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Some girls love all things pink, but don't allow gender stereotyping in your classroom. Show them there's more than one way to sparkle.
They turn up for muddy field trips wearing silver sandals; their stories are filled with princes and tiaras. They are the "princess" girls, an ever-growing breed of three- to nine-year-olds.
Girls today are endlessly exposed to princess merchandise, with its message that tiaras, glitter and jewellery are the path to happiness and success. From nappies and toothbrushes to toilet seats and bicycles, there is no commodity that doesn't come in pink. When I bought my daughter a toy garage for her first birthday, I could have chosen a pink version with sparkly cars, which was obviously deemed more suitable for her little female brain.
Wander through the pink and blue aisles of any toyshop and you'd be forgiven for thinking that women's emancipation is yet to happen. Nowhere else is gender so binary. Female figurines have inconceivably tiny waists and improbably large eyes, and hang around in ball gowns waiting for six- inch plastic lotharios to drive them off into the sunset. Conversely, the boys' aisle is full of muscular figures who spend their days in charge of trucks, helicopters and lightsabres, single-handedly defeating the evil empire before heading home for...