Growing up Skipper: She’s 2 dolls in 1 for twice as much fun!
Make her grow from a young girl to a teenager in seconds!
A long way from Raggedy Ann
From the Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, Kansas) June 16, 1975
For moms and dads, children always seem to grow up too fast. Now there’s a harmless way to reverse the aging process, as often and as quickly as they want.
A little arm twisting will change a blossoming young woman into a tree-climbing pre-adolescent, and back again — provided the young “woman” is a doll. Skipper’s not a kid anymore.
The smaller, under-developed younger “sister” of the Barbie doll has advanced into puberty. Now, with her flat chest expanded, her curves accentuated and height boosted, she has matured past her older but still underdeveloped sister into a young woman.
Officials at Mattel Toys, which manufactures the dolls, say they recognize the doll could activate a lot of curiosity in the 4-to 10-year-olds for whom it is designed, but they believe the Growing-Up Skipper has some good effects.
“We feel it may be a trend toward reflecting reality and recognizing maturity,” Joel K Rubenstein, director of marketing for Mattel explained. Changing Skipper simply involves grasping her delicate wrist between the forefinger and thumb and revolving her left arm all the way around counterclockwise.
As the arm completes its 360-degree turn, Skipper grows nearly an inch taller from the waist, develops a slightly more definable posterior, and sprouts what Rubenstein calls “a modest bustline.”
So modest, in fact, no brassiere was included. And if watching your innocent, naive “little girl Skipper” grow up within seconds into a bosomy teenager seems a bit much, you just turn her arm all the way around clockwise and she’s cute and young again.
“We expect to sell over a million Skippers by the end of this year. She was first introduced on May 20,” Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein said Skipper is the first realistically-proportioned doll Mattel has introduced in the United States.
“The American public is not ready to accept an anatomically correct doll. In Europe, we market and sell anatomically proportioned dolls and they sell well. Our research has indicated we cannot successfully market such a doll here in the United States.
Just in case, Mattel felt obligated to prominently print a warning to parents on the Growing-Up with Skipper package: “Not recommended for children under 3.”
Vintage Barbie Growing Up Skipper TV commercial (1975)
Growing Up Ginger – Skipper’s “doll friend”
Growing up Skipper paper dolls
Mattel Growing Up Skipper Doll: A doll to match little girls’ dreams of growing up.
Skipper is two dolls in one. A cute young girl until you turn her arm, then she grows up before your eyes into a slim, curvy, tall teenager. $4.69
