Barbie's Identity Issues

Barbie World is designed as a place for young girls to go and live the life as Barbie. The whole concept is for users to create a character that most resembles them. But there is a problem with this. The characters that Barbie World gives as options for their users to chose from do not accurately represent what girls in this day and age actually look like. For one, all the characters are skinny girls. Every girl that likes Barbie and wants to join Barbie World are not skinny. This is a time where childhood obesity is at an all time high, so why is it that the characters in Barbie World are not showing this. I feel that this is making many girls insecure about what they look like, giving them an identity crisis. I believe this may possibly make them feel ashamed of their actual looks and use Barbie World to mask their feelings and create a false identity. They possibly get on Barbie World hoping to create a whole new identity that has nothing to do with their life, believing it is making them feel better about themselves, but in actuality it is making it worse.
A person’s identity is what makes them who they are. It helps shapes their personality and helps develop self esteem. If someone is going around with a false identity of themselves and feels uncomfortable being who they are, they more than likely have self esteem issues. They feel the need to conform and fit in with what society considers being acceptable. Barbie World by only depicting those images for girls to identify with is not healthy. They are not learning to be comfortable in their own skin. They are feeling pressured to be thin, have the best hair, and clothes. These materialistic things do not make someone who they are. These young girls need to realize that it is what is on the inside that counts the most.
I hope that in the future Barbie World will transform their characters to look more like the people that actually use the virtual world. They are giving off this false impression that is possibly making many girls unsatisfied with who they are.