I've always thought that Barbie was a stick thin joke showing unrealistic proportions that could not be matched by anyone but the most ridiculous of surgically enhanced (or should that be damaged?) specimens. Now I know Barbie is a complete fraud after seeing tennis star Kim Clijsters immortalised as a Barbie doll.

Anyone who follows tennis knows that Kim is a bit of a bonnie girl, a fairly chunky specimen on the court when compared with the slightly more Barbie-like Maria Sharapova. So to see Kim re-invented with proportions that made her look like a supermodel who has been on life-long diet of lettuce leave was an affront to all those curvy mums out there.

Toy maker Mattel decided to make the version of the Belgian tennis star and her daughter Jada to mark her surprise victory at the U.S. Open last September when she came out of retirement having taken time out to raise a family. And the results are there for all to see (above).


Surprisingly, there was no version available of Clijsters' husband, Brian Lynch, as Ken. Maybe that was something to do with the beard? I'm sure there's a Ken version with stubble, but never a beard, unless I'm wrong?

The Clijsters doll makes her the first female athlete to be immortalised by the Barbie brand, and follows versions of Oprah Winfrey and Marilyn Monroe - both of whom were never exactly a size zero.