Barbie and Body Image

Over the course of the last few months my wife and I have been slowly chipping away at the job of cleaning up and organizing our attic. Now that our kids are grown and out of the house, looking through boxes of their toys, books, and clothing is like a trip down memory lane. One box we found contained several Barbie dolls and accessories that belonged to our girls. I paused as I looked at the Barbie dolls as I had recently read about Nickolay Lamm and her desire to create a doll that has the proportions of an actual teenage girl. The reason? Barbie isn’t a real life doll. In fact, Lamm found that while the average nineteen-year-old woman has a thirty-three and a half inch waist, Barbie’s waist would be only eighteen inches if she was a real girl. Parents, we live in a day and age where outward appearance is priority one. That’s one reason why so many of our girls are struggling with body image issues. Help your girls find their identity in Jesus Christ. And, help them see the dangers of focusing on outward appearance.