Even before I had kids, I knew that ours was going to be a Barbie-free home. I grew up with a lot of body image issues. It wasn't until I was in my mid-20's and had gained weight that I realized just how good I looked as a teenager. But, because I din't have curves like Barbie, or look like the models on TV and in magazines, I didn't appreciate myself. So, in an effort to protect my daughter from some of the bad messaging about what constitutes a healthy or beautiful body, one of the decisions my husband and I made is not to buy her Barbies.
Barbie's dimensions are unnatural and actually quite dangerous when you extrapolate them to human size. She would be over 6 feet tall, approximately 100 lbs, and wear a size 4. She would be anorexic, unable to menstruate, and have numerous medical problems.
Sadly, a 21 year-old model in the Ukraine has had multiple surgies to turn herself into a real-life Barbie doll. Her features look so plastic that some people doubt she is actually real.
