Dear Mattel: When Will We Get OUR Barbies?

What a great story, Gaylene. Thanks for sharing it. I wish more young girls could see such wonderful relationships, instead of being influenced by what passes for love in movies, TV, and ads.

Race and Ethnicity Section Editor Grace Hwang Lynch blogs at HapaMama ( http://hapamama.com ) and A Year (Almost) Without Shopping ( http://www.blogher.com/ A Year (Almost) Without Shopping ).

I think it is a shame that society and the media have made anyone feel the way these girls feel. Makes me ashamed to say I belong to the human race. Growing up I learned very young that there is so much more to someone something most cannot see. I saw a woman who's beauty I have never encountered since. She was breathtaking, her husband was without a doubt the most homely man I had ever seen. I asked my grandmother if the woman did not know how beautiful she was and how homely her husband was and my grandmother said she did not. I asked what was the matter was she blind because at 10 I could see it and grandmother said yes she is blind she sees him only with her heart and to her there is no man more handsome than he. Come on engage our hearts love one another just as we are. Fat, thin, white,black, brown, yellow, purple, GLBT, who cares we are all valuable. Come on advertisers you were so good at making us believe only you knew what perfect was so step up to the plate and show us you truly know what your doing and right this terrible wrong. Show these girls they are just as beautiful (and I know personally they are gorgeous) as any other little girl give us a colorless society.

Mattel has had Latina Barbies for many years. My friend Lisa Coles Guerrero used to represent them at the Mattel Toy Fairs 15 years ago.