Pink and brown; I do love those colors together and lucky me, it seems to be the ubiquitous color palette of choice for little girls room decor and clothing these days. I was also thinking how that color combo seems to represent our toddler Vivian’s emerging personality perfectly. Pink and brown = princess and dirt.

One moment she’ll take a running jump, try and tackle her big brother and then settle down in the sand to dig with bulldozers. In the next moment she’s fashioning Fisher Price stacking rings into bangles up and down her arm while walking around on her tippy toes, a Lightning McQueen lunch box becomes her jaunty handbag.

Her princess, girly-girl side is a whole new world to me. I grew up a tomboy in the 70’s. I didn’t take dance, play with dolls or dress-up. I was at a store not to long ago digging through the sales rack and found some shirts for Vivian. The woman at the checkout held up one smiled and said, “Oh do you want to get the matching tutu for this one?” I looked at her bemused and confused. I just didn’t get it. I was thinking, tutus are scratchy, too poofy to play in, and definitely not practical for the playground. “A tutu? Where would she wear that?” She raised her eyebrows and looked at Vivian. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll figure it out.”

Well, figure it out she did. I didn’t purchase the tutu that day but her auntie and cousins came bearing girly gifts last weekend. Miss Vivian just ate it up: a tutu, a boa, sunglasses and bracelets. Her diva mode immediately switched to the “on” position. She sashayed around the room wrist cocked in the air twirling around in her skirt. She had instant attitude and sass. Later we went on a hike in the woods with the pack of cousins. She trudged along the dirt path and climbed piles of rocks with one hand held high in the air to keep her bracelets she insisted on wearing from falling off.

Our gritty girly-girl is both fearless and frilly. And I love every minute of watching our little steel magnolia (wait, what would the Minnesota version of steel magnolia be?) iron daisy (?) begin to blossom.

On a related note: Just saw this essay on babble.com Grit-Glamour: Yoga Pants, Diva Daughters. Another non-girly-girl mom writes on the topic from a different angle. She asks the question: Are moms dressing their daughters better than themselves? And are they projecting who they wish they were/used to be on their daughters?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Family Life, fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.