Before Barbie was a surgeon, an astronaut or a marine biologist, she was originally a German sex worker named Lilli. The Lilli doll debuted in Germany in 1955 and was based on a popular comic in the tabloid newspaper Bild. In the comic, Lilli seduced wealthy men and they gave her clothes, presents, and money. She was also known for her cheeky and irreverent attitude. One example of this is when a man told her that two-piece swimsuits were banned from the beach, to which she replied “In your opinion, which part should I take off?”
In MG Lord’s book ‘Forever Barbie’, she writes that Lilli was a gold digger, the kind of German woman who may have known hardship during the war, but was not going to suffer again as long as there were men with checkbooks. Unlike her American successor, the Lilli doll was definitely not marketed to children. She was sold at newsstands, not toy shops, and the ads were quite provocative. One suggests that men hang her from their car’s rearview mirror, while another reads “Whether more or less naked, Lilli is always discreet”.
In 1956, Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler saw a Lilli doll while on vacation and brought a dozen back home. Three years later, the first Barbie was on store shelves.