Meet the 23-year-old who is the voice of the new Hello Barbie doll (2024)

One of the hottest toys for the holiday season this year is also one of the smartest: Mattel's Hello Barbie, a high-tech version of the classic doll that can hold an entire conversation with your child.

That's because the new Barbie, which was released this month, is outfitted with Artificial Intelligence. Inside her $75 doll body sits two batteries, a USB charging port, and WiFi capabilities that can call up thousands of prerecorded linesto make a child think Barbie is really listening.

And those lines aren't stiff and robotic, either, because they were recorded by a real person — 23-year-old Erica Lindbeck, a UCLA theater graduate from Greenville, North Carolina, who beat out thousands of other women for the job and spoke toSeventeen.comabout her awesome gig.

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According to the New York Times, Hello Barbie's magic lies in a microphone that is hidden in her necklace. When a child holds town Barbie's belt buckle, the microphone can pick up what he or she says and transit those words via WiFi to servers at a company called ToyTalk, which created the AI system.

The computers there then use speech-recognition software to analyze what the child said and come up with an appropriate response, picking from 8,000 lines that Erica spoke in a recording studio ahead of the doll's release.

Like most girls, Erica loved Barbies as a kid: 'I had the dream house, the Jaguar, and my mom made sure I had every ethnicity of Barbie too — my favorite was my Esmeralda Barbie.'

Of course, though, she never imagined that her love of acting would get her the chance to actually be Barbie.

At 18, she headed to theater school in California, where she found she was always the 'underdog'. She'd get rejected at auditions a lot, and also came to worry about her looks. She said she was told countless times that if she ever wanted to work in film, she'd have to lose weight.

Luckily, during her senior year, she started dabbling in voiceover work — and that's where she found her calling.

'A lot people think, "I'll just go in and do a voice", and you're so focused on making your voice sound weird instead of actually understanding the character. People tell me, "Oh I can do voices!" But that's not going to get your anywhere,' she said. 'The vast majority of people book roles in their natural voice. In fact, Barbie is really similar to my natural voice — her's is just a little bit brighter.'

The Barbie world first came calling in November of 2014, when Erica auditioned to play the iconic blonde's little sister Skipper and her friend Teresa in commercials and movies.

She didn't land either part — but she did get a callback, asking her to audition for Barbie herself. So she visited Mattel's studios, where she read a few lines in Barbie's voice including: 'Hi, my name is Barbie and I live in Wisconsin but we also have a home in Malibu.'

Finally, in January, Mattel asked her to come back and offered her the part, gifting her with a 'giant' basket of Barbie goodies and telling her that she wouldn't just be Barbie in commercials and movies — she'd be the voice of the new, cutting-edge Hello Barbie doll.

Evelyn Mazzocco, a senior vice president of the company, said they picked Erica because her delivery was lower and less breathy than Barbies in the past. This Barbie isn't a ditz — she's smart, and a promoter of girl power.

Video courtesy of Chip Chick

Erica said that she didn't realize what a huge project she'd signed on for until she got to work. Often dressed in an old band T-shirt and ripped jeans, she recorded lines for months, aiming for about 60 every an hour — though some of those lines were paragraphs long, and others are just a few words.

'There have been talking dolls in the past, but this is next-level,' she said. 'She explains the definition of "avant garde," talks about Hanukkah, and speaks in a French accent when we're playing a game about fashion designers.'

The doll clearly has range, and even knows how to discuss more serious issues, too. Since kids might want to confide in their Barbies about sad or stressful things — like the death of a loved one or a fight with a friend — the doll is prepared with answers to complex questions. Though she'll usually suggest kids talk to their moms or dads for heavy issues, she also has a few vague responses of her own banked for tricky queries.

For example, if she's asked whether she believes in God, Barbie might say: 'I think a person’s beliefs are very personal to them.'

When a little girl asks Barbie if she thinks she's pretty, she'll reply: 'Of course you’re pretty, but you know what else you are? You’re smart, talented and funny.’'

She also has the ability to remember things, like a child's name, the fact that her grandma died, or that she has two moms— so there are less like to be awkward or hurtful interactions.

'I like to think of her as the world’s best babysitter,’' Sarah Wulf*ck, a writer and director at ToyTalk, told the New York Times.