I want to start by saying that I do, in fact, have my own strong opinion on the new Barbie dolls. But that's not even what this is about.

You see, yes, there are new Barbie dolls. And yes, they look different than the original to better include all body types. But I don't understand why this is really a topic of conversation honestly.

Barbies maybe didn't make you insecure as a kid or maybe they did. And maybe as a parent, you wouldn't want that kind of body image pushed onto your daughters.

I just don't get why this is what we are focusing on.

Why, instead of focusing on the good or bad of these new dolls, are we not trying harder to teach the young girls around us that no matter what the dolls portray, that they are more than that? We should focus less on these dolls and focus more on the image of womanhood that we, as the influential women in their life, are portraying.

Although media is a very powerful influence in anyone's life, there is so much more than that. The girls any girl is going to look up to the most are in her family, and the high school and college age 'cool girls' they know. It seems ludicrous to place all this blame on a doll that they are going to be interested in for three years tops. The doll is not going to change their body image that much.

Maybe trying showing them what happy looks like, what confident looks like, what successful looks like and what beauty truly is. Because as cheesy as it sounds, beauty is more than just a pretty face. And the only people that can teach her that are the ones she actually knows.

So maybe stop hating on Barbie. She's just a doll.

You, on the other hand, are not just a doll. You're a human being and a woman who has a real affect on the younger girls around you. You hold the ability to determine what these girls think is really important in life. Act like it.