Model, Human Barbie
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$300,000
“Everyone wants a slim figure. 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.” From an early age, Lukyanova was an avid doll collector who took tremendous pride in her appearance. Often complementing her big blue-green eyes and sunny blond hair with pretty dresses and thick ribbons, her friends and family claim she looked like an angel. Unbeknownst to them, the young girl was far more interested in cultivating a resemblance to her favorite doll: Barbie.
Over the course of nearly two decades, Lukyanova would go to extremes in order to achieve that appearance and adopted some rather unorthodox ideas along the way. However, this Ukrainian beauty is the personification of the old proverb: “Never judge a book by its cover.” Beyond her modeling career, she is also a composer, singer, instructor, actress and author with a cult-like following on social media whose YouTube videos have been viewed over 50 million times. Having proven she is not just a passing fad, Lukyanova is now determined to show the world precisely what a woman with her unique talents has to offer.
A Doll is Born
Valeria Valeryevna Lukyanova was born on August 23rd, 1985 in Tiraspol, Moldova, then part of the former Soviet Union, to Irina, a military sector employee, and Valery, a builder by day and deejay by night. As a child, her first great passion was music. In addition to her usual school classes, Lukyanova took voice lessons and wrote her own songs. As a teenager she moved to Odessa and attended the Odessa State Academy of Constructions and Architecture, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in architecture.
It was during her time at the Academy that Lukyanova developed an interest in modeling. By then she was 5’7” and secure in her stature but self-conscious about her appearance. To address this perceived deficiency, she underwent breast implant surgery and experimented with makeup in increasingly dramatic ways to develop a signature look that ultimately drew comparisons to the Barbie doll she adored as a child. Then, in 2007, she entered the Miss Diamond Crown of the World beauty contest; a worldwide pageant with no rules forbidding any form of bodily enhancement. Besting over 300 contestants, Lukyanova was crowned the winner.
Several photo shoots and media interviews quickly followed in which Lukyanova proudly displayed the look that would become her trademark. Hoping to capitalize on the attention, she posted her own photos and videos online. Reactions to her appearance ranged from outrage to admiration. Many questioned whether or not the images had been digitally altered due to her impossibly thin waistline and unnaturally shaped facial features, thus prompting them to derisively refer to her as The Human Barbie. But none of her critics could deny that the millions upon millions of views her photos and videos received had turned this woman into an Internet phenomenon.
Focusing On Her Career
Lukyanova used her newfound fame to build her brand. Regularly posting on social media, she has well in excess of a million Facebook fans, over 600,000 Instagram followers and nearly 27,000 Twitter followers. Boasting numbers like those, she was deemed a social media influencer who commanded anywhere from $1,812 - $3,020 per post from her Instagram account. More importantly, it afforded Lukyanova the chance to spread her wings. In doing so, she began to nurture her spiritual side.
“Many people think you need only good looks to be successful, but it’s not true—only spiritual work can bear tangible results." Attempting to attain those results, she began meditating. The practice led to her awakening ancient memories of past lives she’d lived. In one of them, Lukyanova asserts she was Maria Orsic, an occult medium who served as Adolph Hitler’s spiritual advisor. In another, she lived in Atlantis and was known by the name Amatue. Translated from the language of ancient Atlantis, it means “goddess of light” and proved to be a moniker with which she drew an instant connection. "I do not hide that I lived at the time when there was Atlantis. I remember everything from there."
Those memories inspired Lukyanova to write the book Astral Travel Amatue (2012) about her frequent journeys on the astral plane. Additionally, she teaches classes at the School of Out-of-Body Travel where students learn how to leave their physical bodies and explore their spiritual ones. Not surprisingly, she is a firm believer in extraterrestrial life and claims to communicate with them through the language of light.
Her love of music led her to record two New Age albums, both under the pseudonym Amatue. Although neither Sun In the Eyes (2009) nor 2013 (2013) were met with critical or commercial success, she is incredibly proud of both and considers making them the accomplishment of a lifelong dream. Finding the art of performing deeply nourishing, she made two music videos and starred in the horror film The Doll (2017).
Personal and Professional Controversy
In response to the many critics who cast doubt on her contention that the only surgical procedure she’s undergone is breast augmentation, Lukyanova insists her body is entirely natural and the result of a disciplined exercise and dietary regimen. Today she is a raw vegetarian and subsists off an entirely liquid diet. But a few years ago, she embraced a belief known as Breatharianism, whose proponents maintain that human beings do not need food or water to survive. While she claims it helped her get in touch with her spiritual side, Lukyanova has no plans to resume the practice anytime soon.
She has never been afraid to voice her opinion on intercultural and interracial marriage, single-handedly blaming it for the “degeneration” of beauty in modern society. A strict anti-feminist, Lukyanova is even more repulsed by the thought of having children. “I’d rather die from torture because the worst thing in the world is to have a family lifestyle.” Clearly she felt differently about matrimony, as Lukyanova married childhood friend and Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Shkrabov.
What’s next for the woman known to the world as The Human Barbie? Only time, and perhaps a visit to the astral plane, will tell.
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