Could You Imagine if Someone Did This to your Daughter?
- Comments: 4
- Written on: March 24th, 2007
OK, so this post has nothing to do with technology at all. With that said, I found this blog while surfing online this morning and was astonished that any “service business would do something like this to a little girl. This is one of those stories that makes you happy to live in Nebraska and not New York.
A Manhattan mother posted a tale on her blog of an interaction between her little six year old girl and a Manhattan American Girl Doll Hair stylist (yes, you read that right – someone who makes a living styling plastic hair on dolls).
American Girl dolls sell for about $90 each, without any accessories at all. This little girl wanted one because everyone else at her public school had one, but her mother warned her that if she wanted accessories should would not have much money left after buying the doll.
So the little girl managed to save up $30 of her own money and choose to buy a more reasonably priced doll named Gracie at Target that came with tons of accessories in the package. A smart move, in my opinion – especially for a six year old. Until she was confronted by a plastic-hair dresser about her fake baby.
A little later, one of her daughter’s friends invited the little girl to come to a hair styling session for their dolls at American Girl in Manhattan, NY. She was thrilled and brought her doll to the “Doll Salon.” what happened next was horrible:
Quoting from the Mom’s blog:
Shell never forget the feeling of waiting in line at the salon. The anticipation, the special feelings welling up in her body. Shed spent extra time in the morning dressing Gracie for the outing. Etta dressed extra-pretty too. Well, sort of thrift-store pretty. Hand-me-down pretty. Not expensive pretty. But she went off with her head held high. Feeling pretty and important and deserving. Courageous little girl.
When she got to the front of the line she was shown a menu of hairstyles to choose from for her doll. Her friends mom was surprised that the price had gone up from $10 a doll to $20, but Julie had earned this reward (and, as luck would have it, Etta really needed to learn a lesson), so it would be worth it.
This isnt a real doll! the stylist exclaimed. (Thank your stylist!–we never would have had the heart to explain it that way!). And to prove that a fake doll isnt worth the plastic shes molded out of, she refused to do the dolls hair.
Can you imagine how crushed this little girl felt when she was embarrassed in front of all of her fiends? what in the world was this stylist thinking?
Quoting from the mom’s blog:
And she cried and cried and cried, and your stylist held her ground. That was a good lesson for her too. That feelings dont have a place in “the heart of Manhattans prestigious shopping neighborhood” (another quote from your website).
And did you realize how loyal to you all the other mommies in line were? Youd have been proud of them.
One chided Etta for not knowing she couldnt bring a fake doll to the store. Tsk tsk. Shes in first grade now and can read by herself (taught herself, in fact). She probably should have done the research. Theres another great lesson for her. (Thanks mom in line!)
One mom muttered to another that Etta probably couldn’t afford a real one. Great hunch! She’s six!
One mom just smiled and said “Well, American Girl Dolls arent for everyone, you know. A sentence cleverly crafted to make Etta feel like someone cared about her but also to be aware that she really didnt belong there in your fancy store with the other, richer, better girls. How compassionate!
So, another little girl had a life-changing experience at The American Girl Place!
I don’t really think there is anything left to be said except thank God I live in Nebraska. Showing tact, the mother in this story has not revealed the name, home address, phone number, and email address of the stylist in question. I don’t think I would have been so kind to someone who felt they needed to teach my daughter a “lesson” like this.
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- Comments: 4
