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By TIME Staff
Creating three new bodies for Barbie—tall, petite and curvy—was no small task. It took her design team two years to complete the project. Photographer Emily Shur captures a glimpse of how the iconic doll is put together in these behind-the-scenes photos at Mattel’s headquarters just outside Los Angeles, CA.
Designers carefully paint lips and eyes on the dolls by hand. They sew on her hair with a sewing machine before they cut and style it by hand. They even keep archives of past experiments in their studio.
Read the TIME cover story on Barbie’s new body.
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![Behind the scenes of how Barbie is created at Mattel](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/barbie-mattel-behind-the-scenes-3.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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