What a Doll!

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I was a bit Barbie-obsessed when I was younger. In fact, there was one room in my parents' house designated as the Barbie Room, where I spent hours dressing Barbie and her family and redecorating her mansion. The Barbie Room was a small town complete with a pool, McDonald's, office, hair salon, news station, and all the other Mattel-made Barbie buildings.

Barbie's gotten a bad rap throughout the years for encouraging girls to have unrealistic expectations of their body size and proportions, and exposure to Barbie contributes to long-term negative effects like body dysmorphic disorder. Nonsense--There are so many factors affecting a girl's self-esteem and body image, and frankly there are many other dolls, cartoons, t.v. shows, pop princesses that are a worse influence on girls than Barbie.

Earlier this spring, I was thrilled to see this photo of Blake Lively (love her!) in US Weekly and the Barbie that Zuhair Murad created after her red carpet appearance in this STUNNING gown. 

The dress is so edgy with its art-deco lines and figure-hugging silhouette. But I must say that I prefer Blake's classic Hollywood movie-star curls to Barbie's up-do. 

 So Blake has inspired not one but two Barbies created in her likeness-- First, the Green Lantern doll, complete with Blake's mole, and now haute couture Zuhair Murad clad Barbie. They certainly represent two very different ends of the spectrum!

 It's almost the weekend- Go glam it up!