More than 63 years after her debut at Toy Fair in 1959, Barbie finally has a body that looks like the average teenage girl. Designed by Pittsburgh, Pa.-based artist Nickolay Lamm, the look may not be more flattering, but it’s definitely more believable.
Average Barbie, who has not been endorsed by Mattel, is modeled off body measurements of a normal 19-year-old American girl using data from the CDC. She’s shorter and broader, with a smaller head and thicker neck. Standing next to Average Barbie, Mattel’s Barbie looks a little alien.
Lamm levels the same criticism at Barbie that many have offered since the doll’s debut — that her unrealistic body proportions present an unattainable standard of beauty for young girls. While we criticize skinny models regularly, dolls may be even more influential to girls’ development of body image standards, he argues.
“If Barbie looks good as an average woman and even there’s a small chance of Barbie influencing young girls, why can’t we come out with an average sized doll?” Lamm tells TIME. “Average is beautiful.
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