This month, friends helped me haul carts of food, drinks, and Pepto Bismol–pink decorations to the roof of my Brooklyn apartment. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday. There was no national holiday on the calendar. For one night, we pulled out all the stops to celebrate a woman we’d never met, but each felt uniquely connected to: Barbara Millicent Roberts, known to most as Barbie.
I’m one of countless moviegoers commemorating Barbie’s release by doing the most. Across the country, women of varying backgrounds, sexualities, body types, and physical abilities are seeing the movie in thematically dressed packs, destined for TikTok virality. Some have rented out entire theaters, or attended an Oppenheimer–Barbie double feature in a look that represents the contrast between the films.
Giulia Baldini, the New Jersey–based founder of editorial collective Fashion on the Beat, hosted a Barbie watch party and hangout to build community around her organization. “I pitched it to my team in late June,” she tells Bazaar.com. “I said, ‘What about going to the movies or a museum? What about Barbie?’ I wanted to watch it with my friends and wear all pink, so I thought we should extend that to everybody.”
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Others, like me, brought Barbie Land home with a meticulously planned party. Shameless in my pursuit of a night of plastic fantasy, I enlisted help from friends at Funboy, Swoon, Forever 21, and culinary communications agency Eleventh House, whose clients sent enough refreshments to feed (and inebriate) an army. The night of the get-together, I watched Barbie at 5:00 p.m., and by 8:00, I was playing Mattel-themed trivia over tacos and cosmos.
A guest dressed as Barbie at Tess Garcia’s celebration
Garcia and friends at her Barbie premiere party, after enjoying food from JaJaJa and 12 Chairs Cafe, desserts from Zola Bakes, and drinks from Loverboy.
Barbie came to attract a remarkably diverse audience with an inclusive, star-studded cast, an intricate, green-screen-free set, and product collaborations ranging from rugs to roller skates. Once it became clear that director Greta Gerwig would take a surprisingly emotional approach to the film, social media roared with anticipation, culminating in an opening weekend that raked in $155 million domestically. For many, Barbie has evolved into more than a movie. It’s a movement, and an excuse to go out with friends and dress the way our younger selves dreamed we would as adults.
“So many people thought I would grow out of my love for pink and Barbie as I got older,” says Taylor Brione Ballard, an event planner and Barbie collector in Houston who rented out a theater for a private screening complete with raffle prizes, photo ops, and a pink carpet. “I started sharing an event invite in May. I was telling my mom, ‘I already paid this money, so I hope people are going to come.’ I ended up having 118 people.”
My foremost memories of Barbie involve using her as a vessel for storytelling. Beneath the surface, she conditioned me to view physical beauty, whiteness, and male validation as measures of success comparable to a college degree. Still, I spent weeks preparing to celebrate her this summer, much like Baldini. She says that initially, her decision to host a Barbie event was more influenced by timing than the movie itself. But as she embarked on the planning process, she became aware of how the doll had shaped her core beliefs, especially as an Afro-Latina woman raised in Italy.
Taylor Brione Ballard (center) and friends for her premiere party
The turnout for Ballard’s Barbie party
“Barbie signifies the impressions I always had of America,” Baldini says. “She played a role in the way I could see myself achieving things [in the U.S.] that I never thought I’d be able to back home. Seeing Barbie, Ken, and maybe one Black doll in a castoff role, always a secondary character—for me, that was already, Wow, that’s amazing. When I was little, my dream, whenever I would think about the United States, was, okay, I’m going to be like Barbie. Barbie’s world is America.”
Ballard, who grew up with five Barbie-loving younger sisters, recalls her mom visiting multiple stores to find Black dolls for each of them. “My parents tried to get a different doll for everybody,” she says. “My mom went all over town just to leave one store with one doll for one girl. That’s really why I collect: I love having all of my Black dolls in one place.”
The night of her event, Baldini met 15 Barbies and one Ken outside her local theater. The group gathered 90 minutes before the showing to bop between restaurants, discuss their predictions about the film, and take photos and videos in their Barbie best. Some people came just for the pre-movie hangout.
“In the movie, America Ferrera’s daughter says Barbie can’t give up even if the world is messed up,” she says. “This event was confirmation for me, as the founder of this space, that I’m on the right path.”
Ahead of her screening, Ballard’s RSVP list grew so long, she enlisted her sisters to help with day-of logistics. One flew in from Oklahoma just for the event. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” she says. The final product was an hours-long blowout that welcomed everyone from elderly women to girls as young as four.
“It was almost like playing Barbies in real life,” Ballard reflects. “Everyone was so nice to everyone. Strangers helped strangers take pictures, we had food and signature drinks, strawberry milkshakes for the kids. It felt like that’s what we would be doing with our dolls.”
Giulia Baldini greeting guests before her screening event
Baldini and guests ahead of the premiere
Baldini recorded videos of her guests before and after seeing Barbie. The first round focused on people’s hopes for the movie, while in the second, the group gave unfiltered impressions straight out of the theater. “In the ‘before’ [videos], I heard both opinions: that it’s exploitative for all this money to go to Barbie, and the other reaction, people who wanted to party but weren’t sure about the plot,” she says. “Afterward, there was still excitement, but people were pondering their emotions, especially the women—and especially the Black women. Because of this event, I was able to introduce many people for the first time, but also strike a nerve in the communities each of us represents.”
It seems like every morning, women wake up to news that could destroy our futures. That’s especially true for women from marginalized communities, all of whom are disproportionately impacted by landmark decisions like the overturn of Roe v. Wade. We’re experts at making the most of what we have, and in such a fraught political landscape, it’s crucial that we go all out in the name of joy. Celebrating Barbie is not a blind submission to capitalism; it’s a survival mechanism.
A guest attending the Barbie premiere
“In the movie, everybody’s Barbie,” Ballard says. “Although Margot Robbie is what society considers Barbie, she’s not the only Barbie. We’re all Barbie. Your Barbie is not my Barbie, and that’s the beauty of it.”
During the hangout portion of her event, Baldini noticed women from outside of the group joining in on the fun. “It was so genuine to see people greeting each other, saying, ‘Hi, Barbie,’” she says. “It’s like saying, ‘I see you and we deserve this. We deserve to have fun.’”
