Entrepreneur Barbie Misses Mark In So Many Ways

Just in case anyone thought a ten day vacation was going to mellow me...are the women in this video actually serious?

“…exactly what we need to inspire a generation of young women to start opening their own businesses…” (Barbie?)

“…a role model and icon in the form of an entrepreneur is so exciting and the best form of inspiration…” (Really? Barbie is the best we can do?)

“…that looks like me, I can be that too…” (Who really looks like Barbie?)

“…dream big, you can be anything you want to be…don’t be afraid to take risks…don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something…” (Newsflash...no matter how hard I would ever dream or workout, I am not going to look like Barbie.)

And they are using #unapologetic. Really?

Additional commentary

Mostly, becoming a female entrepreneur is about having the confidence to take risks. And handing young girls misproportioned dolls who give them a skewed view of what's beautiful probably isn't going to help there.  Carrie Kerpen of Inc. 

“Playing with Barbie has an effect on girls’ ideas about their place in the world,” says Aurora Sherman, an associate professor in the School of Psychological Science at OSU. “It creates a limit on the sense of what’s possible for their future.” Sherman’s study of a sample of girls ages 4 to 7 found that girls who played with Barbie thought they could do fewer jobs than boys could do. But girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported nearly the same number of possible careers for themselves and for boys. There was no difference in results between girls who played with a Barbie wearing a dress and the career-focused, doctor version of the doll.

More from I-Chun Chen at bizjournals.com