Do Blondes Come First at American Girl?

Anyone who knows a girl under between the ages of 7 and 13 has heard of American Girl dolls. I had the Samantha doll growing up, and my nine year-old sister Anna has a “Just Like You” doll and many, many clothes and accessories.

I was looking through the catalogue today for a gift for Anna, when I discovered something troublesome. The newest doll in the “Just Like You” series has, “light skin, layered blond hair, blue eyes, and earrings.” She is clearly much prettier than any of the other dolls in the collection.

There would be nothing wrong with any of this if American Girl also offered dolls with medium and dark skin, layered hair and earrings. But they don’t. The only doll who is clearly beautiful by today’s standards looks nothing like me. And yet, if I were Anna’s age, this is the doll I would want.

What kind of message does this send to girls? Is it, “blondes have more fun?” Or maybe, “you have to be light-skinned to dress fashionably or wear your hair with layers?”

I’m sure that’s not the goal behind this doll. And I’m sure that the folks at American Girl plan to eventually roll out other versions of the doll with other hair and skin tones. But by rolling out a blonde version of the doll first, they are still sending the message that blonde girls come first.

My Shameless Ploy

In which I show off my new bathing suit for my upcoming Mexico vacation. Just remember, I’m smart and a kick ass professional. Dancing around in a bikini does not diminish me. I am woman hear me roar!

Some more musings after the jump… Read more

The Bottom Line on the iPhone

A lot of people have been talking about the fact that the iPhone is not priced for the average consumer. With a $500-$600 price tag and a potential $2,000 a year phone contract attached, this phone is priced for the business community, but it’s not a business smartphone. So what’s the deal? What is Apple thinking with all of this?

The answer can be found in Michael Malone’s great piece on the iPhone in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal. He writes:

That is the crucial, often overlooked, key to Apple’s continuing success. Other wildcatters have to pray the market recognizes their brilliant new products quickly enough before they go bankrupt. Apple, by comparison, always knows that it will be able to finance versions 2.0, 3.0, etc., on sales to its captive market — and by then, it will have perfected a definitive product the whole world wants to own. Mr. Jobs recognized the power of communities a generation before the current Web 2.0 crowd and is now its greatest master.

If you remember, the original iPod was overpriced too. That’s because Jobs was counting on a bunch of Macsturbators like me to buy it to fund rounds two and three of production and their subsequent drops in price point. Now, my eleven year-old brother has an iPod. We never would have bought one for him when it first came out. The same will likely be true of the iPhone.

I also want to unpack Malone’s statement about the power of communities. He couldn’t be more spot-on. Jobs has released a 0.9 product that he’s billing as version 1.0. In the next six months, he’ll monitor what everyone is saying about the phone. Likely, there will be some minor changes to the software (and possibly the hardware) depending on what people want. When the original iPhone is released, the success and feedback from the Mac faithful will give Apple a mandate to redesign, update, and come up with a 2.0 version for the general consuming public by Macworld ‘08.

Now the question is, will I be able to wait that long to hold an iPhone in my hot little hand? With the original iPod, I didn’t even have a choice. I was in college living on Top Ramen noodles and did not have two pennies to rub together let alone enough cash to drop on a generation 1 iPod. But eventually, the price came down enough that my mom was able to buy me my first iPod and the heavens sang.

Then everything changed. I graduated from college and started working. My pay slowly increased to the point where dropping the occasional (and I do mean occasional) Jefferson or two on a pair of shoes no longer felt like a major life decision. Now, I could conceivably afford to have a generation-one iPhone in my life if I decided prioritize it ahead of pretty new shoes. The question is, whether or not it’s worth making a priority at this point in the production cycle. Two years down the road, it will probably be better and cheaper.

I guess I have until June to figure it out…

Incidentally, for a laugh, go read Alexis Kayhill’s absurd diatribe against Malone for daring to diminish the shininess of Apple’s newest product. I love Mac just as much as she does, and I’m not offended by Malone’s article. Maybe she just takes herself and the all-holy Steve Jobs a little too seriously.

My First Manolos

What a great photo by Thomas Hawk!

Another Shot From the Wedding

Julia posted this photo from the Pirillo Wedding. Andy looks so awesome in that suit.

For those of you who are wondering why I’m making such a big deal of these photos is that this is the first wedding I’ve ever been to where I wasn’t seated at the kids’ table. Also, This is the first time I’ve ever seen Andy in a really (drool!) nice suit.

Why Spending $400 on a Dress is Sometimes a Good Investment

I usually don’t talk about how much money I spend on clothes on this site. I don’t really see it as relevant or remotely tasteful. I should note that I’m generally financially responsible. I’m not in debt, I save money from every paycheck, and I have great credit. But on occasion, I will spend $400 on a dress, or $500 on a pair of shoes.

Now, everyone knows that a dress or a pair of shoes itself is not worth $400 or $500. Even the finest stuff from the top designers in the fanciest stores in town is worth $200-300 tops. It’s common knowledge that when you shop at a store like BCBG, you’re paying as much for the plasma screen televisions on the walls and the overabundance of helpful salespeople as you are for the actual dress. But you’re also paying for outstanding customer service.

Last night at Ponzi and Chris’ wedding, the straps on my brand new taffeta and silk dress from BCBG frayed and broke. I nearly fell out of my dress on the dance floor in front of my boss and his wife. I would have become the Tara Reid of the Pirillo Wedding had it not been for the Hollywood Fashion Tape holding my dress in place and the silicone Nubra holding me in underneath.

Needless to say, I was not happy that my brand new, $400 dress couldn’t hold itself together for one evening. So today, I called the store and told them what happened. Without missing a beat, the saleswoman Ksenia told me that they would be happy to take the dress out for repair free of charge. She apologized profusely for the inconvenience and told me how much she valued me as a customer.

At Loehmann’s, you might get last season’s BCBG dress on the cheap, but you won’t get taken care of like that. Sometimes, it really is worth paying $400 for a dress. This was one of those occasions.

Cheryl Klein: Remover of Splinters and Fixer of Dresses

My stepmother and I have had our differences over the years. She’s very concrete and practical, while I’m abstract, flighty, and spontaneous. I also had problems keeping my room clean. This led to some interesting fights over the years.

I can’t decide whether I’ve grown up or she’s chilled out. I think maybe it’s a little bit of both. But whatever the case, we get along much better than we used to.

So anyway, when I bought my awesome dress from BCBG, it came with an almost fatal design flaw: a series of little snaps along the top of the dress that popped open whenever I took a breath. It wasn’t that the dress was too small. It was just badly designed in that capacity.

Thank goodness that Cheryl is all kinds of badass with a sewing machine. She quickly figured out that simply replacing the snaps with hooks and eyes would be a disaster. So instead, she bought some of the long, tiny reinforced hooks that you use on backless bras and wedding dresses and sewed them into place on the delicate silk. Now, the dress fits, looks like a million bucks and is much less anxiety-producing to wear. I’m thrilled!

I should add that she did all this while simultaneously getting my little brother to practice his saxaphone (”or there will be no computer time”) and pulling a piece of glass out of my little sister’s foot (”Anna, hold still!”). Someday, I hope to be half the super-mom that she is.

Off to the Plymouth Gin Party Tonight

The fine folks from Plymouth Gin are throwing a party tonight at Capitol Hill hotspot Havana. The master distiller of the fabulous gin will be attending, so I’m certainly excited to check it out with Steve and Andy this evening. I’ll have a full report later.

And then tomorrow, we’ll be off to Chris and Ponzi’s wedding. I’m SO excited. I love seeing friends get married. I can’t wait to see Ponzi in all her bridal splendour. She’s such a classy woman. I must also confess that I’m terribly excited about my dress (see left). It’s a silk and taffeta confection from BCBG, my favorite store. I finally have enough holiday parties/weddings this year that I can justify buying a truly fabulous dress. Ooh goody!