from harris's blog: american girl culture

i stumbled across this article a few hours ago and i must say i completely agree with the author. there are no more children.. just wannabe adults. it is horrifying that even 6 year old girls worry about dressing up cool enough for boys to like them.

(Teenagers) dress up cool so boys like them. I saw it in a movie. They get dressed so fashionable, like a doll and stuff. -- Lily, 6 years old.

as far as i can remember, at 6, i was playing with earthworms and sucking nectar out of flowers. i owned one doll that looked very much like a little me (6 years) and had a pretty white and blue dress with smocked sleeves. the doll didn't have a figure like barbie's neither did she have a boyfriend like ken. she didn't have a corvette or a surfboard. she didn't have a satin bed set with a silk-padded headboard (like barbie's). she was just a little doll who was content playing with earthworms, beetles and flowers; she didn't mind hitching a ride on my back to my little bed where i'm sure she was quite content sleeping.

If I don't dress well, I feel geeky. And if I feel nice, I feel like people like me. -- Lily, 6 years old.

i'm a geek and proud of it. this culture has really hit the younger generation pretty hard. i read that Lily shops at Rachel London's Garden, where Britney Spears has some of her clothes designed. a two-piece suit i'm sure looks adorable on a 6 year old.. but the pressure doesn't suit the kid. nor the parents. i wonder how much money do the parents spend on fulfilling their little angel's wishes?

At our school, being popular is, for a girl, looking the best, having the best clothes, being liked by a lot of the guys. -- Hannah, 13 years old.

ha. popularity is so over rated. is it worth all the heartache/headache/stress it takes to become popular? sure, at 13, i was very curious about boys and did want to look my best to make them like me, but i wonder if today's teenagers are overdoing the impressing part? tons of makeup, trips to the beauty salons, shopping at 6 different stores does sound to me like life's taking a back seat and stress is taking the front.

i wish kids would be kids.. enjoy their childhood and not turn into wannabes.. because childhood strikes only once.