She wasn't allowed to break character, so she had to nicely tell them that Ken would get jealous

When she was in her all-pink costume, kids would ask for autographs and dads would hit on her

She had to keep her hair blonde and her nails and make-up 'soft and pink'

Annette Christie was hired by Mattel when she was in her early 20s to dress up as Barbie for events

There are plenty of plastic-surgery addicts out there who go to great lengths to look like Barbie — but one woman actually managed to live as the doll without ever going under the knife.

When Annette Christie, 35, was younger, the Canadian writer had a 'pretty great gig' as a real-life Barbie, hired by Mattel to dress up and stand in as the blonde doll at events.

But as she recalled in an essay for xoJane, it wasn't all high heels and dream houses. Despite being treated like a celebrity by the kids, fathers could be incredibly inappropriate — even with their young daughters standing nearby.

Life in plastic... In her early 20s, Annette Christie was hired by Mattel to dress up as Barbie for events

Annette was 22 when she learned that Mattel was looking for Barbie lookalikes. Specifically, they wanted blonde women who were a certain age, height, and weight — and she fit the bill.

After submitting her photo and getting approved, she had to take a test, answering questions about Barbie's life to see how well she knew the doll.

Luckily, she knew Barbie's favorite color is pink and her boyfriend's name is Ken, and the toy company gave her a job.

'As long as I followed the handbook, keeping my makeup soft and pink, my nails soft and pink, my demeanor — you guessed it — soft and pink (and made sure those darker roots of mine stayed blonde), the Barbie job was mine,' she said.

Soon, she started booking gigs. Annette would show up to things like 'Breakfast with Barbie' and toy store events as a regular girl before stealthily changing into her official Barbie costume — which turned her into an instant celebrity.

Chill, dad: She said that it was a great job, even if some of the dads at events would make cheesy, sexist jokes

Perfect: Some grown men also scoffed that she didn't look like the doll, though she said that the kids never thought she wasn't thin or blonde enough

'Youngsters asked for autographs, never complaining about my abhorrent penmanship, their parents holding cameras ready to capture the enchanted moment forever,' she said.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome gig — with only a few notable drawbacks. For one, even though the kids treated her like a star, their fathers weren't always quite so respectful.

Not a single child said my waist wasn’t small enough or my legs not long enough

'Adorned in pink fabulousness and a Barbie sash, I would stand in Toys“R Us, hearing things like, "Daddy wants a date with Barbie" and "Are you $14.99, too?"' she recalled.

Perhaps worse than hearing the creepy come-ons of lecherous dads was being unable to respond the way she wanted to, because she had to stay in character. The best she could fire back with was something along the lines of: 'Tsk, tsk! Ken would get jealous!'

Then there were the men who saw her in real life and were less flattering about her similarities to the impossibly tall, impossibly skinny toy. Some would 'sneer' that she didn't look like Barbie, which she presumes is because she was ruining their 'fantasies'.

If the kids were convinced, though, that was all that mattered — and they were.

'Not a single child said my waist wasn’t small enough or my legs not long enough. And on the days when I did have half an inch of mousy roots betraying my blonde hair, they didn’t even notice,' she said.

Imagination, life is your creation! She said that kids would treat her like a star, asking for autographs and taking photos

The costume could be a bit impractical, too, with a tiara that sometimes gave her a headache and six-foot-wide wings she wore as Barbie of Swan Lake becoming 'hazardous'. In fact, she admitted, she may have 'knocked a few people out with those things'.

Annette also recalled a time that a homeless woman tried to climb under her skirt to see 'what Barbie had going on' underneath, since Barbie is known to have 'ambiguous genitals'.

She does seem to remember her time as Barbie fondly, though, and offered this piece of advice to any other blonde lookalikes who might find themselves dealing with 'naysayers' in a similar gig.

'You might not be able to give them the middle finger because, as far as we’ve come, Barbie’s plastic fingers are still welded together (good luck ever getting a ring on it, Ken),' she joked.