Woman Named Barbie Oppenheimer Thinks That People Don't Treat Her Seriously Because Of Her Name

Barbara "Barbie" Oppenheimer had a thrilling summer, thanks to the simultaneous releases of Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," which ignited a mashup craze on the internet.

Despite being a 68-year-old grandmother of five, she's embracing her name's newfound fame, as it has captured the world's attention.

Barbara Oppenheimer

“The Barbenheimer craze has added some more fun to my already good life. It’s been great fun,” Oppenheimer told The Post. “I’m having a lot of fun with the craze. It’s always important to embrace the serendipity in life, isn’t it?”

Barbara Oppenheimer

During a recent vacation, she even had one of her employees question her identity.

She told Slate: “When I checked in at the hotel, I said, ‘Barbie Oppenheimer!’ The guy said, ‘Are you pulling my leg?’”

Most people don’t believe me when I say my name. They think I’m joking,” she told The Post.

Even her close friends have joined in the fun, playfully teasing Oppenheimer about her trendy name.

“I had college friends around the world texting me that weekend when [the movies] came out, with the whole schmear, you know… ‘the bomb and the bombshell’,” she joked.

Barbara Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer, from Newton, Mass., said that her two sons like to get in on the joke as well.

“We were all just together to celebrate my husband’s 70th birthday when the Slate interview broke, and of course, they were critiquing my responses,” she said, referencing a recent interview on the site.

“My older son bought me a Barbenheimer T-shirt for my October birthday but was disappointed that I already had one,” she shared.

“Most of my grandchildren are too young to understand the craze, but my oldest granddaughter, who is only 7 and a past big Barbie fan, was intrigued.”

Warner Bros Pictures/Universal Pictures via AP

During that interview, Oppenheimer expressed her belief that her "summer of fame" would pass quickly, but she finds the entire experience "pretty funny."

Oppenheimer told Slate. “It was a brilliant thing that they launched them together. It really brought people back into movie theaters.”

She might go by Barbara now, but there was a time when she fully embraced the name Barbie and went by that memorable moniker.

“You know, I started as a Barbie, spelled just like Barbie. Because in those days, everyone wanted to be like Barbie. Then when I got to be 12, I changed it to Barby, with a Y, and then I became Barb,” she told the outlet. “I grew up in Milwaukee, it was the Midwest, of course, I was Barb. But then when I graduated and got my fellowship at Mass General, I went by Barbara. I was so professional and serious.”

Warner Bros Pictures/Universal Pictures via AP

While many moviegoers struggled to choose which film to watch first, Oppenheimer decided to attend the opening weekend of "Oppenheimer." Interestingly, her husband is related to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man famously known as "the father of the atomic bomb," who is the central figure in the film.

“My husband’s father is third cousins to J. Robert, so we really wanted to see how they treated his story,” she shared.

Even though the renowned physicist is only a "distant relation," she felt that the film portrayed him accurately and effectively.

“Well, the first thing I heard before I even saw it was that it’s three hours long, and you’re like, ‘Oh, boy.’ But I didn’t find that a barrier at all,” Oppenheimer said. “I thought they did a good job. It really gets into the moral dilemmas that Oppenheimer faced. Did he face them head-on at the time? That’s a good question.”

She continued, “I come out of the science fields. I was a professor in the health sciences. And so watching him deal with these questions, and the politicization of it. I thought some of the most interesting scenes were about the patriotism at Los Alamos, as the staff felt at the time.”

She added, “But I was pleased with the movie because it gets people thinking about these questions, and what role he played in history. He was a hero to many, but he was also the subject of a lot of anger. I mean, I’ve always heard in my husband’s family, whether you claimed him as a relative or didn’t really depended on how you felt about things.”