This article was originally published on 24/7Mirror
1. The Beginning
The Ukrainian barbie doll real name, Valeria Lukyanova, was born in 1985 to Moldovan parents in an area called Tiraspol. She developed a strong affection for barbie dolls right from childhood and had a great stock of them.
Unlike most kids, her affection for her dolls did not wane even when she reached adolescence and adulthood. Her love was so strong that she began to picture herself as a barbie doll and began to take steps towards achieving the goal of looking exactly like one.
2. Upbringing And Childhood
Valeria had an upbringing reminiscent of many Moldovan children. She was raised with love and affection by her parents, who pampered her with doll gifts. Her parents led quite busy lives while she was young; her mother worked in the Russian army, and her dad worked two jobs; one as a DJ and another as a builder.
Were the parents aware there was something unique about their lovely daughter? Did they get a sign one way or the other of the changes that will eventually come in the future and change the life of their beautiful daughter forever, were the signs visible as she was playing with her treasured dolls while growing up as a kid? Read on to find out what transformation she would make.
3. Parental Influence
Valeria's path towards a nonconventional path was no doubt influenced by her parents, especially her father, whose choice of DJ and building was somewhat an odd combination.
Living in Ukraine became unbearable at some point due to the military tension between Russia and Ukraine; she decided to relocate to a faraway country to escape the crisis at home. She chose Mexico, and whether this decision influenced her worldview, we would find out later in this article.
4. Different Path
Growing up in a humble background was a bit tough for Valeria. Watching her parents struggle to pay the bills was tough to take. She began to see regular jobs as unprofitable; after all, her father had to work two jobs to meet up with financial commitments. She was determined not to go for the regular jobs when the time comes but something more unconventional but more profitable, she decided to be different.
She mooted this idea and came up with modeling as a choice. After all, she felt she was gifted with beauty, and this choice should be quite easy as she will easily fit in, was she right or wrong?
5. Before The Evolution
Valeria's choice of morphing into a real-life barbie doll was not abrupt. She was a naturally beautiful girl with the physique to turn heads in the industry.
Fair enough, by 2007, she had already won her first major title when she won the Miss Diamond Crown of the World. Before this time, she had already taken her first steps into surgically enhancing herself. Coinciding with her title win, she began to see the positives in artificial enhancements and how it could help her career and make her richer. Then her childhood memory of her Barbie dolls began to appeal to her the more, and she began to explore the prospects of looking just like them. After all, the Barbie dolls were popular and profitable; she could also achieve that if she looked like them.
6. The Evolution Tipping Point
Questions were asked about Valeria's dramatic looks, and at the early stages, she adopted denial in response to public scrutiny and inquiry.
According to various sources, her first body part that went through transformation was her breast; after this was done, Lukyanova got encouraged by the result and decided to take things up a notch. The question is, what next will she look into?
7. The 'Natural Shape'
As Valeria became more and more popular, speculations were rife about her looks. She evaded questions suggesting she was surgically enhancing her body. She credited dieting and good genes as the reason for her looks. She also mentioned her fitness regimen as being a great aid in her looks.
However spurious her claims were at the time, she held on to it firmly. It’s an almost impossible feat to have a waist so small at 19 inches except with some measure of medical intervention; it’s a fact that even the most celebrated and famous supermodels in the world cannot boast of a waist that tiny. Suddenly, questions started flying around; how is this figure even possible? How did she achieve it? What did she truly do to achieve this figure? Gradually, it began to dawn on people the more that she was having surgical procedures but merely denying them.
8. Sculpting Her body
Many models are thin, and it was nothing new. The issue with Valeria's thinness was that unlike the others, she looked different in one major way. Her ribs were invincible. Then many began to allege the reason for her remarkably thin frame was because she got her ribs removed through surgery.
The critics motivated by Valeria's continual denial went the extra mile by referring to Valeria's bikini pictures showing her huge boobs and tiny waist as further proof of their allegations. For instance, the large breast had no upper ribs to support them, and her waist seems to disappear inward; this was biologically impossible. Were their allegations against her entirely correct? Maybe Yes or No, it will be revealed in this write-up, but whatever the case, it certainly requires a lot of sacrifices to achieve those drastic Barbie doll looks and Valeria deserves some respect for that.
9. Extraordinary Discipline
Concerning her dieting habits, Valeria has not been discreet. She takes the extra precaution in eating very little to maintain her gaunt looks. When she eats at all, she prefers to take liquids rather than solids, and that in itself is irregular.
She adopted a policy of no liquid intake whenever she exercised and even went further by waiting for long hours after exercising before she even thinks of eating or drinking. This sound extremist in nature but this is pale in comparison to what she did next.
10. Air Diet
This sound absurd even by its mere description alone but Valeria is a goal-getter. Supermodels are choosy when it comes to food. This is by no means hidden knowledge. However, Valeria raised the bar significantly by opting to survive on sunshine and air alone (breatharian).
Breatharian is the belief that water and food are not necessary for survival, sunshine, and the air is enough. Of course, as you would likely guess, this did not work out for so long as she quitted and returned to her strict diet.
11. Aversion To light
Moving from one extreme to the other was nothing to Valeria as she transitioned from depending on sunlight to staying off it for a while choosing to rely on air alone for subsistence.
Viral images of her lounging at the beach under the sunlight turned out to be propaganda to deflect attention from her aversion to sunlight.
12. Unnatural Looks
Valeria constantly fought off criticisms of her look, steadfastly claiming her looks were all natural even though her looks suggested otherwise.
She only admitted to getting a boob job initially, but since criticisms of her look persisted, she finally admitted to getting other procedures done as well and had an interview where she said she is finally done with improving her body parts surgically.
13. All Natural
To perfect her Barbie doll looks, Valeria often goes with heavy makeup on her photos. Where this is unconvincing enough, she also goes on to modify her pictures to resemble the doll further. To create a balance with her admirers, she also snaps pictures sometimes without any makeup and pictorial modification in order to show her natural beauty.
In fact, on one occasion, she slammed people who are afraid to appear natural before others.
14. Perfect Perfectionist
Nothing human is perfect. However, Valeria is not one to accept any dint of imperfection such that even with her unreal looks, she still pressed towards further perfecting her Barbie looks.
Perfection for her entail mannequin-like stillness and perfect makeup, and she worked diligently to master these qualities as well. Although, she also mentioned that this could be tiring at times and the outside world prying into her private life did not make things any less easy for her.
15. Perfect Price
It is no mean feat achieving the looks that Valeria achieved. The bad side of her status was people beginning to relate with her more as an object rather than a human being.
She was adored by some and derided by some others with people even going extra lengths to humiliate her at some point.
16. The Assault
Valeria has been regularly pilloried by criticism of her looks with some of the criticisms even coming in as direct threats. However, one night in the year 2014, the threat of physical assault was carried out.
Prior to relocating to Mexico, while still living in Odesa, Ukraine, Valeria was attacked in her home in the city during the annual Halloween celebration. Two assailants viciously attacked her just outside her home and could have possibly killed her if not for the valiant efforts of her neighbor who chased them away. Lukyanova mentioned that it “happened so fast,” and there was no way she could have expected it. She was treated of her injuries at the hospital and recovered from it. This, however, didn't stop the barrage of criticisms directed towards her.
17. A Counterfeit?
People are wired to object things that are contrary to the norm, and even Valeria might have understood this; hence, her criticism likely was expected by her. She must have expected her critics to have at least been polite and diplomatic rather than asinine in their objection towards her; after all, she was not harming anyone with her lifestyle and wasn't forcing others to follow in her footsteps.
Valeria was criticized for any and everything but rather than succumb to her critics; she coped incredibly well with the insults and mockery hauled her way.
18. Media Sensation
Valeria became a media sensation at some point but mostly for negative reasons. According to her; "I noticed that the media is only interested in the negative." Their overarching aim is to "Show someone in a bad light, show someone's mistakes."
She, however, developed a thick skin to her negative media portrayal and was often unperturbed by their unending accusations boasting that "I hope they don't expose me."
19. Cyber Fury
The internet is one of humanity's biggest innovations, although, its unbridled and uncontrolled nature encourages a lot of unfair, inhuman treatment by people towards one another.
Comments against Valeria were all over the internet, and she reads them, but she is such a brave woman that she was unbothered by the vileness she reads about herself on the internet.
20. The Energy Vampire
This is the title Valeria conferred on herself in homage to her strong will to flourish from her criticisms rather than wilt from it.
She went about to prove the futility of her traducers by even going on to prove her ribs were intact on video rather than dislocated or removed, so they can satisfy their curiosity about her.
21. Unvengeful
It is expected to reply hostility with hostility and disrespect for disrespect, but this was not the case with Valeria as she treated her critics with respect and love. Even on one occasion, she stated a desire for everyone, including her critics to be happy so that they can focus more on themselves rather than on her.
Of course, her reaction in this case is expected, especially as she claims to be a self-proclaimed spiritual guru. She claims to be spiritual and seeks to be in tune with the universe and hence, it’s expected that she should be at peace with all those who inhabit it. This may well be a real person that practice what she preaches. Although, it is obvious she wants the world to know about her message, getting people’s attention and keeping is the challenge she needs to overcome.
22. Teenage Witch
Valeria's teenage years were eventful. Naturally, teenagers, while undergoing puberty, are still trying to make sense of the world, and as such, their self-identity tends to fluctuate at this stage. Valeria's teenage years were just like that.
She once uploaded pictures of her teenage years to ease her skeptics. She was draped in black attire and surrounded by fire, hence, supporting the notion of her aspiration to become a witch later on. Although like most of us, her aspirations changed to a more temperate identity as she advanced later in the years to come.
23. Unreal Beliefs
Valeria herself loved to be unique and different from all other females. Yes, of course, every human being is different from each other because our DNA is unique to us, but Valeria's desire is to be deemed outwardly; having nothing relating to human beings at all.
Conspiracy theories were already brewing about her alien connections of which Valeria herself lends credence to by opening claiming to be an alien merely sojourning on the earth to educate clueless humans. While maintaining her questionable spiritual beliefs, Valeria's outwardly beliefs seem to be much more than a mere ruse; perhaps she truly is from another world.
24. Citizen of a different Planet
For the sake of clarity regarding her roots; Valeria went further to reveal the identity of her perceived origins. According to her, she was not from here, but Venus. At least that's as far as she claimed her memory serves her.
For all who doubted her claim, she truly looked different than most human beings, and her beliefs and philosophies about life certainly were not pedestrian in nature. She claimed to have supernatural abilities which began to manifest right from her childhood which she alluded to continuously experiencing hyperawareness occasioned by rapid visions.
25. A Troubled Past
Seeing strange objects in rapid swirling motion affected Valeria. It brought about insomnia. The objects and shapes she saw were unrelenting in their movements around her, thereby rendering her unable to sleep.
While this phase continued, she suddenly became aware of the incredible abilities of her mind to control these beings and objects encircling around her to stop in their tracks which they did. These made her appreciate the power of her mind to master and control any situation she may be going through.
26. Beyond this mortal world
Her exposure to the spiritual realm right from a tender age sparked her curiosity in this realm. She knew the beings in that realm were different than what obtains in the physical realm; hence, she desired to help others understand how deep the spiritual realm really is.
She desired to embark on an odyssey into the spirit world. However, she opined that her presence in the physical world was needed for a while. Beings in the spirit realm do not depend on food and water to survive; hence, in her aim of being like them, she was also going to stay off those things as well.
27. Spiritual Guru
Valeria was so confident in her vivid spiritual experiences that she wrote a book teaching how enthusiasts could achieve similar experiences.
Her book "Astral Travel Amature," was published in the year 2012 and available on her website for interested persons to access and read for free. She cared about letting people into her world; hence, she didn't even bother about commercializing the book upon completion. What is this book about? What are the aspects of spirituality that Lukyanova believes one need to master?
28. Out of her Body
To the average human, Valeria's ideas seem impossible, but she was confident in her ability to shed her physical body to look like the beings she saw in her visions. She believed she needed to part with her body to experience the cosmos with nothing but a wide-open soul.
She believed the cosmos holds a repertoire of knowledge which can be available to humans if only they are resolute in accessing this hidden wisdom. She believes the secrets of the universe can be exposed and looked into; we should just be willing to embark on this journey to self-discovery. The wisdom she offers to the world are numerous, what other ones does she intend to offer?
29. A Beauty to Behold
With her Gail ravishing looks, Valeria was aware of her imposing stature and adjusted herself to the curiosity of everyone who came across her.
She knew some would at least try to reason with her beliefs while some others will be outrightly hostile to it, but for those willing to hear her out, she was willing to guide them into her realm to see things from her perspective. She knew of her noticeable physique and its ability to attract attention; she, therefore, was willing to use this attention to educate people about her beliefs.
30. Space Barbie
Sequel to her strong beliefs about her affinity to the outer space, Valeria earned a new moniker to the real Barbie doll she was hitherto associated with; her new moniker was "Space Barbie."
She uploaded videos (the image above is one of her meditation videos) of her seemingly in a trance-like state playing the role of a sage in an environment surrounded by starry like objects and a snake in her hand.
31. Conflicting Identities
As stated earlier, Valeria just like other teenagers fiddled with conflicting identities as a teenager; however, even in adulthood, Valeria still struggled with multiple identities. At times, she is the girl known as the Barbie doll to the world, and then at other times, she is a spiritual sage known as "Amature" meditating within herself. She just seems capable of morphing into something new at any given opportunity.
Her essence of making up has never been all related to looking ravishing, she is able to pay attention to little details and has a passion for experimenting with various shades and colors, she can decide to make the red color in her cheek deeper in an effort to bring out a stronger blue to her eye, she is able to locate things that are out of place, and she is bold enough to direct her attention to these things and find a solution to them. That’s the human Barbie for you.
32. Life as the Undisputed Human Barbie
Love her or hate her, Valeria Lukyanova is a stirring example of determination and steadfastness, and she really desired to pass her wealth of knowledge to others.
It is easy to look at her as deranged or troubled but in some way she is a shining example to the world that anything you set your mind upon can be achieved regardless of scorn and slander from doubters. She reveled in a different world; hence, she was calm with the jesting of people around her. She had lived for several years being the object of curiosity, but such was her hope in the other realm she revels in, that she stated: "Only love and joy exist in the place I come from." She further says. “Beings in our realm are sexless… we are able to look inside any being and see ourselves.”
33. Psychiatric Help
Well, after having several vivid experiences of objects and persons walking around her invincible to others except her, she began to question her mental state.
She began to welcome the prospect of seeking therapeutic and medical help which she eventually did by visiting a psychiatrist. This was a bold step, but it was one taken in the right direction. She visited a psychiatrist when she began experiencing the vivid visions, but the psychiatrist rather bizarrely informed her that her experiences were special and she was lucky she choose him as other doctors might have recommended that she should be imprisoned due to her mental state.
34. Career Change
Everything that has a beginning must have an end. Moreover, modeling is hardly a career that can last forever anyway. Haven learned from her psychiatrist that she did not have any adverse medical condition but merely experiencing visions common to what psychics experience; she decided it was time to delve into the world of psychics.
Delving into a new profession will ultimately warrant new friendships and associations, and this she did by affiliating herself with other psychics and joining their chanting sessions in the dark. Side by side with her latest foray into the psychic profession, she also continued to play a mentorship role by teaching others about her beliefs and lifestyle as some were curious to learn about her habits.
35. Her thoughts on Ugly Women
Surprisingly, the human Barbie doll believes that not all women are beautiful. She opined that some are ugly. This much was confirmed by her harsh criticism of Hollywood actress, Sarah Jessica Parker who she labeled as having a "horse face" as well as radiating "inner ugliness." This is a surprising take seeing that she had been bullied in the past for her looks.
She went further by releasing a video online where she spoke about women that are not on par with her idea of what beauty entails.
36. Family Life
The “real-life Barbie” is married to a childhood friend “Dmitry Shkrabov” who also happens to be a businessman.
She participated in a special documentary called “the Phase” in 2013.
37. Other People Like Her
The “real-life Barbie” has been seen posing with “Justin Jedica.”
Justin Jedica also happens to have been dubbed “Human Ken” to match Lukyanova’s “Human Barbie.”
38. Staying Healthy The Vegetable Way
She attributes her awesome weight and body fat percentage to her clean diet.
She has severally mentioned that in order to be beautiful and healthy, there is a need to eat lots of vegetables and herbs.
39. Thoughts On Other Living Dolls
Lukyanova declares her love for bright people in one of her interviews.
In her words, she mentioned she adores them and love doll appearance because it’s sweet and harmonious.
40. The Length Of Time It Takes To Do Makeup
Of course, we expect that it will take the Human Barbie a long time to do her makeup, and she didn’t disappoint with her response during an interview.
She mentions that it depends on the kind of Makeup and can take her at least up to an hour. We can only assume she was only being humble with her response.