When I heard about BarbieGirls.com I was on a 56k connection shared with family members who were also actively playing and blogging online. I tried to load the BarbieGirls.com website on that connection and the music near drove me buggy… and after 2 minutes the flash was only 20% loaded so I cancelled my attempt at setting up.

Now I’m at home and have logged into BarbieGirls.com for the first time. My name is BarbieGrrl29 if you want to add me as a friend. In the mean time I’m going to head back over to my Barbie and play around with the interface and see what I can find.

Since there’s codes you can enter by hand, I’m sure there’s some way to find a list of codes around, too, so I’m going to look for those. If you find any, feel free to share.

From the Squidoo Barbie Girls Lens:

To get the full experience of the BarbieGirls.com world, girls will want to own the Barbie Girls MP3 player. This device can be connected to the computer to unlock exclusive pets, hangout spots, furniture, games, and more.

The Barbie Girls MP3 player is a 4½-inch portable device that is a music player and fashion doll in one. The Barbie Girl device is sold with a belt clip, docking station, adjustable earbuds, durable storage case, and two sets of interchangeable hairstyles, faces, tops, skirts, and shoes. Additional packs of outfits, accessories, and pets will be sold separately.

The Barbie Girl music player will play any non-DRM-encrypted MP3 or WMA files, and will have 512 MB of on-board memory, enough for approximately 120 MP3 or 240 WMA-file songs. Memory is expandable to up to 2 GB with a miniSD memory card (sold separately). The device comes with Windows Media Player 11 and runs on a built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery that is charged via a USB port.

From the BarbieGirls Squidoo Lens:

BarbieGirls.com has a strong focus on safety for the young girls interacting on the site.

All registered users can use B Chat, which is automatically filtered to only allow language that is already in the site’s database of accepted words. This filtering prevents girls from giving out personal information or using abusive or foul language.

Girls who have the Barbie Girls MP3 player can dock the player at the computer of a friend they know in the real world, which allows them to be designated on the site as best friends. Best friends are then permitted to engage in Secret B Chat, which is private and filtered only for obscene and abusive language.

If you’re a member of BarbieGirls.com you’ve heard about the new codes that are available to unlock new content for your Barbie, and probably wondering where to get it!

Codes come with Mattel Barbie Girl products that you purchase. One of the first ones was released on July 15 in the form of an MP3 player with a Barbie Girl theme.

I’ve set up an Amazon store for these specific Barbie products to help cut through the noise since Barbie is already a well established enterprise. These products unlock online content for dressing and accessorizing your online Barbie!

Visit my Barbie Girls Amazon store.

Mattel unveils its newest Barbie venture BarbieGirls.com and a Barbie MP3 player.

By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer

April 26 2007: 4:37 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If Barbie can’t fend off bitter rival Bratz in the “real” world, then she’s going to take the battle to the “virtual” world and hopefully have better luck there.

Barbie’s parent Mattel (Charts, Fortune 500), the world’s largest toymaker, on Thursday unveiled its newest Barbie initiative called “Barbie Girls” which meshes together the online and offline play experience for girls.

Mattel had released some details about the new venture last week. However, the toymaker kept a few other surprises closely under wraps.

Barbie Girls actually is a two-part concept. It’s a Web site which comes to life on BarbieGirls.com, which launched on April 26. Mattel executives told reporters during a preview Thursday in New York City that the company hoped to create a “first-ever global online community designed exclusively for girls.”

At BarbieGirls.com, girls can create their own virtual characters, design their own rooms, shop at the mall using virtual money called “BBucks,” go to the pet shop or to the movies or just hang out with their other virtual friends and chat live with other girls.

Read the rest of the article here