Barbie has left Ken for Blaine.\n\n There is something a little surprising about Barbie taking up with, well, someone who's not her all-American equal. But the strapping surfer from Oz is just exotic enough to be appealing, while not too much so as to be disconcerting.

BarbieGirls was an online virtual world created by Mattel, based on the Barbie brand. It opened on April 24, 2007 and eventually closed on June 1, 2011. International versions of the site closed on April 30, 2011.