Midge Hadley Sherwood is a doll character in the Barbie line of toys by Mattel that was first released in 1963. She was marketed as Barbie's best friend.
Although created at the same time as Skipper, Midge was re-introduced in 1988 as part of the play line, though two vintage re-production dolls were made specifically for collectors in 1993 and 1998. These dolls were typically redheaded, freckled and blue-eyed.
Also in the period, Wedding Day Midge was sold, with the groom being Allan Sherwood, who had been marketed as Midge's boyfriend in the earlier years. The two had three children named Ryan, Nikki and Cassandra; they also had twins who were not introduced. This was known as the Happy Family line and, in the set, Midge was sold "pregnant" with Nikki as a newborn baby. The Happy Family product became the subject of controversy when some parents disliked the "pregnant" Midge toy because they believed that Midge was too young to have children.
In 2013, Mattel decided to revamp Midge's history, reintroducing her as a best friend of Barbie's, but unmarried, without any children nor connection to Allan.
History
Vintage years
When Barbie debuted, she was the subject of a lot of criticism, some of which claimed Barbie was too mature-looking for children. Midge was the first same-size friend of Barbie and was created to oppose these controversies. She had a fuller, gentler face mold, although her body proportions were the same as Barbie's and they both stood at tall. This allowed the two dolls to be able to share clothes and accessories. Her head mold was stamped "1958", the same as Barbie's. When Midge arrived, the markings on the straight leg body mold they shared changed to include both her and Barbie. Midge had shoulder-length hair that flipped at the ends. Buyers had an option of buying a doll with one of three different hair colors: red, blonde, or brunette. Her face was usually brushed with freckles. The dolls that were sold without freckles had a longer hairstyle and are now hard to find. Depending on the doll's hair color, the color of her two-piece swimming suit varied. If Midge had red hair, her swimsuit was yellow and orange; for blond hair, it was in two shades of blue, and if she was brunette, it was pink and red. The first vintage Midge dolls had a value of $175 MIB (Mint In Box) in 2007.
For the first two years, she had "straight legs" that could not bend at the knee.
In 2013, Midge appeared on the webseries Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse where it is revealed that she has moved to Malibu. With this, her canon has been changed extensively, and she is a teenager who is retro at heart and still uses old-fangled terms. The whole Happy Family canon has been dropped altogether due to controversy. Two Midge dolls were released in 2013, one as part of a collectors' set with Barbie, and the other on her own in the Life in the Dreamhouse doll line.
Happy Family line
The year after Midge and Alan were married, a picture of the couple with twin babies was shown in a pamphlet, but the dolls were never produced. A new version of this Midge was produced for Walmart. In this version, she was not pregnant and was accompanied by a cardboard cut-out display of Alan and Ryan standing next to her inside the box. The Happy Family Line included everything from a talking house, a backyard swimming pool, neighborhood market, and playground.
Later, around Nikki's first birthday, Midge was "pregnant" again with another child, who was neither named nor given a specific gender, as the gender was a surprise when the owner opened the doll's box. Midge's new baby was later named Cassandra. Midge has two known parents who are simply called "Grandpa" and "Grandma". At first, the grandparent dolls were sold together as part of a big set consisting of the dolls and a kitchen play set, but for Nikki's first birthday, they were sold separately. Midge, Alan, and Ryan gave Nikki a dog for her birthday. They also came in both White and African American versions. They use different body molds to reflect their age.
- The Happy Family pregnant version of Midge was satirized in Season 10 of Robot Chicken, where she was sent to the Island of Recalled Toys.
- British actress Emerald Fennell portrays Midge in the 2023 live-action film Barbie, based on the pregnant version of the doll.