“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Kids are asked that question all the time, and some of them are ready with an answer. A kid with a plan! Of course much can change over the years, but where do they get their ideas? A lot of little girls play with Barbie, the doll who can “Be Anything.” Barbie has been marketed in many different professions- 130, in fact- ranging from presidential candidate to lifeguard to rapper to doctor to artist and almost anything in between. And all, of course, while looking beautiful and glamorous. That beauty and glamour has lots of critics up in arms over the unrealistic body image she presents to young girls and the negative effects that may have. That’s a very interesting discussion and definitely something to get to another time, but not my topic here. For now I want to talk about a study that was recently conducted-  “Boys Can Be Anything: Effect of Barbie Play on Girls’ Career Cognitions.”

I’m not  making this up- it’s for real. Two psychology professors worked with a group of 37 girls, aged 4-7 and had them play with either a Fashion Barbie doll, a Doctor Barbie doll, or Mrs. Potato Head. After five minutes the girls were shown photographs of ten occupations, half of which are traditionally male dominated and half traditionally female dominated. They were each asked which they thought were jobs they could do and which were j0bs for boys. The girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head believed they could be anything; the girls who played with Barbie- either one- saw fewer options for themselves.

I’m not sure I buy it. Do you really believe there is a connection? Girls have been playing with Barbie dolls for the last 55 years and many of those girls have grown up to be successful women in a variety of careers. The purpose of this study was to see how playing with different toys influenced how kids think. Since Barbie has had so many careers, they wanted to see if playing with glamorous Barbie had different effects on girls’ thinking depending on how she was dressed. Mrs. Potato Head was chosen as a contrast because although she has similar color and texture to Barbie, and feminine accessories as well, she is not sexualized the way Barbie is.

I do think this is all very interesting but I don’t think it should be taken at face value. After all, playing dress-up and pretend is part of childhood and I really don’t think it negatively affects the career choices girls make when they grow up. Just because a little girl plays with Barbie or dresses up as a Disney princess, it doesn’t mean that she won’t be a financial analyst or engineer twenty years down the road. On the contrary, I think that playing pretend helps develop healthy imagination and creativity, qualities that will surely serve kids well as they grow up and function in the grown-up world.