Family Planning With “Human Barbie”

The topic has clearly shaken something loose in Valeria. In her view, expressed in a staccato rant, parenting is the pinnacle of selfishness. “Most people have children to fulfill their own ambitions, not to give anything,” she says. “They don’t think about what they can give this child, what they can teach her. They just try to shape her according to some weird script — whatever they couldn’t do in life, like becoming a writer or a doctor. Or some woman who’s almost 30 and thinks no one needs her, she says, ‘Oh, I’ll have a kid. He will love me and become my reason to live.’ And then this kid becomes a soccer ball she and her boyfriend will kick back and forth.

“I’d rather die from torture,” she concludes, “because the worst thing in the world is to have a family lifestyle.”

GQ spent some time with Valeria Lukyanova, the so-called “Human Barbie” from Ukraine, and finds a young woman with “a degree of power, a degree of control, and a major say in her own destiny.” “Degree” is a key word here. [GQ]