One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In

The Teen Talk Barbie was a doll put out by Mattel in the early nineties. Kennedy references the doll in the essay “Limited To,” and uses it as an entry point to her examination of pop culture’s impact on young girls’ senses of self. The Teen Talk Barbie was Mattel’s “first talking doll in decades” and was programmed with 270 phrases (23). Each doll could only say four of these preprogrammed phrases, which meant that “it was unlikely you’d receive a well-rounded Barbie with a balance of topics related to school, boys, shopping, and hobbies” (23). Kennedy uses the doll as an example of the ways in which popular culture taught girls where their interests should lie and what they should care about. Mattel later recalled the dolls and reissued “A mute model, aka a doll that said nothing” (24). Kennedy uses the mute edition as a metaphor for how millennial girls learned to present themselves: beautiful but silent women meant for others entertainment and enjoyment. Kennedy alludes to the doll throughout the essay collection, and often incorporates these references within her feminist arguments.

Limited Too was a popular clothing store for tween and teenage girls throughout the nineties and aughts. Kennedy references the store, brand, and its culture in the essay “Limited To.” She admits that she saw the store as “a wonderland of rotating rainbow lights, the curliest fonts, inflatable furniture, funky hair accessories, photo booths, and a personal-care section with gateway tween cosmetics” (29). The store was meant to represent both “a girl’s world” and “girl power” (29). Therefore, Kennedy argues that girls like herself were taught to identify with the brand, its atmosphere, and its messaging and to use it to define themselves. Throughout the essay, Kennedy’s outlook on Limited Too evolves as she delves into the potential complications of limiting girls to specific styles of dress and expression in the way the brand did. She toys with the store’s name in her writing, too, to playfully expose the limitations of the brand and its narrow definitions of femininity, girlhood, and womanhood.

Kennedy references the American Girl dolls, catalog, and brand in her discussion on female identity and pop cultural influences in Part 1. The brand was created by an entrepreneur named Pleasant Rowland and the dolls, their accessories, stories, and books infiltrated millennial culture. In her Pop-up Biblio called “American Girls Next Door,” found at the end of Essay 1, Kennedy explores the ways in which American Girl taught her important lessons about young girls throughout history. She acknowledges her early love for the dolls’ appearances and clothes, but she also describes “the important stories” the American Girl books told (39). The American Girl Dolls’ associated novels helped millennial girls get to know “young women from different eras facing different types of challenges and oppression” (42). Kennedy argues that these stories were so important to her and her contemporaries because they didn’t have access to such accounts in their mainstream history classes. However, Kennedy also interrogates the brand’s shortcomings. She examines American Girl’s failings by describing their lack of inclusivity and diversity. Therefore, she shows gratitude for the brand while also holding it accountable.