Yesterday was my birthday. Well, not my birthday, it was Pigtail Pals’ first birthday and we celebrated our first full year in business. I guess in a way it was my birthday, too. A year ago yesterday marks the day I turned from stay-at-home mom to work-at-home mompreneur activist. It is my intention to bring about social change when it comes to how we look at childhood, and specifically how we think about our girls.
What was my birthday wish? My wish is for your daughter….and that she be able to enjoy her natural right to a girlhood.
The simple fact that she is a child gives her the right to live her childhood years free of messages that limit, belittle, sexualize, or harm her. My wish is that she have no other expectations put upon her other than that she be a little girl.
My wish, for your girl and for mine, is that they grow knowing every color of the rainbow belongs to them, that every dream the sky can hold can be theirs, and that every right we give to our boys is just as deserving a right we afford our girls. We need to change the way we think about our girls.
"Let her dream in every color", Pigtail Pals first birthday cake
My wish is that people who come here to read this blog, who learn about the company Pigtail Pals, or otherwise hear my message understand that this isn’t just a parenting issue or a morality issue or a “thank goodness I have boys issue”. This is an issue of social justice and I take great offense to the exploitation of our children. I take issue with corporations knowingly selling and marketing products to our children that undermine their healthy development and take away their innocence which should be a central part of their childhood. The evidence and studies showing the psychological harm that is coming to our children from hypersexualized childhoods is being ignored.
Children’s bodies may be smaller, they may be younger in years, but that doesn’t diminish their rights to health, happiness, and freedom from exploitation.
My wish is that parents and caring adults come together, and start to demand better options for our girls. Our children deserve better.
My wish for your daughter is a girlhood free of limitation, and full of
Music – Art – Storybooks – Exploration – Science – Imagination – Sports & Dance – Play – Pretend
Our birthday wish - fill your daughters' girlhood with all the world has to offer.
This week, aside from being Pigtail Pals birthday week, is also Girls Inc ‘Girls Rights Week’. Click the link for their Girls’ Bill of Rights. Print it out, discuss it with your daughter, and tape it up in a place she can read it every day. Ensure positive messages and media are an everyday part of her life.
Or grab your daughter and snuggle up next to the computer and watch this video by the Girl Power Crew and girl advocate Kelsie Morales, putting girls faces and voices behind the six rights from the Girls Inc Girl’s Bill of Rights. Listen very closely to Kelsie’s words at the end of the video. Talk to your daughter about what that means for girls and for parents.
*************************
Whether you are new here or have been with me since the very very beginning, thank you for the support, encouragement, activism, and excitement towards Pigtail Pals and the mission to Redefine Girly!
