It's been 50 years since the first talking Barbie doll hit the shelves wearing a striped bathing suit.

Many will remember owning her as children but little thought is given to the real girl who voiced the fashionable plastic play thing.

Janie Wellborne, who lives in Chiddingstone, became voice of the original talking Barbie, which released to admiring children across the UK in 1970, when she was 17-years-old.