#art teacher barbie and kelly
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In celebration of @thebreakfastgenie having a birthday, the request ahs come in for "anything from" the early 2000s. This was an exceptional period of time for Barbies, featuring such delights as the controversial Happy Family pregnant Midge, and the pop culture collection featuring Faye Wray in King Kong.
But more than that - there are some great playsets from around this time featuring both Barbie and her younger sister Kelly.
For example, one I find personally very charming is Mother Goose Barbie.
Which in addition to the two dolls, also had a storybook, a goose and a pig. (Are there pigs in the Mother Goose canon? Or perhaps Mother Goose was telling a story about a pig? I don't actually know.)
Barbie & Kelly Art Teacher also featured additional items - paints and rubbing plates (including, yes, the Barbie logo) so the kids playing with Barbie can learn just as Kelly does.
Kids love re-enacting things from their real life as well, so naturally there's also a Barbie and Kelly grocery shopping doll, featuring Kelly sitting in the baby seat of a shopping cart.
And why not relax after a long day of sibling bonding with Sleepover Girls, a playset featuring Barbie and Kelly tucking in with a bottle of generic cola and a bucket of popcorn. (And featuring sleeping bags for them to tuck in together afterwards!)
In particular I love Kelly's pink dressing gown. I think she's adorable.
All these just from 2002 - there's plenty more from the era in surrounding years.
Happy birthday @thebreakfastgenie
#barbie#sleepover girls#barbie and kelly#kelly roberts#art teacher barbie and kelly#lets go shopping barbie and kelly#mother goose storytime barbie and kelly#mother goose storytime#mother goose
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90s & early 00s Barbie Dolls Collection
#barbie#ken#kelly#stacie#krissy#dolls#toys#mattel#90s#2000s#nostalgia#childhood#retro#walking#mermaid#teacher#hollywood#easter#hair#skiing#vacation#ballerina#travel#art#halloween#jewel#party#bead#beauty#bunny
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Wednesday Questionaire
I'm just one day late! Whoop!
Thank you for tagging me: @guinguin1984, @jrooc, @deathclassic, @iansw0rld, @suzy-queued, @francesroserecs, @creepkinginc, @energievie
I loved reading about your childhood adventures!
Name: Vey
Age: In my thirties
Location: On my couch. Still. It's like I never left.
And now, think about your childhood and tell me:
Did you have a nickname and is it still used? Yep. Still using it on tumblr till this day. :)
What did you want to be when you'd grow up? A teacher, a forensic scientist and many other things. Including the job I'm working as now.
Your favourite cartoon: Does Sailor Moon count as a cartoon?
Your favourite TV show: The Nanny and watching crime shows with my mum like Murder She Wrote, Twin Peaks, Remington Steele, CSI
Your favourite book: Pippi Langstrumpf and all the other books written by Astrid Lindgren. And later Abby Lynn - Verbannt ans Ende der Welt by Rainer M. Schröder
Your favourite toy: Barbie dolls and plushies and my gameboy
Your favourite thing to eat: My grandma's festive roast. Food always tasted better when she made it
Your favourite school subject: Art and German
How did you spend your summers? Outside. Playing with neighbourhood kids, amusement parks, going swimming, reading
Did you listen to music? If yes, did you have a favourite band/artist? Yes. Rolf Zuckowski was/is my hero. Then I moved on to The Kelly Family and then entered my boyband/Christina Aguilera phases.
And lastly, tell me something you did as a kid that your parents still don't know about: There's probably something but I can't think of anything now. I was quite well behaved. I think. XD
Tagging: @bawlbrayker, @vintagelacerosette, @stocious, @ian-galagher, @gallawitchxx, @gallavichlover19, @skylerwinchester
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Holidays 3.9
Holidays
American Paddlefish Day
Amerigo Vespucci Day
Armored Warships Day
Barbie Day
Baron Bliss Day (Belize)
Chess Prodigy Day
Day of Waiting (Elder Scrolls)
Day to Mourn Slavery
Doctor’s Day (Venezuela)
Eid Al Moalim (Teacher’s Day; Lebanon)
False Teeth Day
Festival of Primal Ooze
Get Over It Day
Hit the Panic Button Day
Joe Franklin Day
Made in UK Day (UK)
National CBDB Day (a.k.a. Central Bank Digital Currency)
National Dishwasher Appreciation Day
National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)
National Lina Day
National Marcia Day
National Music Day (Indonesia)
National Shane Day
National Urban Educator Day
Panic Day (a.k.a. ...
Absolute Total Nihilists Bang Clang Day (Los Angeles)
Bang-Clang Day
Wellness Permission League’s Panic Day
World DJ Day
World Trisomy 9 Awareness Day
Zangoose Day (Pokémon)
Food & Drink Celebrations
International Spanish Omelette Day
National Cookie Cutter Day
National Crabmeat Day
National Meatball Day
2nd Thursday in March
International School Meals Day [2nd Thursday]
Nametag Day [Thursday of Name Week]
Popcorn Lovers Day [2nd Thursday]
Railroad Day [2nd Thursday]
World Kidney Day [2nd Thursday]
Feast Days
Archytas (Positivist; Saint)
Catherine of Bologna (Christian; Saint)
Cyril VI of Alexandria, Pope (Coptic Orthodox Church)
Dominic Savio (Christian; Saint)
Erotic Dancing Day (Pastafarian)
Farvardigan (Zoroastrian)
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Christian; Martyrs)
Frances of Rome (Christian; Saint)
Gregory of Nyssa (Episcopal Church (United States))
Jackie the Orangutan (Muppetism)
Meatball Day (Pastafarian)
Media Hiems III (Pagan)
Millard Fillmore Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Pacian (Christian; Saint)
Saitousai (Harvest Festival; Japan)
Socrates (Humanism; Saint)
Strinennia (Festival calling birds and spring to return; Slavic Pagan)
Takaosan Hiwatari Matsuri (Fire Walking Festival; Tokyo, Japan)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Lucky Day (Philippines) [17 of 71]
Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Can-Can (Film; 1960)
Castle (TV Series; 2009)
East of Eden (Film; 1955)
Fort Apache (Film; 1948)
42nd Street (Film; 1933)
The Hotel New Hampshire (Film; 1984)
Joe Versus the Volcano (Film; 1990)
John Carter (Film; 2012)
The Joshua Tree, by U2 (Album; 1987)
Mike’s Murder (Film; 1984)
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Piano Concerto; 1785)
The Ref (Film; 1994)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Film; 2012)
Sheep & Wolves (Animated Film; 2018)
Splash (Film; 1984)
State Fair (Film; 1962)
Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale (Anime Film; 2017)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Film; 1949)
A Wrinkle in Time (Film; 2018)
Today’s Name Days
Bruno, Franziska (Austria)
Fanika, Franciska, Nedjeljko (Croatia)
Františka (Czech Republic)
Edvin, Heido, Heivo (Estonia)
Auvo, Edvin (Finland)
Françoise (France)
Barbara, Bruno, Dominik, Franziska (Germany)
Aetios, Eliana, Filoktimon, Iliana, Lysimahos, Sarantos, Sevirianos, Smaragda, Smaragdos, Vivianos, Xanthos (Greece)
Fanni, Franciska (Hungary)
Francesca (Italy)
Ausmis, Ervalds, Ēvalds (Latvia)
Dominykas, Pranciška, Visgailė, Žygimantas (Lithuania)
Sindre, Sverre (Norway)
Apollo, Dominik, Franciszka, Katarzyna, Mścisława, Prudencjusz, Taras (Poland)
Františka (Slovakia)
Catalina, Francisca, Paciano (Spain)
Torbjörn, Torleif (Sweden)
Flavia (Ukraine)
Keely, Kelda, Kelley, Kelli, Kellie, Kelly (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 68 of 2023; 297 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 4 of week 10 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 19 of 28]
Chinese: Month 2 (Yi-Mao), Day 18 (Bing-Yin)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 16 Adar 5783
Islamic: 16 Sha’ban 1444
J Cal: 7 Ver; Sevenday [7 of 30]
Julian: 24 February 2023
Moon: 95%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 12 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Archytas]
Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 14 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 79 of 90)
Zodiac: Pisces (Day 18 of 29)
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Holidays 3.9
Holidays
American Paddlefish Day
Amerigo Vespucci Day
Armored Warships Day
Barbie Day
Baron Bliss Day (Belize)
Chess Prodigy Day
Day of Waiting (Elder Scrolls)
Day to Mourn Slavery
Doctor’s Day (Venezuela)
Eid Al Moalim (Teacher’s Day; Lebanon)
False Teeth Day
Festival of Primal Ooze
Get Over It Day
Hit the Panic Button Day
Joe Franklin Day
Made in UK Day (UK)
National CBDB Day (a.k.a. Central Bank Digital Currency)
National Dishwasher Appreciation Day
National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)
National Lina Day
National Marcia Day
National Music Day (Indonesia)
National Shane Day
National Urban Educator Day
Panic Day (a.k.a. ...
Absolute Total Nihilists Bang Clang Day (Los Angeles)
Bang-Clang Day
Wellness Permission League’s Panic Day
World DJ Day
World Trisomy 9 Awareness Day
Zangoose Day (Pokémon)
Food & Drink Celebrations
International Spanish Omelette Day
National Cookie Cutter Day
National Crabmeat Day
National Meatball Day
2nd Thursday in March
International School Meals Day [2nd Thursday]
Nametag Day [Thursday of Name Week]
Popcorn Lovers Day [2nd Thursday]
Railroad Day [2nd Thursday]
World Kidney Day [2nd Thursday]
Feast Days
Archytas (Positivist; Saint)
Catherine of Bologna (Christian; Saint)
Cyril VI of Alexandria, Pope (Coptic Orthodox Church)
Dominic Savio (Christian; Saint)
Erotic Dancing Day (Pastafarian)
Farvardigan (Zoroastrian)
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Christian; Martyrs)
Frances of Rome (Christian; Saint)
Gregory of Nyssa (Episcopal Church (United States))
Jackie the Orangutan (Muppetism)
Meatball Day (Pastafarian)
Media Hiems III (Pagan)
Millard Fillmore Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Pacian (Christian; Saint)
Saitousai (Harvest Festival; Japan)
Socrates (Humanism; Saint)
Strinennia (Festival calling birds and spring to return; Slavic Pagan)
Takaosan Hiwatari Matsuri (Fire Walking Festival; Tokyo, Japan)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Lucky Day (Philippines) [17 of 71]
Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Can-Can (Film; 1960)
Castle (TV Series; 2009)
East of Eden (Film; 1955)
Fort Apache (Film; 1948)
42nd Street (Film; 1933)
The Hotel New Hampshire (Film; 1984)
Joe Versus the Volcano (Film; 1990)
John Carter (Film; 2012)
The Joshua Tree, by U2 (Album; 1987)
Mike’s Murder (Film; 1984)
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Piano Concerto; 1785)
The Ref (Film; 1994)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Film; 2012)
Sheep & Wolves (Animated Film; 2018)
Splash (Film; 1984)
State Fair (Film; 1962)
Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale (Anime Film; 2017)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Film; 1949)
A Wrinkle in Time (Film; 2018)
Today’s Name Days
Bruno, Franziska (Austria)
Fanika, Franciska, Nedjeljko (Croatia)
Františka (Czech Republic)
Edvin, Heido, Heivo (Estonia)
Auvo, Edvin (Finland)
Françoise (France)
Barbara, Bruno, Dominik, Franziska (Germany)
Aetios, Eliana, Filoktimon, Iliana, Lysimahos, Sarantos, Sevirianos, Smaragda, Smaragdos, Vivianos, Xanthos (Greece)
Fanni, Franciska (Hungary)
Francesca (Italy)
Ausmis, Ervalds, Ēvalds (Latvia)
Dominykas, Pranciška, Visgailė, Žygimantas (Lithuania)
Sindre, Sverre (Norway)
Apollo, Dominik, Franciszka, Katarzyna, Mścisława, Prudencjusz, Taras (Poland)
Františka (Slovakia)
Catalina, Francisca, Paciano (Spain)
Torbjörn, Torleif (Sweden)
Flavia (Ukraine)
Keely, Kelda, Kelley, Kelli, Kellie, Kelly (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 68 of 2023; 297 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 4 of week 10 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 19 of 28]
Chinese: Month 2 (Yi-Mao), Day 18 (Bing-Yin)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 16 Adar 5783
Islamic: 16 Sha’ban 1444
J Cal: 7 Ver; Sevenday [7 of 30]
Julian: 24 February 2023
Moon: 95%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 12 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Archytas]
Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 14 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 79 of 90)
Zodiac: Pisces (Day 18 of 29)
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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: NWT Michael Kors Rae Medium Quilted Metallic Nylon Puffy Backpack Berry Color.
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Art Teacher Barbie (2002)
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Art Teacher Barbie & Kelly (2002) 🎨✨
#barbie#kelly#barbie doll#mattel#toys#kidcore#nostalgia#retro barbie#2002#early 2000's#2000's#early 2000's barbie#2000's barbie#barbie 2002#childhood#kelly doll
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5: distanced
The next step is to find an in, and then an out.
The morning news briefing on TV:
Kelly Sanchez, lead anchorwoman, stares gravely into the camera. It will be another day of news that no one wants to hear.
“Good morning, Chicago. We’re here with your daily update of the coronavirus. Schools across the country have been canceled due to a significant shortage of public funding. These are funds that are currently being allocated to bail out the tanking airline industry. The President says that allowing the top corporations to suffer will result in a greater hole for the economy. We hope he’s right.
Meanwhile, bars, restaurants and shopping centers that have been re-opened early to boost the economy have not seen the dramatic rise in business that was expected. Perhaps people are too afraid to go out to dinner amongst the public, or perhaps they simply can’t afford it due to a loss of work. One thing we do know is that the most detrimental effect of these early openings is causing a further spread. As people in certain states that have not seriously social-distanced begin to cross state lines…”
Emma’s mom and dad are sitting on the couch, waiting for Kelly to tell them that things are going to get at least slightly better. But she doesn’t. It’s getting impossible to convince themselves that this will all be over soon--that everything will return to normal. It’s becoming likely that the new “normal,” if it ever comes, will be something that no one has ever seen.
*buzzzz*
Emma’s alarm wakes her up at 8:30 AM. She facepalms herself upon remembering that school doesn’t exist anymore and therefore alarms are canceled. Dammit.
But then, she remembers that Universe is currently downloading to her external hard drive. The excitement of this sends a shock through her system and wakes up every cell in her body. It’s that “Christmas morning” excitement, which is marginally more enjoyable than that “about to run away with a possibly bad dude” excitement. That kind is good too, just, different. She runs over to her computer.
16 HOURS REMAINING
Shit. The size of this application is no joke. Seemingly she’ll have to wait until tonight to begin her exploration. To find Mason.
Emma remembers the talk they had last night, and reflects on his support of her relationships with her friends. She realizes that she didn’t know many people with that quality, guys especially...it seems like they always demand her full attention and become frustrated if asked to share. Especially one guy. Well anyway, Mason. Intriguing.
Emma heads downstairs to make herself a bowl of cereal. Oh wait, there’s no milk. And no cereal either? These days, groceries are scarce and pickings are slim. Ah well, might have to be plain oatmeal. Serious orphanage vibes--which is somewhat fitting since her parents wish they could leave her at one.
Ugh. Every time you eat oatmeal, you forget how horrible oatmeal is. Isabel sits across the table from her, scrolling through her phone with intent and drinking black coffee. Emma smirks.
“Aren’t you kinda young to be drinking coffee? Plus what do you have to energize for, your job at the office?”
Isabel pays no attention to her.
“Hello? Okay what is up with you.”
Isabel looks up from her phone, a faraway look in her eyes.
“Do you have a headset?” she asks.
“Um, what do you mean? Like headphones? What are you talking about?”
Isabel looks down again.
“No, like a viewing headset. Like an Oculus or a Vive. Aren’t you like, a tech nerd? You don’t do anything with VR?”
Odd request. Emma isn’t much of a gamer anymore, she used to play Dota and Warcraft, but that was before she decided to cut back to become more social. Spend time with her friends. Date an asshole. Whatever. But in all her experience with gaming, she had never gotten into VR. She never saw the point...either play games or experience the real world. What was the point in trying to achieve both at the same time?
“No I don’t. And you know those are expensive as hell, right?”
Isabel looks nervous.
“I know. Which is why...um, I was wondering, can I borrow some money?”
Emma bursts out laughing.
“No Iz, you can’t borrow 800 dollars to buy a VR headset. Hey are you aware that we’re going through a global pandemic and the world may or may not be ending? I think food and toilet paper are better investments than virtual tennis, or whatever.”
Isabel just shakes her head. What is with this girl? She’s normally the queen of smartassery--loves to spar with Emma and argue about literally everything. She’s usually so ready for a fight, but now she feels surrendered. It’s weird how you can be trapped in such close quarters with a person and still feel like they’re on a different planet.
Emma and Isabel are two years apart. Up until Emma was 6 and Isabel was 4, they were best friends. They shared everything. Isabel didn’t want to play with a toy unless Emma played with it with her. She wouldn’t wear clothing unless it was Emma’s hand-me-down. They shared a bedroom, the walls covered with monarch butterflies. Their mom went for a theme, tacky lamp shades and all, lord knows she tried her best. Often, they would stay awake late into the night, vividly describing the dream that the other sister would have. They thought if they focused hard enough, they could carry those dreams with them into sleep.
But as they got older, things changed. The tacky butterflies were no longer endearing. Emma moved into a room that was being used as her dad’s office. She got a Nintendo DS for Christmas. And she started locking her door.
Isabel was left to wonder where her role model went. But after Emma made it clear that her hobbies were no longer to be shared, Isabel hardened herself to the rejection. She promised herself to become her own person in any way that she could, to never be dependent on Emma to define her personality.
In fifth grade, Isabel met Anush. They met because they were both teacher helpers in art class, and it was their responsibility to help set up the room before class and clean it up afterwards. They were both very outgoing, emotional, and honest. Isabel always told Anush exactly what she was thinking, and vice versa. The two girls were popular among their classmates, but the good kind of popular. They were kind, and they included the other girls who wanted to be like them.
So really, it makes no sense that Isabel is being the way that she is. She’s confident, vocal, and annoyingly optimistic. On a normal day. So what’s wrong?
“Emma, someone just dropped a package off for you.”
Their mom called from the other room. Isabel leaves the table, stressed and defeated. Emma continues to chip away at the bowl of grey sludge in front of her. It’s crazy that there are still people out there delivering the mail--how long until that stops too?
*buzz*
Good morning, group chat.
OLIVIA: GG morning check-in: I want to talk about what the hell Serena sees in Dan
MADISON: or what dan sees in serena?? Come on he’s like an intellectual and she’s a superficial barbie princess
ZOE: Mad you know that is MISOGYNISTIC and that you’re letting the fact that she wears expensive dresses and has blonde hair cloud your judgement!!
MADISON: oh shut up it’s early
OLIVIA: Remember when you were begging not to watch the show??
MADISON: quarantine does weird shit to people ok
Emma enters the chat.
EMMA: Ok but without Serena, don’t you think Blair is so much more lame? Like it’s the best friend combo that makes the show imo
ZOE: There she is!!!
MADISON: goooood morning to our very own barbie princess!
OLIVIA: Why are any of us even awake? SCHOOL’S OVERRR. Should we like, do something?
EMMA: Like what? Sit on our asses and text each other from afar?
MADISON: sounds chill
Emma laughs to herself. Damn. She’s going to miss them.
Maybe there’s a way for her to tell...part of the truth? Leave the part about Julian out? Kind of a big part... Say she’s coming back? Make up a concrete opportunity? There has to be some sort of acceptable explanation...there just has to be. And even if she can’t come up with one...there are other things she wants to tell them about. Another boy.
EMMA: Hey do you guys wanna do a zoom chat in a few min? Just kinda feel like talking more than texting rn
MADISON: do u mind if i go back to bed and pass on that? I love u girl but i’m tired af
ZOE: aaand same here, but it’s only because i’m supposed to do this thing…
OLIVIA: so call Gabriel?
ZOE: Wellllll...I don’t wanna lie to y’all.
Ha. Emma knows the feeling.
EMMA: you out too Liv?
OLIVIA: I am innnnn give me a call when you’re ready
MADISON: kiss kiss kiss
ZOE: kiiiiissssss
EMMA: bye losers
Well, maybe telling one person is a good place to start. Liv is super understanding...she’ll be able to think of a good way to break the news to Mad and Zoe. Emma runs up to her room and closes the door. She flops down on her unmade bed, and facetimes Olivia.
“Hey Liv”
“Emmmm”
Lingering silence. Emma just kind of stares at the wall. Olivia breaks the silence.
“Sooo what did you wanna talk about?”
Emma doesn’t know if she can do it. Ok, form words. Try.
“I wanna tell you something, that’s kind of a long story. And it’s connected to other stories. And basically I’ve just gone too long without talking about any of it and now there’s like this big clusterfuck of details that I need you to know but can’t figure out where to start.”
Whew. Even the vaguest of outbursts feels cathartic. Olivia doesn’t seem to be freaked out yet.
“Emma, I’m pretty sure I know you better than anyone. And you can trust me.”
“I know you say that now but...I don’t know if, after I say what I, well I don’t know if you’re gonna trust me. I haven’t said everything that I need to say to you. Or Zo and Mad.”
“Ok, so, here’s your chance. I’m listening.”
Emma takes a deep breath. Where to start?
*knock knock*
The knocks are soft. Unlike her mom’s, whose are very prison guard-esque, and actually who is more likely to not knock at all. Emma calls out.
“What.”
Isabel’s voice comes from the other side of the door.
“I gotta tell you something.” Her voice is uncharacteristically soft.
“I’m on the phone with Liv right now, can it wait?”
Silence.
“Iz?”
Emma hears the creaking of Isabel’s footsteps down the wooden hallway, and then her beddoor shutting. Click, it locks.
Emma turns back to the phone.
“That was Iz, she’s been acting like a freak.”
“What’s going on with her?”
“No idea. I feel like 14 is a weird age, plus like, she’s REALLY social and into school and shit. This quarantine is probably forcing an inversion of her personality.”
Olivia nods with sympathy. “God, that’s rough.”
“Yeah...I feel kinda bad I guess. We just don’t really have anything to talk about.”
“Oh come on, you’re sisters. Talk about how controlling your mom is.”
Emma laughs. She flips onto her back and stretches her legs against the wall. Oh, physical exertion of any kind feels so unnatural.
“Well Liv...we do have one thing in common. Which is...one of the things I haven’t told you.”
Emma fights a smile.
“TELL ME”
“So I saw Isabel playing this weird computer game, I mean I don’t even know if it was a game or like what the hell it was, but now, I’m downloading it…”
“Uh, ok?? Why?”
“This is going to sound insane, but hear me out…”
“Hearing…”
“I got this...message...online. From someone who I’ve never met. A guy, I think, and his name is Mason.”
“OOOMG”
“Hahah well it’s not like that, I mean I have no fucking idea WHAT it’s like, because it’s very weird, and um, he’s the reason I’m downloading this game. The one that Iz is playing. Cuz he told me to.”
Silence.
“That...is really fucking weird.”
“I know.”
“You don’t even know how badly I wish I was coming over right now to go all detective on his ass right now with you…”
Emma laughs. “I know you would be. It’s so weird being here alone.”
“You’re not alone Em!!! I’m here. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but I’ll ALWAYS be here for you. That’s corny as hell but hey it’s true.”
“Hah, yeah...same. I’m here.”
How can Emma keep this incredibly annoying feeling of guilt suppressed? It’s kind of ruining the buzz of anything else. But it will be ok. Olivia will understand...
*ping*
Emma has come to expect that any message received to her ghostwriter account will be from Mason. She jumps up from her bed, still on the call with Olivia. Emma starts to get excited.
“So this is crazy but he just messaged me, ahhhhhh…”
“Eeee tell me what he said!!”
Sure enough, the message is from Mason.
MASON: hi! did you get it yet?
Emma reads the message aloud to Olivia, who is equally confused.
“What is he talking about?
“I have no idea…”
Emma starts typing a response.
EMMA: Good morning! Get what..?
MASON: a package!
Emma looks confused. Was it...Mason who sent the package? What the hell? How does he know where she lives?? Well at this point she’s not surprised.
“Liv, I gotta call you back!”
“Ok you BETTER tell me what the hell this package situation is because congratulations this is now the most interesting thing happening in my life!!!”
Emma ends the call and runs downstairs. Her parents haven’t moved from the couch, still watching coverage of the virus’s destruction on TV.
“Hey Mom where’s that package??”
“Iz said she’d bring it up to you.”
“What? Can you not give her my mail?”
Emma’s mom turns to face her. “Attitude. Chill.”
Emma rolls her eyes and runs upstairs. She knocks on Isabel’s door. Well, bangs, really.
“Hi ready to talk now. What’s up??”
No response. As Emma presses her ear against the door, she can’t hear anything. She jiggles the handle, it won’t open.
“This is really weird. Hello.”
“Hellooooo.”
“Fine, we don’t have to talk. But I need my package. Now.”
……
Emma grabs the little key from behind the thermostat in the hallway. Isabel will just have to forgive her for this. Emma inserts the key into the lock and…
The lock clicks, the handle turns, and the door opens.
Emma enters the room, ready for Isabel to yell at her.
“Iz??”
First Emma sees the packaging. The medium-sized cardboard box on the ground, the bubble wrap, the plastic…it had clearly been torn off in a hurry...
Isabel is sitting at her computer, her back turned toward Emma.
“Isabel?!”
Emma runs over and jerks the swivel chair to face her, and Isabel slouches over. She’s wearing a virtual reality headset.
The one that was sent to Emma in that package.
“ISABEL”
Isabel’s ears are covered with oversized headphones, but even without them, she wouldn’t be able to hear Emma anyway. Her body is limp. Non-responsive.
Emma starts panicking and checks Isabel’s pulse--steady. Her breathing, normal. What is happening here? What is going on??
Then Emma sees the computer screen.
The map. That fucking map.
She turns back to Isabel. She thinks of Mason. She realizes.
The right question is not “What”, but “Where.”
#writers#writers on tumblr#write#short fiction#shortstory#writing#pandemic#coronavirus#young adult#ya novels
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Kelly face mold 2002-2006 comparison by Victoria T. Via Flickr: Kelly Club - Princess Chelsie 2002 Jenny - Kelly Club 5 - Playground Bunch 2005 2006 BARBIE I CAN BE Art Teacher – redhead Kelly girl
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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/lifestyle/the-chic-octogenarian-behind-barbies-best-looks/
The Chic Octogenarian Behind Barbie’s Best Looks
LOS ANGELES — Carol Spencer, 86, may be the most influential fashion designer you’ve never heard of.
In the mid-1960s, she made a red pencil skirt with a white sleeveless blouse that had red stitching and three red buttons down the front. Short white gloves came with it. Thousands sold.
In the 1970s, well aware that the counterculture’s loosening dress code and mores had made it to the mainstream, Ms. Spencer designed a red bandanna halter maxi-dress and a matching leisure shirt for men. Those designs were popular, too.
In the Nancy Reagan 1980s, Ms. Spencer aimed for high-end appeal, making a one-shouldered ball gown in blue jacquard with an organza flower at the nipped-in waist and a cape. One of Mrs. Reagan’s go-to couturiers personally approved the gown to be sold under his name: “Oscar de la Renta for Barbie.”
Ms. Spencer has made wedding dresses, saris, go-go boots and caftans. All in miniature. From 1963 to 1999, she was Barbie’s fashion designer, a career celebrated in her new book, “Dressing Barbie” (HarperDesign).
Ms. Spencer also made her own clothes, and had an easy time working with the doll’s famously unusual proportions, she said, because they weren’t so far from her own. “I have shrunk but in those days, I was tall and skinny,” she said. “I had a 16-inch waist and something on top, too, I sure did, but Barbie’s legs were better than mine.”
She was sitting in her dining room, wearing a blouse in a shade that can only be described as Barbie pink, with a Barbie brooch and a Barbie digital watch that legions of girls probably begged to get for Christmas in the 1990s.
It was a different body part that was most important for her job, Ms. Spencer said: “I have small hands.” She set down the Barbie teacup filled with lemonade she had been clasping to show her fingers. They are small and jut out at angles from the joint, a disfiguration likely caused by years of grasping little needles and bottles of glue.
In creating a wardrobe for Barbie and the entourage (Skipper, Ken, Midge, Big Jim, Baby Sister Kelly, Cara, Stacey, Christie, P.J., Steffie and Miss America), Ms. Spencer was part of a team that has inspired the work of designers including Bob Mackie, Nicole Miller, Jeremy Scott and Jason Wu, who once said he played with Barbie dolls when he was a child.
For a Moschino fashion show in Milan in 2014, Mr. Scott had a Barbie waiting on front-row chairs and sent models down the runway in blond bouffants and pink skirt suits.
Last month, to celebrate the doll’s 60th birthday, Mattel hosted a profusely pink Barbie bacchanal in New York City with Instagram-friendly Dream House backdrops, intended to draw in a new generation of fans who are too young to know that Barbie was the original influencer.
1. Ms. Spencer designed Ski Party Pink for Barbie in 1982. The sweater had Dolman sleeves and a cowl neck. In her ankle-strap high-heels, she was ready to hit the bars, not the slopes.
2. Released in 1979, this City Sophisticate outfit had a faux-fur-trimmed coat and skirt accented by a yellow soutache braid.
3. A Mattel employee accidentally ordered 2,500 yards of gold-and-white striped fabric, instead of 250 yards. Ms. Spencer’s 1965 Country Club Dance fashions made use of the excess.
4. The 1992 Totally Hair Barbie was one of Mattel’s best sellers. Ms. Spencer designed a Pucci-inspired mini.
5. Ms. Spencer wanted to create an “evening pajama” look for Barbie after Barbra Streisand wore a Scaasi version when accepting an Academy Award in 1969. Ms. Streisand’s outfit was see-through, so Ms. Spencer made Barbie special panties.
Saving the Dune Buggy
Even since her retirement, Ms. Spencer has devoted her time to Barbie. Inducted in 2017 into the Women in Toys, Licensing & Entertainment Hall of Fame, she has spent her golden years attending Barbie collectors events, doing research and amassing artifacts.
For years she has worked on “Dressing Barbie,” which is sized for a coffee table and subtitled “A Celebration of the Clothes That Made America’s Favorite Fashion Doll, and the Incredible Woman Behind Them.” Laurie Brookins, a writer and stylist, helped Ms. Spencer with the project.
The book combines styled vintage fashion photography with memoir. Born in 1932 and raised in Minneapolis, Ms. Spencer rejected the wife-and-mother path that prevailed in the American midcentury and instead made a career for herself. “I truly fell in love with Barbie the first moment I created her clothes and accessories,” she writes in the book.
Barbie has been a go-to emblem of all that has ill-served girls and young women in American culture. Living in a world that is almost exclusively white, the doll has breasts that are disproportionately large compared with her hips, and her feet are contorted into a permanent “floint” (short for flexing your toes back as you point the rest of your foot).
Her hair seems to be bleached blond, never with dark (or gray) roots. At times she dressed the part of a doctor or politician but has seemed unable to hold down a job. And there’s the place in Malibu. Does it come from a trust fund or Ken?
But Ms. Spencer would like to counterpunch the Barbie bashing. She points out the doll’s humble origins, with her proportions modeled after paper dolls cut from newspapers. She also defends Barbie as a healthy alternative to video games; an engine of imagination for girls and boys, who can project onto a Barbie doll whoever they may wish to become.
“It’s wholesome play,” she said, as she pulled from a case one of the many hundreds of dolls in her home. This one was wearing a yellow chiffon-like pleated tunic with see-through pajama pants, inspired by the Arnold Scaasi transparent ensemble Barbra Streisand wore to the 1969 Oscars when she won a best actress award for “Funny Girl.”
Ms. Spencer’s house is filled with books like “Barbie: Her Life and Times” and “Dream Doll: the Ruth Handler Story,” about Ms. Handler, who, with her husband, Elliot, and Harold Matson, founded Mattel in 1945. The Barbie fashion doll was released in 1959.
Over a cluttered desk are posters of Barbie, like one showing the same image of the original 1959 doll, displayed against four different bright backgrounds, à la Warhol. (It was made to celebrate Mattel’s 35th Anniversary Barbie Festival, in 1994.)
Ms. Spencer is a scavenger for treasures in a toss-everything world. One day at the Mattel offices, then located in Hawthorne, Calif., she noticed someone was about to throw away an important piece of Barbie memorabilia.
“It was the prototype for Barbie’s dune buggy,” she said. “They were tossing it, and I said, ‘Would you toss it my way?’”
She learned thrift as a child. “During World War II, things were scarce and I remember the family would get the Sunday paper,” Ms Spencer said. “When they’d get through with it, they’d hand me the comic pages so that I could cut out the paper dolls.”
She began to create paper fashion for these paper dolls. Soon she was making her own clothes. But being a fashion designer didn’t seem like a realistic goal in those days, she recalled. “You could be a teacher, nurse, secretary or clerk,” she said. “But wife and mother were the big ones.”
She was engaged to a medical student but when she realized she was expected to work to help pay for education before quitting to be a “doctor’s wife,” she broke the engagement. Then she enrolled at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she got a bachelor of fine arts with a focus on fashion design.
In May 1955, as she was about to graduate, she received a telegram from New York letting her know that her application for a “guest editor” slot at Mademoiselle magazine had been approved. Instead of sticking around for her commencement ceremony, Ms. Spencer took her first plane trip and moved in to the Barbizon Hotel for Women, for a month.
During her time in New York, she attended a reception at the home of the cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein, visited the recently opened United Nations, danced with West Point cadets at the St. Regis hotel and interviewed the designer Pauline Trigère in her studio.
Ms. Spencer was in the same class of Mademoiselle guest editors as Joan Didion. “It was about as far from Minneapolis as you could get,” she writes.
She returned to her hometown to work, designing children’s wear for Wonderalls Company and then moved to Milwaukee to become a “misses” sportswear designer.
In late 1962, Ms. Spencer spotted an advertisement in Women’s Wear Daily. “A national manufacturer who leads its industry with annual sales in excess of $50 million seeks a cost-conscious fashion designer-stylist for its suburban Los Angeles facility.”
She sent a résumé and heard nothing back. Still, sensing this mysterious job was her destiny, she and her aunt packed up their 1959 Ford Fairlane and drove across the country to California.
In April 1963, she saw an ad in the California Apparel News for the same job, and this time her application got a response. It was from Mattel, the toymaker already known for the postwar bombshell: Barbie.
Ms. Spencer went to the company headquarters for an interview and was asked to make a suite of outfits for this creature. She made a halter-top-and-boy-short bikini, a one-piece in the same shade of orange-pink. There was a cover-up and a wrap skirt. She got the job.
Pink Pills Nixed
At that time, Mattel made about 125 different outfits a year for Barbie, and the fashion department, run by Charlotte Johnson, could be cutthroat.
“Charlotte had a theory,” Ms. Spencer said. “If you have four designers, you put them in four corners. And it was always competitive and you were pitching your product. Sometimes the competition was kind of dirty.”
How so? She wouldn’t say. “I’m out of it, I’m retired, I’m enjoying life, I’ll put it that way,” she said, and she took a sip of lemonade from her Barbie teacup.
Some of her early successes, all of which she has cataloged, included Country Club Dance (a white and gold striped gown), From Nine to Five (a midcalf blue dress with an embroidered vest and hair scarf) and Debutante Ball (an aqua satin gown with a fur stole).
Ms. Spencer took her cue from the culture around her. As the Jane Fonda aerobics craze of the 1980s took off, Barbie got a purple leotard and leg warmers. When NASA’s space shuttle exploration was in full tilt, Barbie became an astronaut (albeit one in thigh-high boots and silver capes).
And there was inspiration from her own life as well. When she needed a biopsy on her breast, Ms. Spencer was transfixed by the white coats doctors wore. The biopsy was negative, but the fashion was positive. Guess who became, however briefly, a surgeon?
There were missteps too, like when she gave Dr. Barbie a case of pink pills without knowing that at that time pink pills were known to be methamphetamines. “Let me tell you, that caused quite a stir,” she said. (Her faux pas was caught before Meth-Head Barbie made its way to children’s dollhouses.)
There are hundreds and hundreds of designs that are Carol Spencer originals, with only a small portion bearing her name. Until the mid-1990s, Mattel didn’t put designer names on Barbie’s packaging.
But Ms. Spencer remembers each of her creations, and many of them are in her home, which her sister, Margaret, 88, will be moving into soon. But even though Ms. Spencer gets out less these days, and relies on a walker to take more than a few steps, she said she feels surrounded by good company.
“You’re never alone when you have dinner at my house,” she said. “Barbie is always with you.”
#e news lifestyle#healthy lifestyle news report#lifestyle audit news#lifestyle news feed#lifestyle news ghana#lifestyle news hindi#lifestyles#national lifestyle villages news#odia lifestyle news#the lifestyle newshound instagram
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The truth about my middle school years
You know what I haven’t thought about in awhile? What middle school and high school feel like. I’ve been in college for only a year and I already forgot what it feels like to have to ASK to use the bathroom and to need to have a hall pass, because in college if you have to use the bathroom you just get up and leave the room!!! What a concept!!!
So yeah, once again, I’m bored and I’m gonna talk about my life. Are you ready to learn about the bleakness of American pre teen/teenager’s life???? Of course you are
5th grade: Not quite sure if this counts as middle school in some places, but it does for the school I went to. I went to a conservative, private Christian school where classes were combined and my fifth grade class was merged with the sixth grade class. The sixth graders were the “cool kids”, and they hated all the fifth graders except me. Every morning before class started, the 6th graders would demand that I entertain them, and this led to me performing inappropriate pop songs and scenes from intense movies/shows by myself, and yes, this DID create my love for performing in shows.
I also had a cool writing teacher who adored everything I wrote and constantly praised the dumb comics I drew and the short stories I wrote, and that was when I decided I wanted to write all the time. All the while, I had a best friend who did everything with me and came to my house every Friday afternoon, where we would play with barbies and watch Power Puff Girls. It was a great year, but alas, it came to an end.
6th grade: shit got dark. My best friend dropped out of school so her mom could homeschool her, and even though the new 5th graders loved me, the people in my own grade thought I was annoying. I made friends with an angsty new girl who I’ll only called ‘Kira’ for this, and Kira was a rebel. Therefore, to impress Kira, i became a rebel as well, and my angst was born.
I had a new writing teacher who hated me, and i purposefully went out of my way to make her angry. Specially, she hated it when I drew in my class notebook (“This is WRITING class, not DRAWING class, Mara!!”), so I retailiated by drawing ridiculously busty women throughout my notebook. She didn’t say anything at first, but after a few weeks, she pulled me aside privately and told me that drawing those pictures wasn’t very ‘Christian’ of me. She then made me throw out my notebook and then gave me a new one.
7th grade: Things got better, and yet worse at the same time, if that’s possible. I was still friends with Kira, only something was different- I realized, not only that I wasn’t straight, but that I had a crush on her. This was bad because a) half the people at our school were homophobic, and b) she had a crush on the biggest douchebag in our class. They eventually ended up dating, although I have no idea why because he hated her and she knew he was a dick.
To make up for this, I swallowed the feelings I had for Kira and started ‘dating’ (there’s a reason this word is in quotes) a guy I’m only going to refer to as Jughead Joe. Jughead Joe was basically the epitome of those dark, brooding, misunderstood boys that appear in Anime, only he wasn’t cool. He was also extremely bigoted and a jerk, but I acted like I didn’t notice and hung on his arm anyway.
Stuff started to get weird as the year came to a close, and it all ended at a summer pool party. Jughead Joe and I played Xbox inside, and out of nowhere, he told me he wanted to have sex. When I said no, he said, “oh, come on. No one else wants you.” I didn’t know how to react so I poured my soda on his lap and ran outside, where I called my mom while hiding in a bush. I haven’t spoken to Jughead Joe since.
8th grade: THIS was when my world got flipped over. I switched schools, and I ended up at a dreary public middle school. The beginning of the year was just lonely, terrifying and confusing, but somehow I got out alive. Not unlike Hilary Duff in ‘Cadet Kelly’, there were tears and angst, but I eventually learned to adapt. However, I did not do a ribbon dance at the end of the year, although I wish I had...
At the same time, I had a DeviantART account where I posted my Invader Zim fan art and fanfiction. It was all fun and games until I pissed off the wrong edgelord, but that’s a story for another time.
The highlight of the year was when I finally found a group of friends who actually liked me, and we had a spa day for my birthday. Afterwards, we went to the mall and bought Build-a-Bears and ate overpriced mozzarella sticks. It was a beautiful day in my history, and I finally felt accepted and appreciated.
And then freshman year happened, which I’ll talk about in another post.
That’s all the tea I’m willing to spill for now, everybody! It’s depressing, it’s probably a little exaggerated, it’s probably wearing too much eyeshadow, but you know what??? It’s me. I shouldn’t deny the fact that I was the class clown, the rebel, the weird new girl, and Cadet Kelly all at different points in my life. And if I’m being honest, i don’t regret any of it. Except Jughead Joe.
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A Celebration of Punchy Colors & Delightful Kitsch in Chicago, IL
I think it is splendidly satisfying when a home reflects its owners through and through - when you walk into a home and know exactly who it belongs to without any prior debriefing. This is the complete opposite of someone who might be gregarious in their wardrobe or social pursuits, but prefers a stark and minimal home; or maybe a fun and outgoing home for an otherwise introverted person. I'm talking about the kind of home where the owner's personality is downloaded, word-for-word, into every room of the home. When this happens in design, it's downright magical.
Which is why I am so enamored by the Chicago, IL home of Anna Rafferty and Richard Schreiber (and their cats Bob and Barbara). Richard is an elementary school art teacher in Chicago Public Schools, and Anna sells fantastic vintage clothes - and their affinity for creativity is plain as day. “I have a vintage clothing brand called Barbie Roadkill Vintage; I sell on Etsy as well as in a retail space that I share with two other women called Festive Collective (it's a colorful pink dreamland specializing in party supplies and vintage; you have to check it out if you're in Chicago!),” Anna begins. “I'm attracted to the bold colors and prints I grew up with in the 80s and 90s, and my vintage shop and home decorating aesthetic reflects that. My husband Richard is an elementary school art teacher, and lucky for me, he's a fan of color, too! He's content to let me handle the decorating and I'm more than happy to let him do the dishes.”
Tucked onto the third (top) floor of a 1922 condo in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood, Anna and Richard bought this 1,200-square-foot home in August 2018. Crayons in hand (yes, crayons), Anna got to work sketching her technicolor plans for each room. “My main goal with our home was to inject as much color into each room as possible without it looking too gaudy,” she shares. “We didn't have the budget for designer and mid-century modern furniture and decor that we love, so most of our things are secondhand from Craigslist or thrift stores, but we still sought out pieces that felt special and well-made. Ultimately, we wanted the space to feel impactful but still inviting and comfortable.” Anna's vibrant plans are now reality - with some changes and tweaks made once the couple moved into the space and really felt it out - resulting in a pleasing blend of in-your-face color, joyful accessories and vintage sensibilities. It's a home that's sure to draw out a smile. -Kelli
Photography by Anna Rafferty / @barbie_roadkill & @thefestivecollective
Image above: The main bedroom. Anna shares, “We hired painters before we moved in, which we've never done before and it made a huge difference to have that done first. I made sketches (on paper with crayons, I'm not tech-savvy at all) of how I thought the rooms would look, but most rooms ended up quite different once we were actually working in the space. There's only so much mapping and planning that can be done in advance; a lot of decorating is trial and error… It feels like home now, after six months, but there are still projects on my to-do list (and there probably always will be!).”
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The Chic Octogenarian Behind Barbie’s Best Looks
LOS ANGELES — Carol Spencer, 86, may be the most influential fashion designer you’ve never heard of.
In the mid-1960s, she made a red pencil skirt with a white sleeveless blouse that had red stitching and three red buttons down the front. Short white gloves came with it. Thousands sold.
In the 1970s, well aware that the counterculture’s loosening dress code and mores had made it to the mainstream, Ms. Spencer designed a red bandanna halter maxi-dress and a matching leisure shirt for men. Those designs were popular, too.
In the Nancy Reagan 1980s, Ms. Spencer aimed for high-end appeal, making a one-shouldered ball gown in blue jacquard with an organza flower at the nipped-in waist and a cape. One of Mrs. Reagan’s go-to couturiers personally approved the gown to be sold under his name: “Oscar de la Renta for Barbie.”
Ms. Spencer has made wedding dresses, saris, go-go boots and caftans. All in miniature. From 1963 to 1999, she was Barbie’s fashion designer, a career celebrated in her new book, “Dressing Barbie” (HarperDesign).
Ms. Spencer also made her own clothes, and had an easy time working with the doll’s famously unusual proportions, she said, because they weren’t so far from her own. “I have shrunk but in those days, I was tall and skinny,” she said. “I had a 16-inch waist and something on top, too, I sure did, but Barbie’s legs were better than mine.”
She was sitting in her dining room, wearing a blouse in a shade that can only be described as Barbie pink, with a Barbie brooch and a Barbie digital watch that legions of girls probably begged to get for Christmas in the 1990s.
It was a different body part that was most important for her job, Ms. Spencer said: “I have small hands.” She set down the Barbie teacup filled with lemonade she had been clasping to show her fingers. They are small and jut out at angles from the joint, a disfiguration likely caused by years of grasping little needles and bottles of glue.
In creating a wardrobe for Barbie and the entourage (Skipper, Ken, Midge, Big Jim, Baby Sister Kelly, Cara, Stacey, Christie, P.J., Steffie and Miss America), Ms. Spencer was part of a team that has inspired the work of designers including Bob Mackie, Nicole Miller, Jeremy Scott and Jason Wu, who once said he played with Barbie dolls when he was a child.
For a Moschino fashion show in Milan in 2014, Mr. Scott had a Barbie waiting on front-row chairs and sent models down the runway in blond bouffants and pink skirt suits.
Last month, to celebrate the doll’s 60th birthday, Mattel hosted a profusely pink Barbie bacchanal in New York City with Instagram-friendly Dream House backdrops, intended to draw in a new generation of fans who are too young to know that Barbie was the original influencer.
1. Ms. Spencer designed Ski Party Pink for Barbie in 1982. The sweater had Dolman sleeves and a cowl neck. In her ankle-strap high-heels, she was ready to hit the bars, not the slopes.
2. Released in 1979, this City Sophisticate outfit had a faux-fur-trimmed coat and skirt accented by a yellow soutache braid.
3. A Mattel employee accidentally ordered 2,500 yards of gold-and-white striped fabric, instead of 250 yards. Ms. Spencer’s 1965 Country Club Dance fashions made use of the excess.
4. The 1992 Totally Hair Barbie was one of Mattel’s best sellers. Ms. Spencer designed a Pucci-inspired mini.
5. Ms. Spencer wanted to create an “evening pajama” look for Barbie after Barbra Streisand wore a Scaasi version when accepting an Academy Award in 1969. Ms. Streisand’s outfit was see-through, so Ms. Spencer made Barbie special panties.
Saving the Dune Buggy
Even since her retirement, Ms. Spencer has devoted her time to Barbie. Inducted in 2017 into the Women in Toys, Licensing & Entertainment Hall of Fame, she has spent her golden years attending Barbie collectors events, doing research and amassing artifacts.
For years she has worked on “Dressing Barbie,” which is sized for a coffee table and subtitled “A Celebration of the Clothes That Made America’s Favorite Fashion Doll, and the Incredible Woman Behind Them.” Laurie Brookins, a writer and stylist, helped Ms. Spencer with the project.
The book combines styled vintage fashion photography with memoir. Born in 1932 and raised in Minneapolis, Ms. Spencer rejected the wife-and-mother path that prevailed in the American midcentury and instead made a career for herself. “I truly fell in love with Barbie the first moment I created her clothes and accessories,” she writes in the book.
Barbie has been a go-to emblem of all that has ill-served girls and young women in American culture. Living in a world that is almost exclusively white, the doll has breasts that are disproportionately large compared with her hips, and her feet are contorted into a permanent “floint” (short for flexing your toes back as you point the rest of your foot).
Her hair seems to be bleached blond, never with dark (or gray) roots. At times she dressed the part of a doctor or politician but has seemed unable to hold down a job. And there’s the place in Malibu. Does it come from a trust fund or Ken?
But Ms. Spencer would like to counterpunch the Barbie bashing. She points out the doll’s humble origins, with her proportions modeled after paper dolls cut from newspapers. She also defends Barbie as a healthy alternative to video games; an engine of imagination for girls and boys, who can project onto a Barbie doll whoever they may wish to become.
“It’s wholesome play,” she said, as she pulled from a case one of the many hundreds of dolls in her home. This one was wearing a yellow chiffon-like pleated tunic with see-through pajama pants, inspired by the Arnold Scaasi transparent ensemble Barbra Streisand wore to the 1969 Oscars when she won a best actress award for “Funny Girl.”
Ms. Spencer’s house is filled with books like “Barbie: Her Life and Times” and “Dream Doll: the Ruth Handler Story,” about Ms. Handler, who, with her husband, Elliot, and Harold Matson, founded Mattel in 1945. The Barbie fashion doll was released in 1959.
Over a cluttered desk are posters of Barbie, like one showing the same image of the original 1959 doll, displayed against four different bright backgrounds, à la Warhol. (It was made to celebrate Mattel’s 35th Anniversary Barbie Festival, in 1994.)
Ms. Spencer is a scavenger for treasures in a toss-everything world. One day at the Mattel offices, then located in Hawthorne, Calif., she noticed someone was about to throw away an important piece of Barbie memorabilia.
“It was the prototype for Barbie’s dune buggy,” she said. “They were tossing it, and I said, ‘Would you toss it my way?’”
She learned thrift as a child. “During World War II, things were scarce and I remember the family would get the Sunday paper,” Ms Spencer said. “When they’d get through with it, they’d hand me the comic pages so that I could cut out the paper dolls.”
She began to create paper fashion for these paper dolls. Soon she was making her own clothes. But being a fashion designer didn’t seem like a realistic goal in those days, she recalled. “You could be a teacher, nurse, secretary or clerk,” she said. “But wife and mother were the big ones.”
She was engaged to a medical student but when she realized she was expected to work to help pay for education before quitting to be a “doctor’s wife,” she broke the engagement. Then she enrolled at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she got a bachelor of fine arts with a focus on fashion design.
In May 1955, as she was about to graduate, she received a telegram from New York letting her know that her application for a “guest editor” slot at Mademoiselle magazine had been approved. Instead of sticking around for her commencement ceremony, Ms. Spencer took her first plane trip and moved in to the Barbizon Hotel for Women, for a month.
During her time in New York, she attended a reception at the home of the cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein, visited the recently opened United Nations, danced with West Point cadets at the St. Regis hotel and interviewed the designer Pauline Trigère in her studio.
Ms. Spencer was in the same class of Mademoiselle guest editors as Joan Didion. “It was about as far from Minneapolis as you could get,” she writes.
She returned to her hometown to work, designing children’s wear for Wonderalls Company and then moved to Milwaukee to become a “misses” sportswear designer.
In late 1962, Ms. Spencer spotted an advertisement in Women’s Wear Daily. “A national manufacturer who leads its industry with annual sales in excess of $50 million seeks a cost-conscious fashion designer-stylist for its suburban Los Angeles facility.”
She sent a résumé and heard nothing back. Still, sensing this mysterious job was her destiny, she and her aunt packed up their 1959 Ford Fairlane and drove across the country to California.
In April 1963, she saw an ad in the California Apparel News for the same job, and this time her application got a response. It was from Mattel, the toymaker already known for the postwar bombshell: Barbie.
Ms. Spencer went to the company headquarters for an interview and was asked to make a suite of outfits for this creature. She made a halter-top-and-boy-short bikini, a one-piece in the same shade of orange-pink. There was a cover-up and a wrap skirt. She got the job.
Pink Pills Nixed
At that time, Mattel made about 125 different outfits a year for Barbie, and the fashion department, run by Charlotte Johnson, could be cutthroat.
“Charlotte had a theory,” Ms. Spencer said. “If you have four designers, you put them in four corners. And it was always competitive and you were pitching your product. Sometimes the competition was kind of dirty.”
How so? She wouldn’t say. “I’m out of it, I’m retired, I’m enjoying life, I’ll put it that way,” she said, and she took a sip of lemonade from her Barbie teacup.
Some of her early successes, all of which she has cataloged, included Country Club Dance (a white and gold striped gown), From Nine to Five (a midcalf blue dress with an embroidered vest and hair scarf) and Debutante Ball (an aqua satin gown with a fur stole).
Ms. Spencer took her cue from the culture around her. As the Jane Fonda aerobics craze of the 1980s took off, Barbie got a purple leotard and leg warmers. When NASA’s space shuttle exploration was in full tilt, Barbie became an astronaut (albeit one in thigh-high boots and silver capes).
And there was inspiration from her own life as well. When she needed a biopsy on her breast, Ms. Spencer was transfixed by the white coats doctors wore. The biopsy was negative, but the fashion was positive. Guess who became, however briefly, a surgeon?
There were missteps too, like when she gave Dr. Barbie a case of pink pills without knowing that at that time pink pills were known to be methamphetamines. “Let me tell you, that caused quite a stir,” she said. (Her faux pas was caught before Meth-Head Barbie made its way to children’s dollhouses.)
There are hundreds and hundreds of designs that are Carol Spencer originals, with only a small portion bearing her name. Until the mid-1990s, Mattel didn’t put designer names on Barbie’s packaging.
But Ms. Spencer remembers each of her creations, and many of them are in her home, which her sister, Margaret, 88, will be moving into her house with her soon. But even though Ms. Spencer gets out less these days, and relies on a walker to take more than a few steps, she said she feels surrounded by good company.
“You’re never alone when you have dinner at my house,” she said. “Barbie is always with you.”
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TAISSA MANAYING. college sophomore; nineteen. lisa manoban. OPEN.
and, as tai frasier once said:
“Why should I listen to you anyway? You're a virgin who can't drive.”
BEFORE THE PARTY;
In a very short time, Taissa Manaying’s world has been turned completely upside down. She was a girl that came from your standard household. Her family weren’t millionaires with vacation homes all over the world, they were hard working people who did their best to provide her with a roof over her head. She didn’t drive some top of the line luxury car, all she had was a rusty pick up truck that barely worked. She couldn’t even say that she wasn’t ordinary, despite her efforts to stand out in a crowd. She still blend right in, the only thing she could think of that set her apart from those around her was her talent. Taissa was one hell of an artist and because of that reason, her art teacher urged her to apply for Ravenwood University. It was a school that had given huge platforms for artists just as great as she was. If they could make it, there was no reason why Taissa couldn’t as well. An acceptance would provide her with the opportunity to provide her family with a more extraordinary life. If anyone deserved everything great that the world had to offer, it was them.
That’s why she’d sent in that application to Ravenwood University.
Taissa already had the grades for it and her portfolio was a collection of carefully selected art pieces by her teacher. If she was accepted for a couple of scholarships and got a job while in school, she didn’t see why she wouldn’t be able to afford to go. So she kept her eyes on her mailbox day in and day out, just hoping to get a reply from the university. The one day that she wasn’t there to greet her mailman, it came. Her parents presented her with the package, one that was far too heavy to be a denial from them. Her parents encouraged her to rip it open and she did just that.
She’d gotten into the school, the first in her family to get into an Ivy League University.
When she finally stepped foot on campus, she hoped that life at Ravenwood would be quiet. It was university after all, who had time to make the lives of others miserable when they had so much to be concerned with. Right? So Taissa decided to be optimistic on her first day and just smile as much as she could, she was bound to make at least one friend.
Wrong. Her first day at Ravenwood was definitely taught her a lesson. Ravenwood was essentially high school the sequel, all that talk about people being too busy with their school work to be vicious was a lie. She was ridiculed because of her ensemble, apparently plaid shirts and overalls weren’t in vogue anymore? Not only that but she was mocked because of her Jersey accent, which she didn’t even know she had. It wasn’t like she sounded like someone out of the Jersey Shore, did she? Taissa had began to accept that Ravenwood University was probably going to be exactly what she imagined it would be. A bunch of rich snobs that looked down at those without money. Four years of having to deal with bullshit, expect now she was paying to deal with it. Great. But just as she began to lose hope on her new surroundings, a girl came to her rescue.
Chanel Horowitz. It’d occurred when a group of sorority girls had gone out of their way to calculate how much her outfit probably came out to, probably due to the fact that they were pissed off they couldn’t be in a sorority given Kirby Dunn’s first rule as president. She would be pissed too if she couldn’t haze innocent girls. But before she could snapback, Chanel Horowitz stood up for her. She didn’t have to do that, she looked like she belonged with the vicious group of girls but she began to cut them down in her own rich girl way. Apparently everything they owned was last season. Which given the pained and embarrassed looks on their faces, she assumed was a really bad thing to the rich girls.
Not only had Chanel stood up for her that day, but she’d taken her under her wing. She introduced her to her best friend Dylan Davenport and things just changed for her from them on.
Taissa still didn’t quite understand why they’d taken a liking to her, they were so posh and sophisticated. They were like Barbies come to life. The two girls were like adults. Like real life adults. Kids their age back in Jersey hung out at skate parks and smoked a ton of weed in basements. Chanel and Dylan, they hung out at upscale nightclubs and smoked weed on balconies with stunning views of the Chicago skyline. Being Chanel’s friend had made life at Ravenwood all the much more bearable for her. It elevated her to the top of Ravenwood’s social ladder, it made her a cool girl.
She was so enamored with their way of life that she allowed Chanel to completely make her over. Her closet once consisted of plaid shirts, beat up chucks and overalls. Now, her closet was packed from end to end with gorgeous clothes from high end designers. Clothes that literally costed more than one of her parents monthly paycheck, it was insane. Her frizzy and messy wild curls became sleek waves. She learned etiquette and posture, essentially becoming a whole new person. Just with a couple of changes, people around Ravenwood suddenly cared what she did and what she said. The very kids that teased her were now asking for exclusive artwork and they paid big bucks for it.
She was finally in but one had to ask, was the other shoe ever going to drop?
DURING THE PARTY;
Taissa moved her hips to the music blaring from the speakers at the house party. Tonight had been an incredible thus far. Everyone at the party wanted to either talk to her, take pictures with her or simply be around her. Her. The girl that no one had paid any mind to just two months ago, now she was the person to be seen with at a party.
But who was it that Taissa wanted to be with? Tate Ahadi.
She had grown fond of the guy, because he didn’t care about any of this. Weirdly enough, but that was why. Tate had liked her before the makeover, he’d liked her just because of who she was. They had bonded over their love for the same weed strains, the same munchies, the same music and the fact that they both loved the same anime. Sailor Moon. A fact he wasn’t ashamed to say, which only made him that much more adorable to her.
So why wasn’t she trying to take things a step further with the guy?
Because he wasn’t what Chanel and Dylan deemed the right guy. She was on the verge of becoming one of the most popular girls in school. With that came the opportunity to get with whatever guy she wanted, but the only guy she wanted to be with was Tate Ahadi. And there he was, that cute grin on his face as he’d caught sight of her.
Screw the right guy, Tate was the guy for her. So she decided then and there to spend the rest of the evening by his side. A decision she hadn’t regretted as she was genuinely enjoying herself by his side. She didn’t have to fake a laugh with Tate as she often had to with these cool guys. Tate didn’t try to impress her with his touchdown records much like Kurt Kelly, nor did he flash his money as if that would make her swoon. He was just himself and that was more than enough for her. After an intense dance battle where they’d both come out looking ridiculous, Tate flashed her a blunt and looked up towards the higher levels of the house — code for wanna smoke? Which Taissa was always down for.
So they found themselves on the house’s roof that evening, enjoying the view of Rosewood. Something that Chanel and Dylan also enjoying doing while smoking so... perhaps Tate wasn’t that different from her friends? Maybe he was the right guy in his own way? It wasn’t like he didn’t come from money, he’d been adopted into a powerful family after all. She took another pull from the blunt, eyeing him as she did so.
This was her chance. And she was going to take it. She leaned in slightly, hoping to meet his lips but the roof’s shingles appeared to have a different plan in mind. One in which they began to slide forward, pulling her away from the guy she liked and towards the ledge!
alternate faceclaims and prompts.
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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: NWT Michael Kors Rae Medium Quilted Metallic Nylon Backpack Berry Color.
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