Barbie is not who we think she is.

For nearly seven decades, Mattel has sold Barbie as a true original: a revolutionary and empowering alternative to the baby dolls before her. In her new book, “ Barbieland: The Unauthorized History ” (Atria/One Signal Publishers), Tarpley Hitt provides a surprising counternarrative.

Barbie, per Hitt’s lens, was not a groundbreaking novelty. Rather, she is a cheap “knockoff” elevated by strategic marketing, exploitation, bullying, backstabbing and espionage.

“Mattel had spent years obscuring Barbie’s backstory,” the author writes. (A Mattel spokesperson told The Post that the company is “aware of the book.”)

The prevailing Barbie myth has long been that, in 1959, a businesswoman named Ruth Handler (who founded toy company Mattel with her husband, Ell

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