On the broader issue, Stella Gilgur-Cooke of Forest Hills said she intentionally doesn’t buy princess items, but her 3-year-old daughter still knows all their names and what the dresses look like.
Ms. Gilgur-Cooke said her daughter asks her things like whether she’s pretty or ugly. And when she asked her daughter what she wants to be when she grows up, the toddler said, “Um, a teacher. A mommy. [Big pause.] What else can girls be?”
This despite the fact that her daughter has a female doctor, a working mother and a female vet for their cats. She has “already absorbed what we like to think of as antiquated messages about women’s abilities,” Ms. Gilgur-Cooke said.
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