My Barbie dolls never kept their hair for long. I used to cut their hair the second I got them, trying my hand at being a barber and skipping any thought of a stylish salon look. The poor girls would have rugged, dilapidated boy cuts that contrasted awkwardly with bodies that seemed to radiate femininity and sexuality. My Barbie dolls would then strut around the inside of my bathtub or on the rug in my room, hair all but gone, and looking less realistic than before.

According to researchers from the University of Bath, many young girls have the tendency to cut off their Barbie’s hair, take off her head or make them experience horrid incidents with their imagination as a way of rejecting the femininity that Barbies represent. Though they are a gift for young children, Barbies are known for having little waists, a thigh gap and what we used to see as adequately proportionate hips and breasts. But using myself as an example, around the time I had Barbies was also the time when I was awkwardly taller than everyone in my class, skinny as a pole and had a head too big for my body. I was basically a walking ‘P.’

So considering the opinion of the researchers, cutting off the hair of my Barbies was a way of rejecting the notions of femininity I did not yet possess. The big problem with this is, as I waited to develop into a figure of womanliness that Barbies had taught me to expect in my future, I was too young at the time to understand that the Barbie body figure is impossible to achieve simply because it is not physiologically possible; which meant that little girls were cutting off their Barbies’ hair and having them sky-dive off their beds in a way of waiting to become a type of beautiful that doesn’t exist.

Mattel Inc. recently unveiled their 23 new Barbie dolls, which come in a much greater range of height, shape and skin and eye color. The body types include tall, petite and curvy. While some think this is incredibly progressive for Barbie dolls and the little girls who admire them, I’m not exactly clapping for the company that has been under scrutiny for decades because of the way they advertise impossible body types to young girls. Mattel Inc. has a net worth of 5.92 billion dollars — a little controversy now isn’t exactly going to hurt them. They’re secure enough to try for something unorthodox and other than their usual brand. Though the new, more inclusive Barbie line may be beneficial for little girls everywhere, the company isn’t exactly taking any risks, and maybe that’s why it has taken them so long to listen to the criticisms swarming around them.

I hope the new line correlates with a rise in self-esteem and inclusiveness, but only time can tell. There are so many other factors that are involved in a person’s confidence that I’m excited to see where it goes. But to clap for a company that is doing what is should have been doing in the first place isn’t my top priority at the moment.