OMG, you have to go over to the Huffington Post & check out this article by Galia Slayen!

Click on the pic below to go to the article. She took Barbie’s measurements & translated them to a life-size doll!

I want you to go over & actually read through what she wrote. She organized the first National Eating Disorders Awareness Week at her college. She mentions her time being anorexic & that skirt on the Barbie used to be her own.

But here are some scary stats she mentions at the end of her article:

• There are two Barbie dolls sold every second in the world.

• The target market for Barbie doll sales is young girls ages 3-12 years of age.

• A girl usually has her first Barbie by age 3, and collects a total of seven dolls during her childhood.

• Over a billion dollars worth of Barbie dolls and accessories were sold in 1993, making this doll big business and one of the top 10 toys sold.

• If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5’9″ tall, have a 39″ bust, an 18″ waist, 33″ hips and a size 3 shoe.

• Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs.

• At 5’9″ tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate.

• If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.

• Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled “How to Lose Weight” with directions inside stating simply “Don’t eat.”

While I’m saddened by these statistics & that we raise our girls w/ such a priority of what a select group of designers (fashion & doll) & editors define as beauty; I applaud young women like Galia Slayen. The fact that she’s doing this gives me hope for our next generation of little ladies!