Valeria Valeryevna Lukyanova is a Ukrainian model and entertainer of Russian origin, famous for her resemblance to a Barbie doll. To enhance the Barbie effect Lukyanova uses makeup and contact lenses over her naturally green/gray/blue eyes. She has stated that she has had breast implants, but that the rest of her body is natural and slender due to daily gym workouts and a particular diet.
Career
In 2007, Lukyanova won the world wide beauty contest "Miss Diamond Crown of the World". The beauty pageant was open to any women, had about 300 contestants, and had no rule forbidding plastic surgery or body modification. She subsequently had multiple photo sessions and interviews published in Russian media, including erotic photos. Lukyanova developed a worldwide following for her Barbie doll-like appearance after she posted photos and videos of herself on the web. She gained notoriety after reports of her "almost inhuman beauty" surfaced online. The first notable coverage of her from outside Russia was on the Jezebel blog, followed by a photo session in V by Sebastian Faena. The media described her as being like a living Barbie doll. There has been scepticism of Lukyanova. ABC News suggested that Lukyanova was a hoax aided by image editing software. Diane Levin regarded Lukyanova as an example of the negative effects of media objectification. To counter the image editing accusations, Lukyanova posted videos on YouTube and appeared on Russia-1 and Channel One Russia TV channels. Lukyanova admitted to having breast augmentation but no other plastic surgery, and denies that she had ribs removed to make her waist smaller. Lukyanova blamed people unconnected to her for altering photos of her younger self in a malicious attempt to imply she had received body modifications. Lukyanova is an instructor at the School of Out-of-Body Travel, described as "an international school in which our instructors show students how to leave their physical body and travel in their spiritual body." Her spiritual name is Amatue. She is a composer, an opera singer, and has recorded two albums of new-age music, Sun in the Eyes and 2013 using the name Amatue. she wrote a book, Astral Travel Amatue, about her astral trips which she made available in 2012 as an RTF file to download for free from her website. In 2013 Lukyanova was the subject of an episode of Vice's My Life Online documentary series entitled Space Barbie. In 2013 she participated in the documentary movie The Phase, which was released on YouTube in 7 languages. She had her debut starring role in a feature film in The Doll, a horror movie directed and written by Susannah O’Brien. The film, which also includes Mindy Robinson and Ron Jeremy, revolves around Lukyanova's character, an escort made from doll parts created by a doctor to recruit others to kill, and the two men who requested her. The movie presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. As of March 2014, Lukyanova had 997,812 Facebook fans, 10,030 Twitter followers, over 30 million views on YouTube, and also, as of August 2013, there are 336,565 followers in the Russian social network VK.
Personal life
Lukyanova was born on August 23rd, 1985 in Tiraspol, in what was then part of Moldavian SSR in the Soviet Union. She claims to be of "Eastern Baltic, but closer to Nordic" origin. Her mother, Irina, worked for the military sector and her father was a builder who also worked part-time as a disc jockey. Lukyanova lived in Odessa, Ukraine from age 16 until 2014. She has a bachelor's degree in architecture from Odessa State Academy of Constructions and Architecture. She is married to Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Shkrabov, her childhood friend. However, Lukyanova said that she does not want to have children or a "family lifestyle." Lukyanova is a strict raw vegetarian, living on a liquid diet. She said that her weight was 45 kg in 2012. In 2014 she stated she was training herself to live off only light and air, and converting to breatharianism which is described as a cult, that believes food and possibly water is not necessary for survival. However, later she stopped this experiment, stating: "I still would like to do breatharianism someday. But right now I am far from it, and I do not know when I will do it". In a 2014 GQ interview, she expressed her views on race-mixing, describing it as a problem, stating, "Ethnicities are mixing now, so there's degeneration". In 2014 Lukyanova reported to police that she was punched and strangled by two men outside her home, after receiving anonymous threats for over the past two years. She was hospitalized and released a week later. In 2014, because of the War in Donbass, Ukraine, Lukyanova moved from Odessa to Moscow. In 2015, Lukyanova participated in Dosso Dossi's fashion show as a model. Lukyanova, has expressed anger at the nickname of "Human Barbie", as she feels that it's "a little degrading and insulting" but that she's used to it now as it's the image her fans "requested" so she has to "comply with it because it's become part of my aesthetic image, but I don't like it".
