I am a die-hard fan of Margot Robbie, and Birds of Prey is definitely on my top 5 list of movies. I also happen to think she and her doppelgänger Jaime Pressly are freaking gorgeous – and I believe as women we should be unafraid to let women know how beautiful they are. So when I found out that Margot would be playing the main character in a new Barbie movie, I was all for it.
After news got around of the Barbie movie coming out, a new trend emerged, which we now call Barbiecore, and which you have surely gotten a whiff of: Barbie fashion, head to toe. This summer is a hot pink, glitter bomb summer, and I am remembering my days working at the roller rink in my town, and constantly requesting the DJ play “Barbie Girl”.
Though I have been through many phases since then, I remember that time of my life with fondness. I was a teensy bit obsessed with my coworker – let’s call him Aden – who was a little too old for me, and truthfully a little too cool for me, but who lived rent-free in my mind all the same. I was addicted to polka dot headbands, roller skating, and, of course, singing “Barbie Girl”. It was the early 2000’s, I was 16, and I was growing up in all the most fun ways.
So let’s get back to Barbiecore – though my sense of style has changed, and though my taste in music has changed, I know that it can only be a good thing for us all to go back to basics after almost three years of an isolating pandemic which caused rates of depression and anxiety to sky-rocket. We need to remember what it was like to have fun again. Halsey recently released her new collection of vegan, clean, ethical, highly pigmented and highly affordable makeup, AF94, and while she was doing an Instagram live she decided to have a Barbie moment, with super pink, glittery lipstick, and a vibrant blush stick. Like Melanie Martinez and Lana Del Rey, Halsey constantly crosses the barriers between edgy and cool, and feminine and fun. She is a girl who clothes and a girl who codes, and I am glad my niece has role models like her to look up to.
Why? Because though we may change and grow and evolve in our lives, we should be able to embrace all sides of our personalities, without feeling judged or like a sell-out. Barbiecore is a surprisingly powerful statement, telling trolls who pit women against women to keep their opinions to themselves. There should never be a point at which we must decide if we code or if we clothes – there is absolutely no reason we can’t do both, if we so choose.
