love that, and I hope that I’m showing those values.”

She used to be called Barbie. Now to most people, she’s Barb

Barb Dancer says her mom always told her a story.

“They named me ‘Barbie’ because I was so tiny, like 5 pounds,” says Dancer, 60, of Traverse City, Michigan.

Dancer isn’t sure if that’s true, but either way, the name stuck – at least for a while. Dancer went by Barbie and played with Barbies, too. She’d often have her dolls ride horses, which she also loved.

By the time she headed to middle school, Dancer decided it was time for a new name. She told people to start calling her Barb. And to this day, that’s the name most use, though a few close loved ones still call her Barbie.

The name change, she says, had more to do with growing up than any negative feelings about the doll.

“It was cool to be called Barbie. It wasn’t like now,” she says. “Her unrealistic proportions, and the objectification of women, that wasn’t in our vocabulary. Nobody thought twice about it back then. We just loved her and played with all of the things that she had.”

Dancer says she’s hopeful the movie will approach the doll with a more modern sensibility.

“I’m hoping it is about the empowerment of women, not the objectification of women,” she says.

And as for her own name, Dancer says these days, she thinks about it differently.

“Now that I’m getting old, I don’t care what you call me,” she laughs. “Anything that seems younger, like Barbie, would be good.”

Her sisters wanted to name her after their favorite doll

Barbara Aziz, the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church of Portland, Texas, makes a point of telling people that her name isn’t Barbie. But if it had been up to her older sisters, it would be.

Back in 1965, that was the name they suggested for their new sibling. They wanted to name her after their favorite doll.

“Thankfully, my mom said no,” Aziz says. And she became Barbara instead.

Like her sisters, she grew up playing with the dolls – and loved them – especially the Barbie airplane she shared with her siblings. But she wasn’t a fan of the nickname people kept trying to give her.

“When I was called it, it was condescending. Because Barbie was not portrayed … as ‘girl power.’ She was totally the opposite,” Aziz says. “It just never felt genuine or kind, and so I think that’s my aversion.”

But several years ago, Aziz’s well-known resistance to the name led to an unexpected gift.

A group of young people in her congregation made her an unofficial “Pastor Barbie” doll, replete with glasses, a lectern for sermons and a stole that looks like one Aziz wears when she preaches.

A box the students made also highlights her pastimes: “One of Pastor Barbie’s favorite parts of being a pastor is baptism!”

Since then, Aziz has brought “Pastor Barbie” along to several other congregations she’s led since. It’s helped her connect with children, she says, and remind people that joy is an important part of worship.

“It also helps the shy ones to be able to know that we have fun in church. We have deep joy, and deep faith. I always introduce her immediately at every church,” Aziz says. “The congregation laughs and starts relating very quickly.”

She keeps “Pastor Barbie” on a shelf in her church office, beside figurines of Wonder Woman and Jesus.

“I use her for girl empowerment because I’m a strong proponent of that. And I’m a female in a male world,” Aziz says.

That’s a message Aziz hopes the new movie will lean into.

Despite her initial skepticism, after recently watching a trailer for the “Barbie” film, Aziz says she’s feeling excited to see how the story is told.

“The part where she shows her flat foot, that’s hilarious. I think I will actually watch the movie when it comes out,” Aziz says.

The pastor still doesn’t want to be called Barbie. But if the film spurs another baby-name boom, someday she may end up baptizing one.

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