--- title: Human Ken Not Impressed By 'Human Barbie' Valeria Lukyanova description: The 9-year-old Barbie obsessive in me just died a little. canonical: https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-08T16:14:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:38.126Z og:title: Human Ken Not Impressed By 'Human Barbie' Valeria Lukyanova og:description: The 9-year-old Barbie obsessive in me just died a little. og:url: https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a80d521986c281f/6986897513c79ff8051917be/justin-jedlica.jpg?branch=production&width=667&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 667 og:image:height: 375 og:image:alt: Justin Jedlica who lives in New York is a real life "Ken" from the other half of Barbie and Ken. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Human Ken Not Impressed By 'Human Barbie' Valeria Lukyanova twitter:description: The 9-year-old Barbie obsessive in me just died a little. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a80d521986c281f/6986897513c79ff8051917be/justin-jedlica.jpg?branch=production&width=667&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Human Ken and Human Barbie: Destroying Our Girlhood Dreams One Interview at a Time > Sponsored content. 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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=8fcc8369-8b31-4c13-bb6e-02067b8ca874&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 8, 2014 4:14 PM UTC  Justin Jedlica who lives in New York is a real life "Ken" from the other half of Barbie and Ken. Justin Jedlica who lives in New York is a real life "Ken" from the other half of Barbie and Ken. Jae Donnelly—The Sun/NI Syndication/Redux by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 8, 2014 4:14 PM UTC [Justin Jedlica](http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2014/04/human-ken-doll-justin-jedlica-interview.html), the so-called Human Ken doll who reportedly spent $150,000 on cosmetic surgery to look like Barbie’s plastic beau, is once again making it clear that he is no fan of Valeria Lukyanova, often referred to as “Human Barbie” because of her obsession with making herself look like the famous doll. In an interview with [GQ](http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2014/04/human-ken-doll-justin-jedlica-interview.html), which recently ran a detailed ([and weird](http://time.com/52026/is-the-human-barbie-sexy-a-gq-writer-on-meeting-the-real-life-doll/)) profile on the Ukrainian model, Human Ken recalls the moment he met Human Barbie. And unfortunately for the inner Barbie-girl in us all, the two did not ride off in a hot pink convertible into the burnt orange Malibu sunset, giggling and canoodling while planning to purchase a three-story townhouse replete with photos of the two in silicone harmony. No, Human Ken was not impressed. Though he calls Valeria a “cute girl,” he compares her to a drag queen and wonders why people care about her. (Author’s note: I’m trying to figure out why _any_ of us care about _either_ of them). “I don’t really get her,” Jedlica told GQ. “I don’t get why people think she’s so interesting. She has extensions. She wears stage makeup. She’s an illusionist.” Jedlica then went into detail about his plans for creating an “artistic muscle-augmentation-implant line” for all the little boys and girls out there who too dream of one day looking just as plastic. But hopefully, for the sake of humanity, those are few and far between. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/"},"headline":"Human Ken and Human Barbie: Destroying Our Girlhood Dreams One Interview at a Time","datePublished":"2014-04-08T16:14:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:38.126Z","description":"The 9-year-old Barbie obsessive in me just died a little.","url":"https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/","keywords":["Living","Newsfeed","Internet","beauty","Barbie","Weird News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a80d521986c281f/6986897513c79ff8051917be/justin-jedlica.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a80d521986c281f/6986897513c79ff8051917be/justin-jedlica.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Justin Jedlica who lives in New York is a real life \"Ken\" from the other half of Barbie and Ken.","caption":"Justin Jedlica who lives in New York is a real life \"Ken\" from the other half of Barbie and Ken.","creditText":"Jae Donnelly—The Sun/NI Syndication/Redux","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/53732/human-ken-and-human-barbie-destroying-our-girlhood-dreams-one-interview-at-a-time/","name":"Human Ken and Human Barbie: Destroying Our Girlhood Dreams One Interview at a Time"}}]}] ```