Life in Plastic

Certain set-ups necessitated creative thinking to get the right shot — Goodman recalls cutting off Ken’s forearm, drilling holes and adding modeling wire to give the stiff doll arm the bend needed to make a phone call — and she would fly to Mattel headquarters in California to pitch each issue. “The first time I went out, I showed them a layout for Halloween,” Goodman recalled. “The color scheme for that page was, naturally, orange and black. And the Barbie creative director looked at me and says, ‘Barbie doesn't like orange.’” In the end, the Halloween story’s palette was green and black. 

“We photographed Barbie for the cover of every issue,” said Goodman. “But we were also really a magazine for girls. There was fashion, there was beauty. We had an advice page with content like, what to do if you have a problem with your best friend. It was really a great magazine for little girls.” 

In the pre-Photoshop years of publishing (Goodman worked on Barbie Magazine from 1985-94), photo-retouching was costly. “Mattel wanted us to make it look like Barbie was real, so any manufacturing seams in her arms or anywhere else had to be removed,” said Goodman. “The denouement was when we decided to send Barbie on an adventure to Rio.” Carnival costumes were crafted from feathers and fabrics sourced from New York’s Garment District and expertly hot-glued together. “Lots of necks, lots of arms, lots of legs were on display. And the retouching bill was through the roof,” she said. Ultimately, the price of such shoots became too unwieldy for production. “The Barbie photo drama died, and we had killed it.”

Since then, Goodman’s design career has taken her in a variety of directions, from a stint at Marvel (“I have to say, I have a greater affinity for Barbie than I did for The Hulk”) to freelancing in creative and graphic design and working with clients as varied as Rolling Stone Magazine  and The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

In the end, Barbie brought Goodman to many unexpected places, from meeting her husband Greg Leeds after he was hired as the art director for GI Joe (“It was as if Barbie and GI Joe were dating”) to a meeting with Jackie O (yes, that Jackie O) about a tentative Barbie fashion book that never saw the light of day, an afternoon Goodman describes as a “career highlight.”

Though she’s less close to the Barbieverse these days, Goodman is looking forward to the movie, noting that while “she’ll probably be able to find a few anachronisms,” the visual style Gerwig and her production team have crafted evokes the familiar old Barbie aesthetic well. Goodman remembers those days of photo dramas and hot glue with fondness: “It was really one of the best jobs I ever had.”