Gender Transition with American Girl Dolls

Late last year, popular doll maker American Girl released a new book for girls. It’s titled, “A Smart Girls guide: Body Image Book: How to love yourself, live life to the fullest, and celebrate all kinds of bodies.” The book’s description tells us that every girl needs to learn to live comfortably in her own skin. The book’s message that all body types are worthy of love and respect is a much-needed pushback on a culture that glorifies model-type bodies, objectification, and the kind of pressures that have led to an epidemic of body dysmorphic disorders in our kids. But the book goes a step further and tells girls that if they haven’t yet gone through puberty and they want to make changes, they can talk to a doctor about securing medicine that delays body changes until they have more time to think about their gender identity. Parents, even in the world of play our kids are learning a narrative about gender self-determination, rather than following God’s good design of male and female.