DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180295

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL WHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                       LENGTH:   51 lines

THE SHAPE OF BARBIES TO COME: SHE'LL LOOK LIKE GIRL NEXT DOOR

A less busty Barbie is on the drawing boards at Mattel Inc. in a makeover designed to give a more realistic profile to the curvaceous, best-selling doll that has rankled feminists while becoming an icon for generations of young girls.

Barbie's new look will include a thicker waist and slimmer hips. Changes above the neck will include a new nose and softer, straighter hair, Mattel said Monday.

Some features of the new Barbie already are on store shelves. The ``Rapunzel Barbie,'' a long-haired variation based on the classic fairy tale, has a more refined nose and closed mouth - part of the new design, said Lisa McKendall, Mattel's director of marketing communications.

Other features will be introduced during 1998. By the end of next year, six of 24 versions of the 11 1/2-inch doll will have the new look. The rest will have the old face and body.

The plastic surgery is part of a continuing evolution for Barbie, which got a face lift in 1967 and another in 1977, said McKendall. More than a billion dolls have been sold worldwide since Barbie was introduced in 1959.

``Barbie's kind of like Betty Crocker. She gets updated to make her look more appropriate to the times. She is a fashion doll first and foremost,'' said Chris Byrne, an analyst with Playthings MarketWatch, a monthly toy industry magazine.

In 1996, Barbie generated $1.7 billion in sales, about 44 percent of Mattel's total revenue. Sales rose 24 percent during the first three quarters of 1997 and were expected to finish at least 25 percent higher than the 1996 figures, putting sales of Barbie dolls worldwide near the $2 billion mark.

Over the years, Barbie has come under sharp criticism from feminists and child advocates, who contend that her shape is unrealistic and creates the wrong ideal for young girls who may aspire to a body type they can never achieve.

Kelly Brownell, a Yale University psychology professor, concluded in a 1995 study that young girls notice the body shapes of icons such as Barbie and translate them into unhealthy images.

Another expert said Barbie's shape has little to do with self-image.

``The fact is, the way a 5-year-old plays with a doll like that is as a vehicle for imaginative play. They create all kinds of scenarios that really don't have anything to do with her looks,'' said Dr. Robert Schacter, a New York psychiatrist who has studied toys and children's play. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

A Barbie doll and the planned changes

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