It seems that we hear a lot these days about the negative subliminal messages which Disney princesses and Barbies can send. Since many are carbon copies of each other in terms of appearance and size, it can convince girls that they have to look a certain way. In many ways, I agree with these naysayers. But you know . . . I don't really think I ever felt inferior because I didn't look like Barbies. It seems like I always knew that Barbies looked like Barbies, and people looked like people, and there was nothing wrong with not looking like a Barbie. I wonder how I came to this conclusion. Perhaps it was that I was surrounded by people who didn't look like Barbies, and I still wanted to be like them. Perhaps it was that I was taught that personality matters more than appearances. Perhaps it was that it looked really uncomfortable to have Barbie's figure. Or maybe it's that when it came down to it, our Barbies weren't that attractive. It always seems that some