Barbara Parsons is an internet sensation renowned for her amazing welding skills. She is famous by the moniker “Barbie the Welder” which is also her username on Instagram and her YouTube channel. Not many may know this but before Barbara earned her place as one of the famous female welders, she was just a small-town girl doing ordinary jobs to make her ends meet. Here’s a Barbara Parsons “Barbie the Welder” with various facts you probably did not know before.

Barbie the Welder’s father ignited her passion for craftmanship

Barbie was born into a working-class family where she learned the importance of hard work at a very young age. So she began doing anything she could to help her parents since she was 7 or 8 years old.

In 2018, during an interview with Arc-Zone, Barbie shared some information about her father. She said, “My dad always worked hard to provide for our family. I looked up to him. He was funny, rode motorcycles and always had me by his side when he was working around the house. He taught me so many things and was the catalyst for my love of building things and working with my hands.”

Barbie has also shared some posts of her father on her Instagram handle (@barbiethewelder). Back in June 2018, on the occasion of father’s day, Barbie shared this picture of the father-daughter duo working together on a project and wrote, “My dad had me working beside him ever since I can remember! He has taught me electrical, soldering, drywall, auto mechanics, roofing, painting, and plumbing, just to name a few!”

“He is hardworking, humble, funny, honest, a wonderful friend, generous, a faithful husband for over 50 years, a retired veteran, and just an all around damn good man. I can't say thank you enough for the life lessons and unconditional love he has given me all my life. (Sorry for swearing dad but it's the truth!),” she added.

Barbie never gets tired of appreciating her father. In this another Instagram post from August 2018, Barbie calls her dad her greatest superhero. She wrote, “I was never treated differently because I was a girl, he put me to work hammering nails, working on plumbing, sanding floors, roofing, electrical and phone installation, and drywall. My love of working with my hands to create and build started at home with this man! Who got you started working with your hands to build and create?”

During her high school, Barbie used to work in an auto mechanic shop, following which she also worked a few years as a metal scrap hauler. However, it was very difficult to make her ends meet during those days. 

Barbie recalls, “It was super tough. You work every day to hopefully make money enough to get you gas to find more metal. I really didn’t have any money, and our family was living in the projects.”

Tom Hank’s movie Castaway inspired Barbara Parsons to pursue welding course

There’s no doubt that Castaway is an iconic movie but it more than that for Barbie the Welder. The movie is the one that actually helped her “find her purpose and pursue her destiny.”

According to Barbie, the woman at the beginning of the movie welding giant angel wings spoke to her soul. Then for the next nine months, she collected penny after penny to save herself enough to put herself through a “$1200, 6 months, 104 hours, adult welding class.”

After completing the course, she got a job at Cameron Manufacturing and Design, a local custom fab shop. By the next three and a half years, she bought a new home in Erin, New York, for her family with a garage large enough to open a metal shop. She waited for nine more months to purchase the machines and began working part-time at her shop while continuing to work at Cameron Manufacturing and Design. She began working full-time at her shop on September 1, 2014.

Who is Barbie the Welder's husband/boyfriend?

Barbie does not have a boyfriend or husband as of now. She does not have any children as well. But at her shop, she occasionally conducts welding classes to teach young kids the art of working with metal.

Barbara has not shared much about her personal life but she has mentioned in an interview that she was unhappily married in the past. She also said that her ex-husband was against her taking the welding course. She decided to pursue her passion and eventually divorced him.

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