Somehow a 96-page book, or guide, that targets an audience of young girls ages 3 to 12 on the subject of positive body image went horribly wrong. The guide, “A Smart Girl’s Guide: Body Image” is a product being sold by American Girl. Parents are describing the guide’s content as ‘deceptive and dangerous.’
Teaching young girls about positive body image is a good thing, generally speaking. However, when agendas are thrown into the discussion, no matter how subtle the manipulating is, objections are rightly raised. In this case, the guide advises the young girls about puberty blockers and how to find an organization to help them with such a decision if there are no supportive adults in their lives. In other words, how to go behind their parents’ backs.
The American Girl doll brand is very popular with girls and has been for years. They are a line of educational dolls that are meant to teach about American history to little girls. Parents and grandparents spend a lot of money on the product line because it’s pricey. Unfortunately, this move looks like yet another attempt by a successful company to go woke and push a cultural agenda on its customers. How sad.
The author of the guide is Mel Hammond, a resident American Girl author. Books and educational materials are sold with the dolls. This guide is currently available in American Girl stores and on the website. In the discussion about feeling good about their bodies, the subject of puberty blockers comes up.
‘Parts of your body may make you feel uncomfortable and you may want to change the way you look,’ one excerpt deemed problematic by parents online reads, before asserting ‘That’s totally OK!’
It goes on to advise children: ‘You can appreciate your body for everything it allows you to experience and still want to change certain things about it.’
On the very same page, the book promotes the use of puberty blockers, telling girls to seek them out from their doctor if they feel confused about their gender but are not physically ready to undergo hormone therapy.
The book advises: ‘If you haven’t gone through puberty yet, the doctor might offer medicine to delay your body’s changes, giving you more time to think about your gender identity.’
That’s pretty explicit. A three year old is probably not reading it by herself but tweens are. The playbook for progressive cultural agendas is to propagandize children as young as possible. This tracks. If American Girl wants to weigh in and help girls go through developing a positive body image, fine. However, this just sounds sketchy. It appears to instruct girls on how to go around their parents on such a potentially life-changing experiment with their bodies. Just turn to page 95.
The book then tells readers that ‘if you don’t have an adult you trust, there are organizations across the country that can help you. Turn to the resources on page 95 for more information.’
Wow. No wonder parents are outraged. One mom who saw the guide asks where is the sanity?
To those of you who may think I’m crazy, American Girl is under the parent company Mattel, which has already put out transgender Barbies. One of them showed up recently in my friend’s daughter’s “Surprise Barbie” package. Her horrified 8-year-old screamed, “What is this, Mom?”
Where is the sanity? It is unthinkable that the American Girl company, driven by Mattel, would teach millions of young girls that changing their sex (and maiming their bodies) is not only acceptable, but beneficial.
American Girl and its parent company should be protecting children and their innocence for as long as possible. Teach American history, that’s terrific. However, leave the medical and mental issues to parents and their family doctors. Families are not interested in a dollmaker teaching about gender identity to their young daughters. There is no place for this kind of slippery slope. First it is questioning their body parts, then puberty blockers, then next it’s body mutilation. That’s not overreaction in today’s world. It’s how things are going. Everything is being normalized, anything goes.
Parents are calling on American Girl to stop publishing such material. I can’t say I blame them.
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