Little Girls Gone Wild

My little princess

I just put down my February issue of Redbook only to find a story on something that has bothered me for quite some time: the over sexualization of little girls in our society. I started Whimsy Girls for this very reason. When I was trying to find a Halloween costume for Ava, I was appalled at the overtly sexy options out there for the under 12 set. Not only that, but when trying to find products to sell here, I was shocked at the amount of options. High heels for toddlers, makeup for your preschooler and even padded training bras!

Whimsy Girls doesn’t sell any of this crap. Everything we have is chosen by me, the owner and mother of a four year old who I don’t want to grow up too soon. I want her to relish being a little girl and sometimes that means dressing up in a flouncy tutu with a glittering tiara on her head.

And that’s OK.

You know why? Because I encourage her to do things other than dream of being a princess. We take her to the museums to learn about art and science. My husband and I both work at NASA and she has visited there several times. I’m teaching her to cook and to paint and to understand simple mathematical concepts. And yes, she takes ballet and she’s an incredibly intelligent, well-rounded four year old girl.

While some people (like the author of this article) feel that the downfall of females in our society can be chalked up to our fascination with pretty ball gowns and living happily ever after, I simply don’t agree. Parents or guardians should be there providing a wide variety of options for their girls every day. It’s up to us to instill values in our children. To teach them that they don’t need anyone else to make them happy and that beauty comes from within.

In the meantime, I’m not going to force Ava to dress up as an astronaut when she really wants to wear that Cinderella gown. I’m going to indulge her girlish requests because she is a girl. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.