Back in 2019, I was thrilled to be chosen as the ghostwriter for Dressing Barbie, the autobiography of Carol Spencer, a beloved woman among Barbie fans, as she was a key Mattel designer of both Barbie dolls and fashion for more than three decades. As Carol was based in California and I was in New York City, she and I spent many hours in 2018 on the phone (a time before Zoom became essential to our lives), as she told stories and I asked questions, and from there I shaped her narrative into chapters. Spencer's entertaining story, which includes many anecdotes about her design process for now-iconic dolls and fashions, was published in the spring of 2019.
Even before Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie surpassed the $1 billion mark in ticket sales, HarperCollins produced a paperback version of the book, released this past June. With elements of pop culture and style so laser-focused on Barbie throughout this summer, it was a terrific and exceedingly smart marketing decision. Carol is now 90 and still going strong; I loved working on this project and likewise love the idea that I played a small role in telling the story of Barbie and one of the incredible women integral to her icon status.