--- title: Is the ‘Human Barbie’ Sexy? A GQ Writer On Meeting the Real-Life Doll description: GQ's Michael Idov's sensitive profile reveals his surprising reaction to the young woman who looks like she stepped out of a graphic novel canonical: https://time.com/52026/is-the-human-barbie-sexy-a-gq-writer-on-meeting-the-real-life-doll/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-07T18:47:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:06.727Z og:title: Meeting the 'Human Barbie:' A guy's reaction to the strange life and looks of the living doll og:description: GQ's Michael Idov's sensitive profile reveals his surprising reaction to the young woman who looks like she stepped out of a graphic novel og:url: https://time.com/52026/is-the-human-barbie-sexy-a-gq-writer-on-meeting-the-real-life-doll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20cfb1755aa7378b/69868979cd68481caa094037/valeria-lukyanova1.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 og:image:alt: 'Real-Life Barbie Doll' or Photoshop Hoax? og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meeting the 'Human Barbie:' A guy's reaction to the strange life and looks of the living doll twitter:description: GQ's Michael Idov's sensitive profile reveals his surprising reaction to the young woman who looks like she stepped out of a graphic novel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20cfb1755aa7378b/69868979cd68481caa094037/valeria-lukyanova1.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is the 'Human Barbie' Sexy? 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=4473d395-8911-4b3e-b8ed-51cf7f29ba8c&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 7, 2014 6:47 PM UTC  Photo showing Valeria Lukyanova. The image is most likely manipulated. Photo showing Valeria Lukyanova. The image is most likely manipulated. Whitehotpix/ZumaPress by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 7, 2014 6:47 PM UTC The world has had a bit of a morbid fascination with the so-called Human Barbie doll Valeria Lukyanova since [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB98C1vNV9c) videos detailing her transformation went viral in 2012\. And when the twenty-something Ukrainian model, a spitting image of the ageless, inhumanly proportioned fashion doll, began speaking to [U.S.](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/05/16-questions-for-the-real-life-barbie-valeria-lukyanova.html) [publications](http://www.vmagazine.com/site/content/261/living-doll) about her looks (and denying they were achieved through plastic surgery) we listened, albeit often in disgust. And we’re still listening, thanks to a recent GQ [article](http://www.gq.com/women/photos/201404/valeria-lukyanova-human-barbie-doll) that tells Lukyanova’s story and reveals her contradictory beliefs about marriage, beauty and race. In the piece she sounds empowered, racist and just plain strange all at once. But perhaps the most fascinating part of the profile is the revealing way the author of the piece, GQ’s Michael Idov, describes his reaction to meeting “Barbie” in person. Here is “ideal” beauty come to fruition, and according Idov, it’s both transfixing and disturbing. --- > “” --- Idov,who is the editor of GQ Russia, has quite eloquently laid out what feminists have been trying to make clear forever: a slender, doe-eyed, big-chested vixen—the “golden mean,” as Valeria so eloquently puts it— is actually pretty terrifying in real life. This doesn’t mean that women from Valeria’s home base of Odessa, Ukraine to Los Angeles will stop striving for an impossible standard of beauty, but it’s perhaps a reality check on what men really find attractive. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/52026/is-the-human-barbie-sexy-a-gq-writer-on-meeting-the-real-life-doll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/52026/is-the-human-barbie-sexy-a-gq-writer-on-meeting-the-real-life-doll/"},"headline":"Is the 'Human Barbie' Sexy? 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