When I was growing up, I played with Barbies (of course!). My Barbies had ensembles to play nurse, teacher, bride, beauty queen, and waitress but that was about it. Mostly, she played beautiful-girl-trying-to-attract-Ken.
My, how things have changed. Now Barbie has an entire line promoting “You Can Be Anything” and sells the dolls dressed as a firefighter, scientist, teacher, boss, paramedic, scientist, soccer player, and a whole series on space discovery. I’m so glad that Mattel’s worldview has expanded along with other roles for women.
And yet I can’t help but notice that the collection of careers features a selection of roles that are unlikely to be realized. How many people actually are astronauts or soccer players? Think of the impact if Mattel encouraged girls to consider construction, welding, data analysis, foreign languages, software developers, or entrepreneurship. They may not lend themselves to cute outfits but they could inspire youngsters to prepare for fields that actually could employ them.
If you’re in a position to encourage young people to “be anything,” take advantage of the opportunity to expand their minds to consider things they haven’t and give them a head start in preparing for something they may actually be.
