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" This week&amp;#039;s Momfidence Lighten-Up-and-Eat-a-Cookie award goes to those feeding the latest Barbie flap. Specifically, the flap over the black dolls in Mattel&amp;#039;s new &amp;quot;So In Style (SIS)&amp;quot; line. It seems they&amp;#039;re not &amp;quot;black enough&amp;quot; for some moms. I know I&amp;#039;m treading on thin ice here by weighing in since I&amp;#039;m (obviously) not of any African-American heritage. Not to mention that this weekly award is unfortunately titled for this particular topic. (It refers to easing up, not skin color!!) But it seems to me that strides towards ethnically-specific dolls are something to celebrate, not grouse about. The complaints center on the hairstyles, which aren&amp;#039;t Afro-centric enough. (That&amp;#039;s Barbie So-in-Style Stylin&amp;#039; Hair Trichelle, with her baby sister, in the pic.) Apparently in research, little girls of all colors like to brush and comb that improbably abundant Barbie hair, which is no more realistic in its blonde versions if you ask me!  But you know, dolls are fantasy figures onto which girls can project themselves and role-play \u2014 they don&amp;#039;t see them as narrowly or seriously as we do, as role models and mirror images. Besides, in real life, different ethnicities have differently-shaped noses and hair textures and skin colors of 100 different shades. We all have different bodies, too, and none of them bear any resemblance to Barbie \u2014 and that&amp;#039;s a-ok with me. Where will the push for ethnic-doll perfection end? It can&amp;#039;t, that&amp;#039;s just it. What about the needs of the girl with the Jewish-Korean mom and the Puerto Rican-African American dad? What about Heidi Klum&amp;#039;s and Seal&amp;#039;s daughters? Or Tiger Woods&amp;#039;s? (Well maybe I shouldn&amp;#039;t bring him up this week!) There will never be a doll that represents each little girl exactly. (Though companies like My Twinn have tried \u2014 and with both coarse-curly and relaxed &amp;quot;African American&amp;#039; hairstyle choices, too, and even birthmark options!) I know of European-heritage girls who fight over the new Disney Princess Tiana and Pochantas, and Hispanic girls who favor Addie, the African-American &amp;quot;American Girl&amp;quot; doll and black girls who play with Rebecca, the new Jewish American Girl. The more options there are, the more color-blind our daughters become. Seems like we should celebrate manufacturers&amp;#039; progress and good intentions, and how far they&amp;#039;ve come from when we were little girls. \u2013Paula Spencer, WD &amp;quot;Momfidence&amp;quot; columnist "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a42541/the-lighten-up-eat-a-cookie-award-to-doll-bashers-3734/>