If Barbie were to be a real person, she would be seven feet two inches tall, and weigh one hundred and one pounds. Her dress size would be a four, and she would wear a double F. Our culture has chosen unrealistic standards to live up to. The average woman is five feet four inches tall, weighs one hundred and forty pounds, and a dress size of fourteen.  For millions of little girls, Barbie is their role model.

A little girl loves to play dress up. She also loves to look in the mirror. She loves to make silly faces, but only five percent of kids like the reflection they see. Imagine a toddler standing in front of a mirror, smothering her face with blush and lipstick. She giggles as her mother attempts to hold the squealing toddler still, lathering her legs with self-tanner. She begs for her mother put on hair extensions, and false eye lashes. This is the reality for toddlers who enter beauty pageants. She looks up to women like Miss America, and she feels like she has to look just like her. This young girl feels the pressure to have the perfect skin, perfect walk, and an overall perfect look. For this girl that means taking off their glasses right before she walks on stage even if she can not see, because she has never seen Miss America wear glasses before.  She gets judged on how pretty she is. If she loses she believes it was because she did not live up to their standards. She is often in tears wondering why she was not pretty enough, or if it could have helped if she altered her look just little bit more. These feeling will follow them as she grows up.

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When walking into a teenage girls room to most people requires no thought. You are most likely to find a mirror, makeup, and magazines. You are less likely to find a picture of the Brady Bunch, but instead a poster of Sex and the City.  The mirror, show a reflection of a girl who sees nothing but flaws. It is unpleasing and has her starving, and cutting herself. The makeup has her hiding behind her skin. She is pretending to be something that she is not. The magazines, has her saving up for surgery. She wonders why she looks nothing ...

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