One Barbie Didn’t Make the Grade

“Forever Barbie?” (by Debra J. Hotaling, June 27), about Jill Barad, Barbie’s “mother” and CEO of Mattel, was quite interesting as it recorded the ups and downs of Barbie over the years and lauded Barad’s marketing skills. But I waited for a paragraph or two about the ill-fated decision to offer a tattooed Barbie. That product was apparently quickly withdrawn when parents were faced with the prospect of their 10-year-old daughters wanting to get tattoos like Barbie.

I assume that Barad was behind the tattooed Barbie or it would not have been produced.

Jeri Taylor

Indio

Eighteen years with a single corporation, an impressive track record, a sensible and admirable home life and $4.8 million a year. Move over “Be Anything Barbie” and make way for your sister, “American Dream Barbie.”

And who cares about the hair? We don’t sit back and ridicule male CEOs who have potbellies, bald heads or the variety of silly accouterments familiar to the world at the top, do we?

Lance Castro

Long Beach

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor several times while reading the Barad article, especially toward the end when she wrote that she and her husband are going to adopt a baby or two. Wait a minute! It seems that she can’t even handle the two she already has, only giving them time (what’s that, three to five hours?) I didn’t think that was all the time children needed, but if that’s the case, sign me up for that deal.

Barad seems not to be juggling her life too well if she works some 10 hours a day and pays someone to raise her kids, clean her house, do the laundry and dishes and to cook. And her husband, not just her children apparently get only a few hours a week.

I agree that the world revolves around money, but you can’t explain that to your children when they’re hurting inside as a result of a lack of love and quality time.

Kelli Herrmann

626-303-6314 Monrovia