Dr. Rebecca Hains
Author, professor and speaker | Children's media culture, media literacy, and media criticism
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Barbie is 60. And she’s reinventing herself.
Mattel’s changes to an iconic doll reflect evolving demographics.
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Why boys should play with dolls
No one is surprised about seeing dads with strollers anymore, yet biases with toys persist.
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LEGO Friends Comic Goes Viral
When Patrinos saw the men in a LEGO documentary talk about how to connect with girls, it sounded like they were trying to decipher how to make contact with an alien species. So she made a cartoon about it.
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Raising White Children to be Anti-Racist Allies
Raising our children to be allies to people of color requires intentional choices in parenting—but it’s a goal within reach.
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VIDEO: Meredith Vieira features Rebecca Hains & “The Princess Problem”
Meredith Vieira and Rebecca Hains explore the nature of princess problem and how parents can fight back.
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Empower Your Princess-Obsessed Preschooler with Media Literacy in Four Easy Steps! (No, Really.)
How to provide your daughter with valuable, life-long media literacy skills from an early age.
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FCKH8’s “F-Bomb Princess” video isn’t offensive—it’s exploitative.
Viral video isn’t about what’s good for girls—it’s about the t-shirt company’s bottom line.
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WATCH: Rebecca Hains discusses THE PRINCESS PROBLEM on Fox News
FOX 25 News explores “The Princess Problem” with Rebecca Hains.
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LISTEN: Rebecca Hains discusses #TruthInAds & body image on CBC Radio
The Brave Girls Alliance wants advertisers to stop extensively Photoshopping models’ bodies. The practice contributes to a public health crisis encompassing serious emotional, mental and physical health issues.
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Announcing my new book, The Princess Problem!
Rebecca’s new book, The Princess Problem, hits stores Sept. 2. It’s full of powerful strategies to raise media-literate girls who can thrive in a princess-saturated world—and beyond.
The Princess Problem
Little girls love everything about princesses: the beautiful dolls, the romantic love stories, the glittering play clothes. But girls’ princess obsessions bring more than pink sparkles into their lives: Pop culture princesses are part of an enormous and powerful marketing…
Growing Up With Girl Power
For more than a decade, girl power has been a cultural barometer, reflecting girlhood’s ever-changing meanings. How did girl power evolve from a subcultural rallying cry to a mainstream catchphrase, and what meaning did young girls find in its pop…
About Rebecca
Dr. Rebecca Hains is a children’s media culture expert. She is a professor of media and communication at Salem State University in Salem, Mass., and a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar to the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her research focuses on media,…
Role Models Reimagined as Disney Princesses: A Q&A with Artist David Trumble
In the midst of the “Sexy Merida” controversy back in May, cartoonist David Trumble posted a satirical set of cartoons to the Huffington Post. His cartoons imagined how Disney’s Consumer Product Division would redesign other female role models to fit…
Sexy Halloween Costumes Reveal the Truth about Girls’ Toys
Do you object to sexy Halloween costumes for little girls? When you compare the “Little Leopard” costume for young girls to the adult “Sexy Leopard” costumes, do you cringe? When you see children’s classic Disney Princess costumes placed literally steps…
Science Museum gift shop offers girls “space princess” tees and other stereotypes
You know, there are a lot of ways to get girls excited about science, but I don’t think this is one of them: Neither is this: The fact that a science museum is targeting girls Lego Friends style–by coating the gender-neutral…
Dr. Rebecca Hains 
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