Written by Lucia Carrillo

Many young girls idolize their Barbie dolls. Children are most vulnerable and innocent around the time they start to play with dolls. Girls become so attracted to Barbies because they represent perfection: Barbies have soft, straight hair, wide eyes, big houses, and fancy toys. Whenever young girls play with Barbies dolls, they take a break from reality, and essentially living in a fairytale world—one where expensive cars and perfect boyfriends are at their disposal. Barbies once represented innocence, but have changed over the years, and not in a positive way. Some Barbie models are now pregnant, have tattoos, are anorexic, or have generally strayed from representing the typical, innocent girl.

Because the makers of Barbies have to keep up with the likes of other popular dolls that reveal midriffs, Barbies have a whole new look. “As a little girl, I used to love Barbies because of all the nice things they have, but I noticed that the industry is getting out of hand,” said senior, Karen Hernandez. Barbies new image is leaving too much of a negative impression on young girls. The only way to explain the craziness going on in the Barbie factories is ‘pure mayhem’. Barbie manufactures should keep Barbies image pure and wholesome, and stop designing the doll with such mature features.

“Barbies are dead, electronics took over, parents are trying to push kids away from Barbies because of the image they are portraying,” said senior, Laura Esparza.  This is an important issue even to those who don’t play with Barbies, because the kids that do play with them will grow into significant members of our society. These girls should not be exposed to such risqué images at such early age. Toy makers have gone too far once Barbie’s starts having babies. Young girls are going to start noticing the difference between them and the doll and they will try to look like them. “Babies are unacceptable,” said senior, Nohemi Granados. I single out Mattel, the manufacturing company of Barbie, because they are most popular and recognizable doll brand, and therefore represent all children’s dolls as a whole. We as a society need to take a stand against Barbie manufactures and put a stop to all this nonsense, because we need to prepare young girls for the challenges of the future, not expose them to negativity in the prime years.