18 Books to Read After You Watch Barbie

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The highly anticipated Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is finally in theaters, ushering in a summer where Barbiecore reigns supreme.

In an interview with GQ, Gosling recommended a book about horses as a "Kencential," saying, "Books are important. Unfortunately I just have book, but if you had more than one you would have books. Books are better. Preferably one's about horses. What can I say? Books make people think that you have interests and Ken's number one personality trait is just to look interested in things. Not be interesting. Don't make that mistake."

While there are no horse books on this list (sorry, Ken!), there is Horse Barbie, a moving memoir about a trans model and activist. Below, you'll find a list of even more Barbie-adjacent books, from the nonfiction parenting book that inspired Gerwig while writing the film, to a dive into the legal battles of Mattel (Barbie's parent company), to a collection of poems reimagining Barbie as an Asian American woman after the suburbs. So, after you watch Barbie (and then watch it again, or maybe go see Oppenheimer for a double feature), here are 18 books to fill the Barbie-shaped hole in your heart.

Reviving Ophelia 25th Anniversary Edition: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

Writer and director Greta Gerwig explained Barbie is inspired by Reviving Ophelia. "My mom would check out books from the library about parenting, and then I would read them,” Gerwig told Vogue. Piper and Gilliam's book focuses on the time in which girls become teenager. "They’re funny and brash and confident, and then they just—stop," Gerwig says. "How is this journey the same thing that a teenage girl feels? All of a sudden, she thinks, Oh, I’m not good enough."

Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her

If you're more interested in the history of Barbie, the toy, and the American Jewish woman who created her, Ruth Handler, look no further than Barbie and Ruth. This biography by Robin Gerber tells the tale of how Ruth's grit and resilience made Barbie into the iconic toy she is today.

You Don't Own Me: How Mattel V. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side

The Barbie movie is full of corporate synergy with Mattel, the toy company who owns the rights to the doll. But this book, You Don't Own Me, written by law professor Orly Lobel, shows how the toy industry is cutthroat.

Horse Barbie: A Memoir

Barbie the movie is filled with all types of Barbies. Let us introduce you to a real-life Barbie: Geena Rocero, a trans model who got her start as a pageant queen in the Philippines but then hid her identity when she started working as a fashion model in New York City.

The Bluest Eye (Vintage International)

Watch Barbie (2023) then read The Bluest Eye (1970)? Hear us out. Toni Morrison's debut novel follows a young Black girl, Pecola, who fixates on blue eyes as a symbol of whiteness. Morrison has said she started writing the book because she was "interested in talking about black girlhood." As a redditor explained when someone was looking for books like Barbie, "The Bluest Eye treats the impact of dolls on the American psyche."

All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns

Betty Gilpin's memoir has to be on here for the cover alone, right? The actress and writer's essay collection is worth reading beyond the cover. As Gilpin explains, "Let’s hop from wild dissections of modern womanhood to boarding school musings to the glossy cringe of Hollywood. Let’s laugh at my failures and then quietly hope with me for the dream. Whether that dream is love or liberation or enough IMDB credits to taze the demon snapping at my ankles, we won’t know until the shit-fanning end."

The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men

Barbie isn't just the story of Barbie, but also of Ken. Powell's bookshop recommended this dive into the male gaze and hunks in pop culture on their Barbie reading list, and we're inclined to follow suit. As author Manuel Betancourt tweeted, "The Male Gazed has big Ken-ergy, it's true."

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us

Part biography (of Barbie and of Ruth Handler) and part analysis of Barbie as a cultural phenomenon, The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie explores Barbie's impact over the decades. Meg Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries, pens the introduction, wherein she writes, "How Barbie looked was never the issue.... What she taught us was that, like Barbie, we could be anything we wanted to be."

A Touch of Jen

In A Touch of Jen, a thrilling satire about influencers, Remy and Alicia are 30-somethings in dead-end service jobs. They are both obsessed with Jen, a beautiful former co-worker of Remy’s who is a wannabe influencer. When they run into Jen and she invites them on a surfing trip with her boyfriend, they can’t say no, but the trip—and its aftermath—are not what they expect. It's Barbie, if Barbie were a horror film.

Barbie Chang

In this linked poetry collection, Victoria Chang reimagines Barbie as "Barbie Chang," a disillusioned Asian American woman living in the suburb. In her poems, Chang explores racism, sexual privilege, and the disillusionment of love.

Life in Miniature: A History of Dolls' Houses

Barbie's dream house was not the first doll house—it comes in a long line of dolls' houses, starting in 16th century Bavaria. "We think of dolls' houses now as toys," author Nicola Lisle writes in the introduction, "but originally they were showpieces for adults to display their collections of valuable, finely crafted miniatures that boasted of their wealth and social status... Peeking into dolls' houses now gives us a glimpse into the past."

Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll

This "unauthorized biography" chronicles the story of Barbie. As Publisher's Weekly notes, "Lord's comprehensive research includes interviews with toy-makers, an eclectic group of Barbie collectors, visual artists and feminists who disagree on Barbie's impact on young girls."

Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions

T&C contributor Mattie Kahn turns her watchful eye to the role that teenage girls have played in the history of American social progress. As Barbie is all about girls on the cusp of adolescence, why not read some real life stories of inspiring teenagers? we wrote in our favorite books of summer 2023, "Kahn finds truly incredible stories from the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement to one of the U.S.'s first labor strikes. It's an engrossing, important book to read—and to give to any young person in your life."

The Fashion Doll: From Bébé Jumeau to Barbie

"Depending on the viewer, Barbie is either a malign symbol of the strategies of the capitalist system or she is a symbol of glamour, high fashion and style, a fascinating indice of cultural change and nostalgic memory," publisher Berg explains. "Yet both Barbie's fans and detractors assume that she stands alone. In reality, she is the most high profile of a series of iconic dolls that over the past century and a half have been intimately connected to notions of fashionability." We're intrigued.

Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes

"I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much," Gerwig said about the pinks in her film. Barbie pink is all anyone can discuss this summer, so dive into this analyses of color in film. As author Charles Bramesco tweeted, "Several of the films Gerwig names as influences on Barbie are featured in Colors of Film, in many instances right down to the specific shots she cites."

The Pink Book: An Illustrated Celebration of the Color, from Bubblegum to Battleships (Books about Colors, Illustration Books, Color History Guides, Arts & Photography Books)

And while we're talking pink, this Pink Book is a delightful journey through the color. The production of Barbie caused a pink paint shortage!

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption

In The Ugly History of Beautiful Things, Katy Kelleher explores the world's obsession with beauty. While Barbie doesn't really come up (just an offhand mention or two), it's a thoughtful meditation on the moral dilemmas of beauty and desire.

Dressing Barbie: A Celebration of the Clothes That Made America's Favorite Doll and the Incredible Woman Behind Them

If you were obsessed with Margot Robbie's fashion from her press tour as Barbie, this Dressing Barbie book is for you—it takes a look back at the history of Barbie's fashion.

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