Barbie is a fashion doll whose full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she was created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler. Barbie’s boyfriend Ken Carson was introduced to the market in 1961.
A recent trend has taken the world by storm, where young men and women are dedicating their lives and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to transform themselves into living dolls.
Alina Kovalevskaya
A young girl from Odessa, Ukraine has taken it upon herself to mimic the doll’s appearance. She has focused more on replicating Barbie’s facial features. She avoids the sun during the day in order to keep her complexion milky white.
Kovalevskaya also wears big contact lenses to give her a plastic, wide-eyed look. According to her she has never had plastic surgery.
“I look like a doll. I like big eyes, little nose, small plump lips. I love long hair. My hair is a meter long,” she said.
Valeria Lukyanova
Our next Barbie girl is also from Ukraine. She is a model turned DJ who released her debut single, "Jack Your Barbie," in October 2015.
Lukyanova once claimed in a Cosmo Q&A that she is able to speak to aliens and travel through time.
She definitely looks ethereal, with her pale white face, piercing blue-green eyes. She has admitted to having breast implants but says that the rest of her body is natural.
Lhouraii Li
A nail technician from Bradford has a fashion sense that was inspired by the popular doll. She spends up to four hours daily on makeup, and likes to dress up like a Barbie.
Li shares her makeup tutorials on YouTube for other Barbie lovers like herself.
Nannette Hammond
This Barbie doll from Ohio in the US has a 28H bra size. She has had three boob jobs, a breast lift, veneers, lip fillers and eyelash extensions.
“It’s worth every penny to look like this,” Hammond said to News Dog Media in March 2016. “I feel happy and secure. I want to age gracefully and when the time comes for me to have a face-lift, I won’t hesitate to get one.”
Amber Kohaku Chan
Amber, whose real surname is Guzman, is a 28-year-old from California. She has muscular dystrophy, due to which she cannot walk long distances.
She has said that her symptoms make her look and act like a “real doll” as she has to be mostly carried around.
“Valeria Lukyanova and Anatastasiya Shpagina have the looks of a living doll and are amazing at make-up,” Amber said of two of the world's best known Human Barbies. “But a true living doll is what I am, not only in my looks but physically,” Daily Mail reported Guzman as saying.
Justin Jedlica
Jedlica, a.k.a. the Human Ken Doll, has chiseled features and a body to match. He has spent big bucks to look like he does, around a whopping $170,000 on plastic surgery.
Jedlica underwent his first surgery at the age of 18, and has since gone on to have a total of 190 procedures. He lives in New York with his husband.
Rodrigo Alves
Alves is a UK-based flight attendant who has enhanced his Ken look with surgeries costing him well over $325,000.
His surgeries have included ab implants, liposuction on his jawline and rhinoplasty. According to British paper The Mirror, the living Ken owns more than 200 pairs of shoes. He joked, "If people think that I spent a lot in plastic surgery, [wait] until you see all my shoes."