When I was little, I always wanted to be Barbie.

It was her blond hair, cute clothes and killer body — not to mention her hot boyfriend — that attracted me.

With her motto, “We girls can do anything,” she taught me I could be whatever I wanted to be — police officer, doctor, actress, housewife — and look good doing it.

And I believed it.

BINOWSKI

It wasn’t until I got older that I realized Barbie overlooked certain limitations in life: I couldn’t be a doctor unless I had an education in medicine. I couldn’t be an actress unless I had the talent for it. 

And I couldn’t have her petite bone structure unless I was born with it.

Imagine my disappointment when these awful truths dawned on me during those difficult early teenage years, when I was first learning to accept my developing body. I didn’t know how to make sense of all the images I had been receiving.

Models with blonde hair, blue eyes and perfectly sculpted bodies were paraded on TV and plastered on the pages of magazines. Barbie was everywhere — on the chest of drawers in my room, on advertisements on TV and in stores at the mall. 

Now, almost a decade later, I am at peace with my appearance. But I’m still haunted by the daunting images of Barbie that populated my childhood — and so are many other women. 

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports the number of cosmetic procedures in 2008 was 162 percent higher than in 1997. 

The most popular procedures were Botox injections and breast augmentation. Our culture is based so strongly on appearances that many Americans, particularly girls, are tortured by thoughts that they must drastically alter their bodies. Well, maybe Barbie was right: girls can do anything — even rearrange their bone structure.

Years ago, cosmetic surgery was frowned upon, but somehow Americans are learning the features they are born with are not enough — that something drastic needs to be done to alter their natural state.

But, if Barbie were real, her natural state would be 110 pounds and 5 feet 6 inches tall. She would have a 39-inch chest, 18-inch waist and 33-inch hips — making her extremely unhealthy for a woman her size. 

The University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, reported she would lack the 20 percent body fat minimum needed to menstruate.

Barbie may look like a real woman, but she lacks the body weight to function like one.

In 1997, Barbie’s body was redesigned. Her maker, Mattel, gave her a wider waist in recognition of society’s changing trends. 

Barbie is no longer the phenomenon she once was. My 8-year-old and 10-year-old cousins prefer Dora the Explorer dolls, which have much wider — and more realistic — proportions than Barbie ever had. 

But my cousins still feel the desire to be physically attractive. One, in elementary school, began carrying a handbag and pleading with her parents for make up.

Many girls will be girls, experimenting with fashion, makeup and hair styles. But our older generations must teach their children to accept themselves, to balance conflicting messages society sends about their appearances and appreciate the body they were born with. 

People need to focus on things that really matter, such as getting a job, completing an assignment or being there for friends and family — without having to check the mirror every few minutes.

Barbie’s basic message — girls can do anything — is true; we have the motivation, determination and skill to follow our dreams. I rarely have been prevented from accomplishing something that I believed in if I tried hard enough to achieve it. 

We must teach our children to find positive messages in pop culture and ignore the negative ones before we all begin to look like dolls.

— Brittany Binowski is a senior from Conyers majoring in magazines