The original Barbie doll was based on a German doll called “Lili”. She was a sort of novelty gift for adult men. I don’t believe she was anatomically correct but she was a tiny adult woman with exaggerated proportions and sexy clothes, a sort of doll otherwise unheard of at the time. Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, saw Lili dolls in skiing costumes on display while she was on vacation in Switzerland and was inspired to create an teenaged dress-up doll for American girls.
I believe Lili was based on a character from a comic strip that ran in Das Bild. I suppose that character may have been based on a streetwalking prostitute; I don’t know. But Lili was not directly based on a streetwalking prostitute and Barbie certainly was not.