The strange world of the 'human Barbie'
A new magazine interview with Ukrainian-Moldovan model Valeria Lukyanova - aka 'the human Barbie' - offers some insight into her bizarre and fascinating world.
"This Is Not a Barbie Doll. This Is an Actual Human Being." http://t.co/1NRUUkbaZp pic.twitter.com/K83FTBTmBr
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) April 7, 2014
The piece, published in this month's edition of GQ, reveals a unique worldview, with commentators criticising as racist some of the sentiments expressed by the model.
In the interview, conducted in her home city of Odessa, Ukraine by writer Michael Idov, Lukyanova attributes current societal ideals of beauty to "race mixing".
"Ethnicities are mixing now, so there's degeneration, and it didn't used to be like that," Lukyanova is quoted as saying.
"Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery?
"And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this."
The Moldovan-born model, 28, has gained worldwide notoriety in recent years after images of her extensive body transformation were posted online in 2012, leading to comparisons with the iconic toy figure.
Her otherworldly appearance was met with shock and disbelief - with some commentators even suggesting that the 'human Barbie' images were the result of Photoshop enhancement, and that the 'real Valeria' did not even exist.
But she does.
Lukyanova, who has admitted to breast enhancement, and uses makeup techniques and contact lenses to augment her facial features, insists her doll-like waistline is the result of exercise and a special diet.
Her career is difficult to define - she is variously described as a model and singer, and she herself rejects the 'human Barbie' label, regarding herself as a kind of spiritual leader under the name 'Amatue'.
"I realize that just like everyone reading about Human Barbie, I had had a simple narrative prepared in my head: A small-town girl grows up obsessed with dolls, etc," writes GQ's Idov after meeting her in an Indian restaurant in Odessa.
"Instead, I get a racist space alien."
Idov chronicles her transformation from an ordinary girl to an iconic image since moving to Odessa at the age of 16.
As 'before and after' pictures show, Valeria's transformation has been remarkable.
However Valeria herself doesn't seem to regard her journey as anything other than the natural progression of a universal trend.
"Everyone wants a slim figure," she told GQ.
"Everyone gets breasts done. Everyone fixes up their face if it's not ideal, you know?
"Everyone strives for the golden mean. It's global now."
Valeria is married to Dmitry, a local Odessa man described as 'a wealthy construction magnate'. It was after having met her future husband that her transformation accelerated, as chronicled in pictures published to her Facebook page.
Her spiritual philosophies aside, Valeria is a bona fide online celebrity.
As well as having over 1m followers on Facebook, she also maintains a website, YouTube channel and popular Instagram feed, updated daily with pictures and video.
Her 'success' as a model and online star has also led to many imitations, including 'live Animé character' Anastasiya Shpagina (below), also from Odessa.
Valeria's future remains to be mapped, but a family is certainly not on the cards.
"The very idea of having children brings out this deep revulsion in me," she told GQ.
"Most people have children to fulfill their own ambitions.
"They don't think about what they can give this child, what they can teach her. T
"They just try to shape her according to some weird script—whatever they couldn't do in life, like becoming a writer or a doctor."
Valeria has hopes of stardom in the US or Mexico - her interest in that country stemming from an obession with preshistoric pyramids - but for the moment, she must content herself with modelling work and New Age workshops in Ukraine and Russia.
