Have you ever wondered why teenage girls have low self-confidence and are never satisfied with what they have? As young children, girls learn indirectly what people think perfection looks like. Barbie represents exactly this image and this life. From a young age, girls are influenced by this doll, what they should look like and what their life should be like. Young girls strive to achieve the Barbie look, which puts their lives in danger. Barbie is perhaps the most famous doll in the world after her debut in 1959. She has represented fifty nationalities and has had over a hundred careers. Girls ages three to ten own at least one Barbie doll, if not more. When people think of Barbie, they think of a tall, skinny female model with a perfect height, perfect hair, perfect clothes, and a perfect life. When I was a kid, I had about ten Barbies and the Barbie Dreamhouse. Because of this, growing up, I always felt self-conscious about my height, weight, appearance, and even where I lived. I loved Barbie but always thought I wasn't good enough. I wanted the perfect Barbie life. It got to the point where I was angry at my parents because we lived in an apartment and not a house like Barbie. Now that I'm older you'd think I'd be more confident, I'm probably less confident now than when I was younger. When I was a kid, Barbie was the picture of perfection, but now that I'm older and a cheerleader, that idea has changed. Because of my size, I'm someone who always gets thrown out because of it. I feel like I always have to watch my weight and look a certain way, otherwise I won't be a thief anymore. Hamilton student Galia Slayen attempted to build a life-size Barbie doll. She discovered that... middle of paper ... some come only from appearance, they also come from a person's personality. Barbie has negative influences on young girls although this is not evident at a young age. this can affect them later in life. What many girls forget when comparing themselves to Barbie is that plastic can be molded in any direction, but people are not plastic, and by transforming your body to become "plastic ", fatal consequences are at risk. Works Cited Dittmar, Helga, Suzanne Ive, and Emma Halliwell. “Results filters”. National Center for Biotechnology Information. US National Library of Medicine, nd Web. December 02, 2013.Hoskins, Stephanie. “The Negative Effects of Barbie on Young Girls and Long-Term Outcomes.” Divine Caroline. np, nd Web. November 30, 2013. Katz, Neil. "The shocking dimensions of life-size Barbie: could she be anorexic?" CBSNews. CBS Interactive, April 21, 2011. Web. December 1. 2013.