Cindy Jacobs, a dear friend to me, a commercial airline pilot, a role model on the Girls With Wings site, a mother to Sophie (the three year old model shown throughout the site) and due again this spring, and the trooper working on the 501c3 paperwork for Generate LIFT (these traits are in no particular order) sent me the following article right around Christmas.

"Dolls Lose Their Innocence" published in the 11 December edition of US Today and written by Bruce Kluger.

This article reinforces the need for the Girls With Wings dolls.

The writer starts out by giving many examples of the increasingly sexual nature of dolls for girls. Anyone who has a TV or has been in a toy store is aware of the trampy looking dolls being marketed to kids these days.

"You don't have to be a social scientist to see how, for every plastic vamp we allow to sashay through our kids' bedrooms, we are only encouraging a larger sexual trend to take root in their culture. From the boy-crazy characters in tween movies to the barely there costumes on Dancing with the Stars, sex has become something our kids are growing up with rather than growing into, and this uninvited tutoring is often occurring below the radar. "

And this is where GWW comes in:

"The battle is also escalating among the competing manufacturers themselves. AG Properties, which markets the more "wholesome" Holly Hobbie characters (sweet-faced kids, furry pets - you get the picture), recently commissioned a survey of 1,010 mothers with preteen daughters to determine how they feel about the army of sultry chickies invading their kids' playrooms. The results were nearly unanimous: 90% expressed a desire for a wider selection of dolls that were positive role models for young girls, while 85% said they are fed up with the "sexpot" playthings available."

"Like everything else with parenting, we need to be discriminating. For my money (literally), I remain a big fan of the American Girl doll line, if only because it has the audacity to teach little girls U.S. history instead of fashion tips."

If I have my way, Penelope Pilot, Kira Copter (pictured above) and the rest of the Girls With Wings dolls will be embraced by parents looking for wholesome, educational Role Models for their girls.

Can We Do It? Yes, We Can! (Wait, that's a whole other character...)