Skipper (Barbie)

Skipper Roberts is a doll created by Mattel in 1964 to be Barbie's younger sister. Mattel redesigned Skipper in 2009, adding a purple streak to her hair and giving her a tech-savvy personality. According to her fictional biography, Skipper calls herself a gadget girl who likes computers and trying out the latest technology. In the Barbie movies, she likes to work on her photo blog. Skipper's appearance has changed significantly since her introduction. The first Skipper doll was eight years old. She was designed as a response to requests for Barbie to have children; Mattel felt that a little sister would be a better choice instead. Skipper was later changed to a teenager, and a controversial "Growing Up Skipper" doll with growable breasts was created to demonstrate the change. According to the Random House novels of the 1960s, Skipper is the second child of George and Margaret Roberts of Willows, Wisconsin (their first child being Barbie). In these novels, she attended Baker Elementary, while the Marvel Comics of the early 1990s had her at Central Junior High School. Since Skipper was re-released in 2009, she has had a new personality to match her redesigned appearance. She is described as a technology lover who likes "being a gadget girl and trying out the hottest techie toys." As of Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures, this iteration of Skipper is fourteen years old. Skipper's new design has also been rendered in computer animation for her appearances in the Barbie film series and the TV series Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures. For the TV show, Skipper and her sisters were given "a realistic and modern CGI look" that was different from previous entries in the franchise. Since Skipper was introduced, the dimensions of the doll have changed significantly. She was 9.25 inches in height (compared to Barbie's 11.5 inches) when she was first introduced, and then as newer versions were released, she gradually became taller with a teenage appearance. Usually, Skipper dolls have blue eyes.