Ruth Handler Club children's television show, Mattel invested heavily in television advertising. The TV commercials for the Barbie doll paid off and Barbie rocketed Mattel and the Handlers to fame and fortune. Subsequently, they would add a boyfriend for Barbie named Ken, after the Handlers' son, and many other "friends and family" to Barbie's world. Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. She had a modified radical mastectomy, which was often used at the time to combat the disease, and because of difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, she decided to make her own. Handler went on to found a
Brent Handler 1969 in Denver, Colorado, the son of Suzanne and Norton Handler. Norton Handler owned a series of clothing manufacturers and shared his passion for entrepreneurism and real estate with both Brent and his older brother Brad during their early years. Handler attended Thomas Jefferson High School (Denver), where he played tennis and basketball, and graduated in 1987. He earned his undergraduate business degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991. In 1995, Handler married Kirsten Sweetman. They have three children. Brother, Brad Handler, went on to become the first in-house attorney at eBay and later joined Brent as