Saving Girlhood

We've got three girls in this house. Each one of them eagerly anticipated their 7th birthday rite of passage which included receiving their own American Girl doll. These were all purchased during the more innocent and sweeter time when Pleasant Company owned the doll and before the Mattel Company bought out the originator of the doll. The mailman delivers the catalog and chores and schoolwork are done quickly in order to be the first to scan the new stuff available. Mom and Gma haul out the sewing machine to create clothing and their website knows our debit card number.

What nearly derailed their AG love affair was learning that Mattel had politicized their favorite doll by linking to and supporting an organization that supported abortion as a right.

Today, though, we're glad to read that they've come around to realizing that the issue isn't one that is appropriate for these young girls. And Mattel didn't just drop the hot potato, they've even taken it one step further and started "Saving Girlhood".

From every angle, today's girls are bombarded by influences pushing them toward womanhood at too early an age—at the expense of their innocence, their playfulness, their imagination. We'd like to change that.
We'd like to save girlhood.

Talk about backpaddling! That's quite a change. From funding an organization that supports 'a woman's right' and actually helping to push them toward womanhood to recognizing that the innocence of these girls is valuable. I don't think it was a change of heart. I think it was market forces at work.

I'm glad they came around. Now I can finish the Christmas shopping--Molly needs a new pair of glasses.