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her tippy toes. When she could suck no further, she said to herself, “Princess Jasmine’s tummy doesn’t stick out like mine! She’s skinny and pretty.” Zing. That brief moment of comparison, and her fantasy bubble burst. She turned off the DVD and took off her princess costume and buried it deep in the recesses of her closet. Then she went downstairs to find comfort in cookies and chocolate milk. That was the end of her princess phase. Her mom never did understand why Maya stopped being interested in princesses almost overnight. Maya made it to age six before that defining moment when she realized that she looked different from Princess Jasmine. That’s as long as the grace period lasts and about all the time we have to truly be ourselves free from the external eye. Once elementary school begins, that precious protected time, the time we were so thrilled to experience with our daughter, starts to be challenged by the outside world—and it all starts with appearances. By age six, children are already aware of the societal bias against fat.2 Children who are overweight internalize this message early, and they can see the difference between themselves and their toys. A full 90 percent of girls in the United States between the ages of three and eleven own a Barbie doll.3 Although other doll trends have come and gone, none has the staying power of Barbie. It is not just overweight children who can perceive the difference between themselves and Barbie—it is every girl who isn’t the kid equivalent of five foot seven, blonde, with 32.4-16-28.6 measurements. (Yes, those are Barbie’s actual measurements, which correspond to one in 100,000 women in the real world.)
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