I want to be beautiful
This is what my 4 year old said to me while we were preparing to go out one day.I looked in her big hazel eyes and said:
“But you are beautiful sweetheart!”
And then she answered:
“No mummy! You know I need o put that thing on my face to be beautiful!”
“You mean make-up sweetheart?”
“Yes mummy! Hat thing you put on your eyes and makes you beautiful!”
“But sweetheart you are beautiful and you don’t need make up to be beautiful. Do you see mummy putting on make up?”
“Not really….but Barbie has it! She has pink colour around her eyes…”
I hugged her and told her that she doesn’t need to beautiful and that she will always be beautiful no matter what.
Yes I know. It is my mistake my daughter knows about Barbie. She started watching the Barbie movies around the time Baby A was born on Nick Jr and now she’s a bit addicted to it.
Yes I know she is only 4 years old and a girl her age should not care about things like that!
But then why shops sell magazines that have lipsticks and make up included in the pack? And why the big toy shops sell kids make up and nail varnish? If they didn’t then little girls will not ask to have them.
And yes I know I should say no…but…do you think make up products harm my 4 year old perception of beauty or the cartoons like Barbie that show the ideal body shape and suggest that is what beautiful is?
This weekend we took my daughter to have her ears pierced and also bought her a Hello Kitty make up set. She plays with it and pretends she is preparing for fashion shows exactly like in the Barbie cartoons she watches. I do try to change her habit of watching Barbie but as I have a tiny baby in tow I find it quite difficult…
Do you buy your daughter things like that? Or do you think a girl so young should not know about make up and nail varnish?
10 Comments
AlwaysARedhead
When my girls were young, I believe they preferred to play in the mud, and Barbie was also covered in mud.
otilia stocks
Unfortunately Kara never played with mud. Maybe when we will move to Romania x
MrsB
I don’t remember wanting to put on make up at 4 and I got my ears pierced at 13 only because an acupuncturist said it might slow down the deterioration of my eyesight 😐 Maybe that’s why I have boys, I’m just not girly enough 🙂
Lots of girls these days play with make up & princess dresses, I think more when they are at the age Kara is at, later on she will probably loose interest in the Barbie stuff 🙂
otilia stocks
I hope it doesn’t sound bad but I hope she will lose interest x
Vicky Charles
I know someone whose 4 year old has her own makeup bag – bits and bobs of her mum’s old makeup. She has it for dress-ups around the house. That scares the bejesus out of me. My little girl is only 1; I don’t want her to only have 3 years left of believing she looks fine just as she is! It scares me so much to think what the media in general is doing to young kids these days. It’s so hard to monitor what they’re doing 24/7, especially when they go to school or visit with friends!
otilia stocks
Very true. It is hard to monitor them. And these days even the cartoon channels have bad adverts 🙁 no escape really!
Jess @ CatchaSingleThought
My daughter is 4 next month and I regularly paint her nails because she asks me too. She knows that mummies wear make up but hasn’t ever asked for her own. I think there’s a fine line between little girls playing (who hasn’t seen the cliche of a little girl covered in her mummy’s make up?) and believing they are not beautiful if they don’t wear make up, which I guess is where magazines should draw the line but don’t.
otilia stocks
I just hope these things will not affect her perception of beauty later in life x
Oana79
Otilia, I think there are girls and girls. My Emma loves watching Barbie and last December, when our Sky box decided not to work for two weeks she watched a lot of Barbie DVDs. Until the day she got Barbie Surf something movie and there was some extremely weird talking from some mermaids(as if they were possessed, I kid you not!!) About the same time she started refusing wearing jeans because they weren’t body tight(Like Barbie’s clothes). I got the message then and put the DVDs in the bin and banned Barbie from being watched. She says things like Kara, like “I want to be beautiful like Barbie” but I always tell her beauty is also about being kind and polite, not only wearing nice clothes. But we haven’t outgrown the legging and tight stage and if she gets her hands on chapstick she would literally plaster it all over her face :-).
otilia stocks
Oh dear. I think if we start banning Barbie they might forget about it. Lets hope!