Favorite Childhood Characters Barbie

When I was a child, I used to be obsessed with Barbies. Like most little girls or even some boys, I used to love dressing up the dolls or braiding their hair. I loved fashion and watching the same Barbie movies over and over again. However, there is more to this than just dressing up dolls for fun. This was my first look into feminism. In my early years, this was the first exposure I had into women working for her own money, women being able to be the stars of movies, and women being the heroes. For example, Barbie had so many jobs which teaches children that they can be whatever they want to be. Also, as I recall, in the Barbie films, the main character, and later hero was a girl, which is important for little girls to see.

As well as feminism, Barbie also incorporates diversity. I used to love how some of the Barbies had brown hair just like me and I would imagine that I was the Barbie. This may sound silly or irrelevant, but this shows that Barbie taught girls not to discriminate against any feature on the human body. For example, I owned any race of Barbie with any color hair, eyes, or skin. It didn't matter to me which Barbie I would play with because I liked the differences that they all had. However, as I am now looking back on the good inclusive qualities that Barbie introduced, I am realizing that there wasn't a diverse perspective on weight. All Barbies seemed to be the same small-waisted, chiseled-faced perfect reflection of how a girl's body should look. I hope that in the present day this will be fixed because it is important for girls to know that weight doesn't define who you are or how you should look.