58 Fun Facts About Girly

Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler, named the 1959 doll after whom?

Her daughter. Handler had watched Barbara ignore her baby dolls to play with paper dolls of grown women, and saw a gap in the market for a doll with an adult figure.

Barbie was modeled on which German doll, based on a tabloid comic strip, that Ruth Handler found in Europe?

Bild Lilli. The doll was first sold not to children but to grown men, as a racy gag gift in tobacco shops, before Handler saw a toy in it.

The four original Bratz dolls released in 2001 were Yasmin, Cloe, Jade and who?

Sasha. Mattel sued over the line, arguing that its designer had dreamed the dolls up while on Barbie's payroll; a jury agreed in 2008, but the fight ended in 2011 with the Bratz maker the winner.

Which Spice Girl was 'Ginger Spice'?

Geri Halliwell. A Top of the Pops magazine article handed the five their nicknames after their first single came out, and Ginger was gone within two years, quitting in the middle of a world tour in May 1998.

Sex and the City is based on a newspaper column and book by which writer?

Candace Bushnell. She built the New York Observer column on her own dating life and her friends', and has called Carrie, the character she invented for it, her alter ego.

In Sex and the City, what is Charlotte York's profession?

Art dealer. Charlotte works at a Manhattan gallery, and the show's great traditionalist later converts to Judaism in order to marry her second husband.

In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods gets into which law school to win back her ex?

Harvard. Elle gets in with a 4.0 average and a near-perfect 179 on the LSAT, and by graduation it is she, not her ex, whom the class elects to give the speech.

Tina Fey wrote Mean Girls after reading which self-help book?

Queen Bees and Wannabes. Because the book is a parenting guide with no story, Fey had to invent the plot from scratch, and she drew it from her own high school years.

Which Jane Austen novel is Clueless loosely based on?

Emma, Jane Austen's novel about a well-meaning matchmaker, is the template for Clueless: Amy Heckerling, who had read it in college, moved Emma Woodhouse to Beverly Hills as Cher Horowitz.

Which fashion designer launched a first perfume in 1921 with the perfumer Ernest Beaux?

Coco Chanel is said to have picked the fifth of the sample scents Beaux prepared for her, which is how Chanel No. 5 got its number.

What is the signature feature of a Christian Louboutin shoe?

A red-lacquered sole became the Louboutin signature in the early 1990s: by his own account, he painted the black sole of a prototype with an assistant's red nail polish.

Which actress's chance meeting with the head of Hermès on a flight led to the handbag bearing her name?

Jane Birkin, seated beside Hermès chief Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight to London, spilled the contents of her bag and asked why Hermès didn't make a bigger one, so Dumas had one made for her.

What surname does Hello Kitty have in her official character profile?

White is the family name: Sanrio's profile has Kitty White born in the suburbs of London, a British backstory chosen because Britain was fashionable in 1970s Japan.

Hello Kitty is famously drawn without which facial feature?

A mouth is missing by design: Sanrio has said the blank face lets people project their own feelings onto Hello Kitty, so she seems happy or sad along with them.

American Girl dolls were introduced in 1986 by a company founded by whom?

Pleasant Rowland, a former teacher and textbook author, came home from a visit to Colonial Williamsburg wanting dolls that taught history; Mattel bought her Pleasant Company for $700 million in 1998.

The Baby-Sitters Club books are set in which fictional Connecticut town?

Stoneybrook, Connecticut, is home to Ann M. Martin's club, which Kristy Thomas starts after watching her mother struggle to find a sitter for her younger brother.

What is the name of the schoolgirl who transforms into Sailor Moon?

Usagi Tsukino is her name in Naoko Takeuchi's manga, but the 1990s English dub renamed her Serena, and the first English manga called her Bunny, a nod to usagi, the Japanese for rabbit.

The Powerpuff Girls live in which fictional city with their creator, Professor Utonium?

Townsville is home to Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, whom Craig McCracken first drew as the Whoopass Girls in a student film; the can of whoopass that gave them powers became Chemical X.

Gilmore Girls is set in which fictional Connecticut town?

Stars Hollow grew out of Amy Sherman-Palladino's stay at an inn in the village of Washington, Connecticut: she wanted viewers to feel what she felt walking around the place.

Grey's Anatomy takes its title partly from what?

A classic medical textbook, Gray's Anatomy, lends the show its title, punning on Meredith Grey's surname; its author Henry Gray died at 34 of smallpox, thought to have been caught while nursing his nephew.

Bridgerton is narrated by which screen legend as Lady Whistledown?

Julie Andrews voices the unseen gossip writer Lady Whistledown, but she never appears: on screen the pen belongs to Penelope Featherington, played by Nicola Coughlan.

Anna Wintour's first Vogue cover, in 1988, broke with tradition by pairing a jewelled couture top with what?

Jeans made the cover by accident: the skirt of the Christian Lacroix suit didn't fit model Michaela Bercu, and the magazine's printers rang to ask whether there had been a mistake.

Which editor-in-chief transformed Cosmopolitan into a women's magazine from 1965?

Helen Gurley Brown, author of Sex and the Single Girl, remade the foundering Cosmopolitan using ideas she and her husband had worked up for a magazine that never launched, then edited it for 32 years.

One Direction formed on which TV show in 2010?

The X Factor's 2010 UK series grouped several solo auditionees into One Direction during bootcamp; they finished third and signed to Simon Cowell's Syco label.

In Twilight, Bella Swan moves to which rainy town in Washington state?

Forks got the part because Stephenie Meyer searched Google for the rainiest place in the United States, found the Olympic Peninsula, and picked a small, out-of-the-way town off the map.

The Notebook (2004) is based on a novel by which author?

Nicholas Sparks based The Notebook, his first published novel, on his wife's grandparents, who had been together for more than 60 years.

Dirty Dancing is set in the summer of 1963 at a resort in which region?

The Catskills, New York's Borscht Belt, are where Kellerman's resort is set, but the film was shot far to the south, at Mountain Lake in Virginia and Lake Lure in North Carolina.

Which film began as a dark script titled 3000, the fee a businessman pays an escort for a week?

Pretty Woman started as J. F. Lawton's bleak drama about class and prostitution in Los Angeles; the studio and director Garry Marshall reworked it into a romantic comedy.

10 Things I Hate About You is loosely based on which Shakespeare play?

The Taming of the Shrew supplies the plot: Kat and Bianca Stratford stand in for Katherina and Bianca Minola, and Heath Ledger's Patrick Verona echoes Petruchio of Verona.

In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep plays which formidable magazine editor?

Miranda Priestly comes from a novel Lauren Weisberger wrote after working as assistant to Vogue's Anna Wintour; Streep has said she took the character's quiet voice from Clint Eastwood.

Mamma Mia! (2008) was filmed mainly on which Greek island?

Skopelos stood in for the fictional Kalokairi, with neighbouring Skiathos; the 2018 sequel left Greece altogether and was shot on the Croatian island of Vis.

The Nancy Drew books are published under what collective pseudonym?

Carolyn Keene is the Stratemeyer Syndicate's house name; Edward Stratemeyer created Nancy Drew in 1930 as a counterpart to the Hardy Boys, and Mildred Wirt Benson ghost-wrote most early volumes.

Frozen is loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale?

The Snow Queen gave Frozen its starting point, and Elsa was written as a villain until the song Let It Go recast her as a frightened, sympathetic heroine.

Gossip Girl follows privileged students in which Manhattan neighbourhood?

The Upper East Side's private-school elite are the blogger's targets, and the finale unmasks Gossip Girl as one of the gang: Dan Humphrey, the scholarship student from Brooklyn.

Greta Gerwig's Barbie opened on the same day in July 2023 as which other film?

Oppenheimer shared Barbie's 21 July release, and instead of a rivalry audiences made a double feature of the two; Barbie ended 2023 as the year's highest-grossing film.

Before Margot Robbie, which two actresses were lined up to star in the Barbie movie?

Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway were each attached while Sony held the rights; Schumer left in 2017 citing scheduling conflicts and later said the real reason was creative differences.

Which star of Bridesmaids (2011) co-wrote the comedy with Annie Mumolo?

Kristen Wiig wrote the script with Annie Mumolo, a fellow performer from the Groundlings troupe, after being cast in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up; it earned the pair an Oscar nomination.

In Pitch Perfect, which a cappella group does Beca Mitchell join?

The Barden Bellas trace back to a real season of college a cappella: GQ editor Mickey Rapkin spent it following three groups for the non-fiction book behind the film.

In Grease, Olivia Newton-John's Sandy is a transfer student from which country?

Australia became Sandy's home so that Olivia Newton-John would not have to fake an American accent: the stage show's Sandy Dumbrowski was rewritten for her as Sandy Olsson.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set in Sunnydale, a California town built on top of what?

A Hellmouth is a portal between this reality and the next, which is why Sunnydale swarms with demons; in the series finale the whole town collapses into a pit, closing it.

Which Houston group lost on Star Search as Girl's Tyme before finding fame under a new name?

Destiny's Child never forgot the defeat: Beyoncé opens her song Flawless with the Star Search host announcing Girl's Tyme.

Which K-pop girl group debuted in August 2016 with the songs Whistle and Boombayah?

Blackpink's four members had spent years as trainees at YG Entertainment, a regime Jennie called stricter than school, before the two-song release Square One launched them.

What record did Taylor Swift's Eras Tour set by the end of its 2024 run?

Highest-grossing of all time: the Eras Tour was the first to pass $2 billion, and fans dancing at its Seattle shows shook the ground like a magnitude 2.3 earthquake.

Fenty Beauty, launched in 2017, is a partnership between Rihanna and which luxury group?

LVMH launched Fenty Beauty with Rihanna through its Kendo incubator; the 40-shade foundation range sold out fast, and rival brands widened their own ranges in what became known as the Fenty Effect.

Selena Gomez's cosmetics brand Rare Beauty takes its name from what?

Her third studio album, Rare, came out in January 2020, and the brand followed that September; Gomez said its purpose was to break down unrealistic standards of beauty.

Britney Spears was a cast member of which show before signing with Jive Records in 1997?

The All-New Mickey Mouse Club turned Britney Spears away at eight as too young, then cast her in its last two seasons beside Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.

Which song from A Star Is Born won Lady Gaga her first Oscar?

Shallow, her duet with Bradley Cooper, also won a Golden Globe and two Grammys, and it jumped to No. 1 on the Hot 100 the week after the pair sang it at the Oscars.

Little Mix hold what distinction on the UK talent show that also produced One Direction?

First group ever to win it: Little Mix took the 2011 series after auditioning as four soloists and being put together by the judges as Rhythmix, a name they dropped when a children's charity objected.

Before her hit Espresso, Sabrina Carpenter first found fame playing Maya Hart on which Disney Channel series?

Girl Meets World picks up Boy Meets World a generation on: Cory and Topanga are now the parents, and Cory teaches history to his daughter Riley and her best friend Maya.

Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, which topped the Billboard 200 in 2021, is called what?

Sour topped the Billboard 200, and its hit Good 4 U later gained two co-writers: Paramore's Hayley Williams and Josh Farro were credited because it resembled their song Misery Business.

The Sweet Valley High books follow identical twins named what?

Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are identical twins in the fictional Sweet Valley, California; creator Francine Pascal oversaw a team of ghostwriters who turned out the books.

Little Women follows the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Amy and who?

Beth is the shy, musical sister who never recovers from scarlet fever; the March girls are loosely based on Louisa May Alcott's own family, and her sister Elizabeth died of the illness at 22.

In Pride and Prejudice, which clergyman stands to inherit the Bennets' entailed home, Longbourn?

Mr Collins is heir because Longbourn can pass only down the male line; he proposes to Elizabeth, is turned down, and is promptly accepted by her friend Charlotte Lucas.

Which toy line began as a tiny doll's house built inside a powder compact?

Polly Pocket is said to have started as Chris Wiggs's bid to make a doll small enough for his daughter's pocket; Bluebird Toys put it in shops in 1989, and Mattel bought the firm in 1998.

Which 1980s dolls came with adoption papers and a 'birthplace' at Babyland General Hospital in Georgia?

Cabbage Patch Kids grew out of Xavier Roberts's hand-stitched Little People, 'adopted' rather than sold; once Coleco mass-produced them, shoppers fought over the dolls in the store riots of late 1983.

Which school-supply brand covered 1990s folders and stickers in neon rainbow unicorns, dolphins and pandas?

Lisa Frank began by selling a line of plastic jewelry called Sticky Fingers while she was an art student at the University of Arizona, then built her company in Tucson.

The Juicy Couture velour tracksuit became a craze in 2001 after its founders sent one to which pop star?

Madonna was photographed in the suit and other celebrities followed; founders Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy had started out with a maternity-wear label.

In Anne of Green Gables, Anne is sent by mistake to siblings Matthew and Marilla with what surname?

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert of Green Gables had asked the orphanage for a boy to help on the farm; L. M. Montgomery's 1908 novel has since sold an estimated 50 million copies.