Barbie has taken a lot of criticism over the years for being an unrealistic role model for young girls, creating all manner of eating disorders and compromised self-esteem for little girls who look want to look like her.

Since her birth in 1959, she's earned millions of dollars for Mattel Toy Company and was a vital part of a young girl's transition into womanhood provideding, way before the womens' movement began, alternatives to the female stereotypes of motherhood and wife. 

 

Barbie is a doll with many choices. In her career, she’s run for President, been an astronaut, a surgeon, a pilot among others.           

 

Perhaps it's time for Barbie to lay the groundwork to create  financially savvy women by showing how cool it is for young girls and women to be knowledgeable about financial matters. 

 

If they put me in charge of product development, I’d promote a line called Financially Savvy Barbie. It would include a booklet explaining that money, like seeds, grows if you plant or invest it; that budgets work if you stick to them; that before Barbie marries Ken, they have a really honest talk about money and how they will manage it.  Barbie would explain why she intends to keep working after marriage, how she will keep her own personal checking account, and how she will stay up to date on her credit rating. 

 

Oh yes, and she'll explain why she and Ken will have a prenuptial agreement.