*This article may contain some "Barbie" movie spoilers.
Let’s be honest: Whenever we tell our kids that they could grow up to be anything they want to be, we don’t actually mean they can be whatever they want to be. If a kid were to say they wanted to grow up to be a princess, we’d laugh and say, “Yes, of course, you could be a princess,” because who would want to crush a child’s dream, right?
But what we really mean when we say they could be whatever they want to be—especially in an Asian household—is for them to be a doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, a teacher, or something else that society deems “extraordinary.” And there is nothing wrong with that. These are all great professions that help better other people’s lives, and your children's lives, too, economically, if they grow up becoming one of these.
I remember wanting to grow up to pursue one of these professions because I knew it would make me “special.” And just to clarify, my parents never pressured me to be anything. I was lucky enough to have parents who loved me unconditionally. But even as a mere child who couldn’t do basic math (I still suck at math, BTW!), I already understood that if you wanted to “make it in life,” if you wanted your parents, your family, your friends to truly love you and accept you, you had to be special—like Barbie.
Barbie can be anything, right? But the thing is, most Barbies are extraordinary. From a young age, the media—and not just social media, but TV, film, etc.—has been selling us this idea that, in order to have a fulfilling life, you have to be extraordinary. Barbie is a princess, a mermaid, a doctor, a president, and a Nobel prize winner. She is many things but ordinary—that is, until the Barbie movie came out.
In Greta Gerwig's Barbie, every Barbie had an extraordinary title, except Margot Robbie, she was just stereotypical Barbie. She had no career, no outstanding achievements, and no real purpose in Barbieland. If she wasn't the main character of the movie, you probably wouldn't appreciate stereotypical Barbie as much as the other Barbies. Margot's Barbie was literally just there to be pretty. In fact, her biggest concern was that she had flat feet and cellulite, it's what prompted her to go into the real world and find the girl playing with her so that she could go back to being "perfect."
During her time in the real world, she was faced with the truth that reality isn't what she thought it would be. She expected the real world to be just as perfect and smooth as Barbieland, much like everything before adulthood felt easy and simple to me. But just as Barbie felt disappointed in the state of the real world (and the fact that kids hated her), I felt disappointed in myself because I didn't turn out to be the outstanding person I thought I should be by now.
Coming into the movie, I didn’t expect it to hit me as hard as it did. It started a laugh-out-loud comedy, but by the end, there were so many tears. But it wasn’t all tears of sadness. I cried mainly because by watching the movie I felt like this heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders. It's the weight that I’ve been carrying since I was a kid—the pressure to be special a.k.a. the smartest, the most talented, the most gifted. Basically, to mean something in this world.
But if there’s anything the Barbie movie taught me, it’s that you don’t have to be special to say that you lived a fulfilling life.
You don’t have to be President Barbie, firefighter Barbie, police officer Barbie, or even editor-in-chief Barbie. You don’t need a title next to your name, and you definitely don’t need a Ken, to define who you are. You could just be Barbie. You could just be you. Just simple, ordinary you.
Because in the end, “ordinary” people (or dolls) can still make an impact, even in small ways. And when you die (Do you guys ever think about dying?), you won’t be remembered for your titles, your clothes, or your fancy house. The people who love you and the people whose lives you have truly touched will remember you by the memories you made along the way, no matter how big or small.
So if you ever felt like you weren’t good enough because you didn’t end up becoming something “special,” whether at school, at work, or just in life in general, don’t worry. Because take away the title next to Barbie, the clothes, and the dream house, and she’ll just be another ordinary doll. It’s the memories that we make with her that we treasure in our hearts. Besides, when I played with my Barbie doll, I never imagined her as anything special either, I just made her do, well, anything. Nothing particularly spectacular, but she still meant something huge to me growing up.
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