Book Review: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

by Peggy Orenstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The acclaimed author of the groundbreaking bestseller Schoolgirls reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as a source—the source—of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages.

But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls' successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today's little princess become tomorrow's sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?

Those questions hit home with Peggy Orenstein, so she went sleuthing. She visited Disneyland and the international toy fair, trolled American Girl Place and Pottery Barn Kids, and met beauty pageant parents with preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. She dissected the science, created an online avatar, and parsed the original fairy tales. The stakes turn out to be higher than she—or we—ever imagined: nothing less than the health, development, and futures of our girls. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable—yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters' lives.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must-read for anyone who cares about girls, and for parents helping their daughters navigate the rocky road to adulthood.
The title of this book is what caught my eye, especially because I am NOT into pink, or girlie-girlness, and I am terrified that my daughter will be and I won't know how to handle it. This book was well worth the read. The author asks a lot of questions, and some of the things she found just shocked me (like that some people will actually pay FIVE HUNDRED dollars, to take their child's doll to a doll salon, and that was  one of the sillier things, some of the findings were really a bit scary).

I agree that the author doesn't offer a whole lot of advice as to what to do with all the information she's just piled in front of you, but I don't think that is a negative thing. I think the author is showing the facts, and letting parents make educated decisions based on the information.

What I found very interesting was the angle the author was coming at it from. I feel like I come at the book and the problem of societies sexualization of young girls from a religious/moral view point. The author is a feminist and comes at it from that angle. Surprisingly, even though our view points are so different, I found that she and I agreed about a lot of things. But I did also find that there were things she and I were worlds apart on.

Anyways, I loved the book. I would say if you are raising a girl in this crazy world we live in today, then this is a very informative, eye-opening read. It's also very humorous and entertaining, which is a nice feature.