Barbie - the world loves you for who you are on the inside. You don't have to dress that way!

I am a 27 year old mother, and usually I feel young and cool, but today I feel like I sound like a grandma. When I was playing with Barbies, I remember that my Barbie had a briefcase. And a powersuit. I always wanted Dr. Barbie, but alas, we never bought her. Sure, Barbie babysat Skipper on the weekends, and eventually had twins. She pushed the twins around in a stroller in her 80's jumpsuit. It covered her WHOLE BODY. Maybe the Barbie of my youth was a little "conservative", maybe somewhat "traditional", and of course there was always that whole body image debate, but as I stood in Wal-Mart today I was in total shock about where Barbie has gone now.

Abi has three Barbies, and today in Wal-Mart I was fondly recalling the time I spent dressing Barbie in different outfits, which could be bought at the Dollar store or Wal-Mart for pretty cheap. From my obesrvations today, I'm pretty sure that Barbie now reads Cosmo, has recently auditioned for the next " Real World", and considers Britney Spears her life coach and primary role model. The only clothing selection was from a collection known as "party". I only found two outfits that I would even consider letting my four year old put on a Barbie, and they were both tragically covered in glitter. So that leaves me with only one solution: when I go visit my parents next week I'm raiding the stash of Barbies in the shed to get together a complete collection of mom approved Barbie clothes. The 80's are back...right?