If you have a daughter,
it's likely you're familiar with Bratz,
the must have doll
for the under 1
But could these toys
be promoting
an unhealthy body image
among young girls,
due to their unrealistically
large heads?
Here is Gene Ann Horton
to take us beyond the facts.
Beyond the Facts
Since they were launched
in 2
have been flying off
the shelves.
They're fun,
they're fashionable
and their heads
are enormous.
According to gender quality advocate,
Melissa Waters,
even though these dolls
can't talk,
they are sending young girls
a message about their bodies.
What girls are taking away from this,
is that in order to be beautiful,
you need to have a head
that is twice the size
of your torso.
Melissa isn't alone in her concerns.
Evan Grey gave her daughter,
Shayla, her first Bratz
for Christmas last year.
Now she wishes she hadn't.
I want to be a good parent,
I want her to feel good
about herself, about her head.
I mean, we all want to be
the woman with the head
out to here,
but at some point
you have to say
that you're ok
with your little head,
and be ok with having a nose.
Shayla says nearly everyone
her age owns a Bratz doll.
So Shayla, tell me,
what do you and your friends
like about Bratz dolls?
-Well, we think
that they have really cool clothes
and that they are pretty.
And do you think
you're as pretty as them?
No, I don't.
Because I have a really small head.
The Bratz are depicted
as having fun lives.
Shopping, dancing and playing sports.
But what isn't shown
is how difficult it would be
to do any of those things
with an enormous cranium.
If you make a Bratz doll
human height,
the circumference of her skull
will be five and a half feet.
She wouldn't be
able to lift her head
and the sheer weight of it
would crush her spine,
rendering this so-called "cool girl"
bedridden for life.
Waters' organization
is spreading their message
through school programs
and in a national ad campaign.
Their goal is to reach
pre-teen girls now,
and avoid
dangerous consequences later.
We really have to teach girls
that any size head is beautiful.
Otherwise they're going to be
in a plastic surgeon's office
at 23, asking for cranial implants
or collagen injections
in their scalps.
Regardless of Waters' warning,
the demand for Bratz dolls
continues to grow,
along with parents' concerns.
I've actually seen Shayla trying things.
Just the other day
I saw her hitting herself
in the face with a book
to try to get her head to swell.
Am I going to walk
into her room
and find her with a hammer
to her head?
I just don't know any more.
A doll shouldn't make
a girl feel bad about herself.
But for millions of girls
like Shayla, that message
isn't getting through.
From Beyond the facts,
I'm Gene Ann Horton.
Thank you, Gene Ann, for that.
Sad, how our society is so focused
on the size of women's heads.
In Business news,
Lexus is recalling
their top of the line LS 46
saying the car's air bags
could deploy mid blow job.
Obama to keep Bush on
as national scapegoat
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