Welcome Back Barbie

growing up, I loved Barbie.  I had lots and like all other girls, I gave them all haircuts.  

Barbies were a right of passage. You grew up watching your older sisters or cousins playing and you just had to have them too. Barbie was everything- a doctor, an astronaut, a vet... her options were endless.

And then the world decided she was bad. She gave girls an unattainable standard of beauty.  She was unhealthy and giving her to a girl only solidified that the girl should only be skinny, pretty, and on the arm of a handsome man.  For years, she was shunned.

But now, at least for this mom, Barbie is back. Their marketing department killed it with this ad. This is the Barbie I remember. The Barbie who could be anything and do anything, regardless of her body.

My daughter has Barbies, and I will continue to buy her more. In this house we chose to accept Barbie as a role model, the be anything woman who my daughter can grow into, not a body dysmorphic beacon that my daughter will judge her own worth against.

Welcome back Barbie, I've missed you.