Growing up, I wanted to be just like my G.I. Joe guys, full of muscles and a head of hair that I could trust forever. I never did become a human G.I. Joe, but there is someone who did. Well, she didn’t transform into a toy soldier, rather she became a human Barbie. This is the outrageous story of how one woman became her own childhood toy.
A Doll
On August 23rd 1985, Valeria Lukyanova came into the world to her Moldovan parents, Valery and Irina Lukyanova. From a young age Valeria was noted for her Barbie-like features – long blonde hair, big eyes and smooth skin. Each time she was told that she was beautiful, the word “beauty” embedded itself in her mind more than anyone could imagine.
A Doll
Barbie Dolls
Barbie dolls first came onto the market in 1959, and they gave every little girl out there an idea of what beauty could be like. Despite her measurements being completely ludicrous, some children yearned for her flawless physique (and wardrobe, of course). Valeria was no different than other girls. She too had a collection of dolls and dreamed of becoming a Barbie herself, but she was just a child, the obsession would surely wear off.
Barbie Dolls
The Move
As she continued to grow up, she understood that she had an eye for beauty. After her 16th birthday, she moved to Odessa, Ukraine and studied architecture at the Odessa State Academy of Constructions and Architecture, obtaining a degree. In 2014 Valeria decided to move to Russia because of the war that had broken out in Donbass. Life was about to become very different.
The Move
Beauty Queen
Before the move to Russia, Valeria entered the “Miss Diamond Crown of the World” beauty contest and won! Despite the competition’s rules not banning body modification or plastic surgery, she was all natural for the contest. She quickly gained fame and she took part in photo-shoots, interviews and publications. But even with all of this attention, she still wanted to enhance her beauty.
Beauty Queen
Growing
It all started with a decision, and that decision was that she was going to become a human Barbie. At first the thought seemed ridiculous to her, but quickly she realized that it was her dream to become a real-life human Barbie so she got the process started. First she went under the knife to get breast implants.
Growing
Getting Work Done?
As time went on, people started to notice many changes in Valeria’s appearance, and that’s when critics opened their mouths. Their accusations included a nose job, liposuction, a brow lift, shaved jaw line, tummy tuck and a breast lift. The human Barbie denied all of these allegations and only admitted to the breast implants that she had.
Getting Work Done?
The Real Barbie
Her fame was now running far and wide, and the whole world had started talking about the real-life “human Barbie doll”. Most of this media attention came after she posted provocative photos online and her body was out there for the whole world to see. One of the most popular descriptions she received was that she had “almost inhuman beauty”. Aside from some positive feedback sent her way, there was a fortune of criticism and hate. Things were about to change drastically for her.
The Real Barbie
Out Of Proportion
Since Valeria had the perfect hourglass frame and a waist that made no sense by any measurement, critics accused her of having removed some of her ribs in order for her to look the way she does. Her first response was that people had manipulated pictures of hers, making her look way out of proportion. Next she explained that she simply had good genes, a healthy diet, and the rest was completely natural. But her idea of a ‘healthy’ eating plan brought up many concerns.
Out Of Proportion
Air And Sunshine
What she constituted as a healthy diet quickly raised doctors’ eyebrows. At first she tried a “breatharian” diet which meant she would live off air and sunshine. When that proved impossible because she didn’t want UV rays to damage her skin, she moved to a slightly healthier diet. She only eats raw vegetables and drinks water, but not while she is eating.
Air And Sunshine
Meditation And Yoga
The imagined image of a Barbie would be something like fun in the sun, beach parties with Ken and the crew and definitely an array of pink paraphernalia. But when it comes to the human Barbie, her life is quite different. Valeria likes to start her day with meditation and yoga since she is an astral being who depends greatly on the balance between her body and spirit. Sure, she indulges herself in photo-shoots and blog posts but not without her morning ritual.
Meditation And Yoga
Meet Amatue
Realistically Valeria understands that her “perfect” looks is not what her personal success is all about. It’s that belief that has pushed her to become an astral guide, helping people leave their physical bodies through meditation and travel their spiritual bodies. She even wrote a book called “Astral Travel Amatue” in 2012. She believes that there is a whole realm of existence in every person that most people never explore.
Meet Amatue
The Witch
There was a dark stage in Valeria Lukyanova’s life that could have possibly disrupted her becoming a human Barbie. That stage was when she identified as a witch when she was just a teenager. She would dress only in the color black and then journey into the forest where she would light fires and perform ‘rituals’.
The Witch
Mom And Daughter
One must wonder what Valeria’s mother thinks about her daughter’s lifestyle and human Barbie persona. Surprisingly, her mother isn’t just supportive of her daughter’s lifestyle, but she was an influence in it. Irina Lukyanova and her daughter Valeria both aim for the Barbie look and both traverse in their own spiritual realms. Valeria’s mother relies on make-up and clothing to enhance her look rather than the controversial methods her daughter uses.
Mom And Daughter
A Strange Childhood
When she was a young girl, her mother drew a circle around her bed from chalk in order to “separate her from the world”. Today she believes that she isn’t actually human at all, and that she actually comes from Venus. Her purpose for being on Earth, as she claims, is “to teach humans a thing or two.” Some of her outlandish claims were that she doesn’t remember much her childhood, other than being hyper aware and prone to seeing spiral visions in front of her at times.
A Strange Childhood
Speaking To The Spirits
The spirals that she claims she saw as a child allegedly caused her to lose sleep as they ‘danced’ about her. She claims that these visions were making her crazy and that she took control of her mind and fought them until they disappeared. It’s no surprise that people dubbed her the “Space Barbie”, but she prefers the name “Amatue” – her spiritual alter-ego.
Speaking To The Spirits
Getting Help
The spiral images returned on occasion and Valeria decided that she needed to seek help from a professional, but the answers she received were quite different from what she thought. The psychiatrist she visited first told her that any regular professional would send her away to a nut house, but he was different. He believed that she wasn’t crazy, but she wasn’t ordinary either. He believed that she had psychic powers and with those powers, she had a special purpose in this world.
Getting Help
Making Music
With her ‘special abilities’, the human Barbie took to music to teach humans what her being knew. She collaborated with composers and other musicians to record two new-age albums called “2013” and “Sun in the Eyes”. Her music is based greatly on the soft and gentle sounds of the Universe. Even though Valeria has two siblings who support her musical aspirations, her brother and sister try to stay out of the limelight.
Making Music
Her Sister
First there is Olga, her younger sister who has brown hair, full lips and similar features to her older sister. At one stage she wanted to be just like her older sister but after real consideration she realized that the human Barbie lifestyle just wasn’t for her. When critics attacked Valeria, Olga was quick to defend her sister and her decisions. When it comes to their brother Ivan, things are a little different.
Her Sister
Her Brother
Unlike Ola who has a level head, their brother Ivan is not quite what a brother should be. He seemed to have become a little too obsessed with his older sister’s Barbie persona and even mentioned that Valeria was his ideal image of beauty. Valeria caught her brother sifting through her clothing on a number of occasions which really spun her head around.
Her Brother
Marriage
What surprises so many people is that Valeria doesn’t believe in sex or intimacy. She does believe in companionship and marriage though, and she made this clear when she married Dmitry Shkrabov. Shkrabov was her childhood friend and now is a businessman who supports all of her decisions. Valeria has no desire to have children and her reasoning for not wanting them might surprise you.
Marriage
Her Husband
In her other world, Valeria tells that there is no such thing as children and in that realm, all the beings are asexual. Shkrabov accepts her decisions and reasoning and loves her as she is. He gladly follows the strict vegetarian diet that his wife lives by. He calls himself her protector, but there was a time once that he wasn’t there to be her savior.
Her Husband
The Attack
Throughout her rise to fame, critics attacked Valeria verbally, hurling insults at her all the time. However, she didn’t ever think that she would find herself under physical attack, and that was until Halloween in 2014. While she was in Odessa, Ukraine, two masked criminals attacked her physically at her home, but luckily a neighbor intervened and rescued her. She was taken to hospital where she made a full recovery.
The Attack
Thick Skin
The horrifying attack at her home wasn’t the end of attacks made on the internet sensation, but at least the rest were made online. Everyone had their go at the human Barbie – some said she was too thin, a fraud, weird, an alien, an attention-seeker. But she didn’t let those comments get to her, and she released this statement: “I notice that the media is only interested in the negative. Show someone in a bad light; show someone’s mistakes.”
Thick Skin
Energy Vampire
As part of the many personas she has taken upon herself, the one that deals with insults and negative feedback is the “energy vampire”. Some critics claimed that she isn’t a living creature, rather that she is a novelty. And although it does hurt her sometimes, she accesses the power of the energy vampire and dispels the negativity thrown at her. She claims that she doesn’t want to hold any negative feelings towards anyone, but some of her actions tend to suggest otherwise.
Energy Vampire
Barbie VS Sarah Jessica Parker
What most followers find ironic, is that although Valeria very often finds others criticizing her, she herself takes to social media to criticize other celebrities who don’t fit her criteria of beauty. One such example is Sarah Jessica Parker whom she called “lazy horse face” and went on to say that her appearance is a reflection of her “inner ugliness”.
Barbie VS Sarah Jessica Parker
Like Laundry
During a controversial GQ interview, not only did Valeria expose that she doesn’t want to have children, she also said that she doesn’t think people should have children with people from other races. Her reasoning was that beauty comes from babies from same-race parents. She continued to explain that plastic surgery will become more popular as a means to be beautiful, rather than it coming naturally.
Like Laundry
Born Again
As if she hadn’t directed enough attention to herself already, she did something that sparked another debate about her lifestyle. She changed her year date to 1991 because she said that she always wants to be young. Even though she had always said that she didn’t undergo any surgery other than that of breast implants, she mentioned in an interview that she had indeed ‘enhanced her body surgically’. She also admitted that she could see herself considering surgery as she gets older.
Born Again
Upgrading
The human Barbie doesn’t rely on surgery and a diet alone to get her the physique she religiously works towards. Part of her program is also working out, and recently she has taken to buffing up. A contribution to her drive to work at enlarging her biceps and her abs comes from a part in a movie she was to play.
Upgrading
On Screen
her debut on screen came in 2016 when she played in a horror sci-fi film called “The Doll”. Any idea why the casting crew decided to pick her? Director Susannah O’Brien’s idea came in the form of a killer escort doll that was built from different doll parts and sent to kill those who wanted to use her services.
On Screen
A Natural
Now before you assume that the movie was crummy and her performance perhaps not much, the director had something else to say. “She was a natural,” was the director’s comment. Believe it or not, the role in the movie gave way to a new stretch of fans for Valeria.
A Natural
Fans Fans Fans
The last count of Valeria’s fan-base came out like this: More than 30 million viewers on YouTube, 336,565 followers on VK (a Russian social network), 10,030 Twitter followers and 997,812 Facebook fans. She posts many make-up tutorial videos that have garnered a lot of attention. Many girls look up to her because of her unique beauty and her advanced make-up skills. The majority of the girls want to do their make-up like her, but there are some who take it to the extreme.
Fans Fans Fans
Another Human Barbie
A young woman by the name of Angelica Kenova who comes from Russia has dubbed herself a “living doll.” Since she was a child, her parents considered her to be a doll and took complete control of her life. Her parents forbade her from going on dates unless her mother joined in order to keep her safe. They also decided for her what she would eat, wear and do. Kenova is similar to Valeria in that she also claims to have never come under the knife to achieve her unreal body measurements.
Another Human Barbie
And Another One
Like Angelica Kenova and Valeria Lukyanova, 19-year-old Ukrainian, Lolita Richi claims that she hasn’t done a stitch of work on her body. Most people can’t seem to believe it since she has a tiny 20-inch waist and an unrealistic hourglass figure. What’s interesting is that she says that unlike the other two human Barbies, she didn’t ever play with dolls as a child, she played outside with the boys.
And Another One
Ken
Speaking of boys, would you believe there’s a boy Barbie out there? Or to put it more accurately, there’s Ken. His real name is Justin Jedlica and he has openly told of the 190 surgeries he has undergone in order to become the human Barbie he is today. You would imagine that he’d get along with Valeria Lukyanova, but that wasn’t necessarily the case.
Ken
Each To Their Own
When the two met up, they didn’t click. Ken claimed that Barbie was being cold and distant, and Barbie said that they didn’t have to be friends. This sort of sounds like one of my sister’s Barbie games going on. Ken wasn’t pleased that Barbie wouldn’t admit to having surgery, which he claims she definitely had. What’s important is that they are both happy with their life choices and continue to do what they love.
Each To Their Own