Julia Duggan, a 32-year-old pharmacist from Maine, New England, recently shared the story of her fifth birthday with her 18,000 TikTok followers, prompting a flood of amusing responses from children of the '90s and '80s who had experienced similar mishaps.
Julia's mother had held a "Barbie"-themed party for her and hired an "entertainer operator" for the party from the phone number known as "Barbie". What her mother didn't know was that she had mistakenly invited a stripper who called herself Barbie.
Julia remembered Barbie arriving to the party wearing a pink bikini top and grass skirt, with very long blonde hair, just like Barbie's. "I just remember holding her hand and walking around with her. I was mesmerized by her," she recalled. Of course, when the stripper realized that she was mistakenly invited to a 5-year-old girl's birthday party, she kept her clothes on and didn't share the mother's mistake with the children.
When Julia reached high school, only then did she discover the truth about who the "Barbie" that starred at her birthday party really was. "Before we moved, my mom and I were looking at old photos and I was like, 'Oh, which Barbie did you hire for my birthday?' And my mom said, 'Oh, that's an interesting story,'" Julia said.
The reactions of the viewers of the video show that Julia's mother was not the only one who made an inappropriate mistake at her daughter's birthday party.
Others wondered how the Barbie reacted when she found out what party she was invited to. "This must be one of the better parties she's been to. Free cake and no drunk men," wrote one, and another added: "It must have been one of her most fulfilling days, but it makes sense that it was also her least profitable day."
Julia's story has gained more than 200,000 likes and 750 comments on TikTok, highlighting the amusing mishaps and miscommunications of yesteryear.