Young Girls Should Buy Hillary Dolls Instead of Barbies

If you needed one good reason to vote for Hillary, I have it.

It's little girls.

You have to see this growing segment of wildly enthusiastic supporters, knocking on doors, drawing signs and holding them high. To watch them in action, bursting with energy and idealism, is to understand how important the outcome of this election is.

There's Della from California who traveled with her grandmother to Nevada to canvass alongside civil rights activist Dolores Huerta.

Scarlett, a seven-year-old from Connecticut, who went knocking on doors with her sister Minnetta, decked out in her Hillary t-shirt and waving a homemade Hillary sign to GOTV.

And 10-year-old Ellie, who carries her Hillary gear proudly around the streets of Manhattan.

And from seven-year-old Amoli, a heartfelt note to Hillary reads "I hope you win. You are the best. Love Amoli."

Women know what girls like these have to go through and grow through in the years ahead. We've all been there. Can we measure up to Barbie? Are we pretty enough, skinny enough, blonde enough, developed enough? The beauty bar is high, too high for most of us ever to reach.

Certainly, Hillary Clinton has felt that pain very publicly. Over the past 25 years, her fashion choices have been relentlessly, often maliciously, picked apart by media pundits and reporters. The unending personal attacks would have made a women of softer spine consider Hamlet's advice to "get thee to a nunnery." Not Hillary.

Instead, she has held her ground, held her head high and learned to turn humiliation into humor. The evidence is there in her twitter bio which today reads: "Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, SecState, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate."

So imagine a world where our daughters and granddaughters don't see Barbie's attributes as the measure of a woman, but Hillary's.

Let them each aspire to be a girl who studies hard in school, becomes the first student to give the commencement address to her college class, and graduates from the top law school in the country.

Let them envision themselves a lawyer who goes to Washington to work on behalf of children, who becomes the First Lady of the land, who wins over tough-as-nails New Yorkers to be elected their senator not once, but twice.

Let them witness the strength of a woman's promise, "for better or for worse," even when it hurts; even when she's judged for keeping her word.

Let them emulate a woman who runs for President of the United States and loses with amazing grace, accepting her opponent's job offer to become U.S. Secretary of State.

Most of all, let them see that no one is perfect, that everyone makes mistakes, but that education, hard work, resilience, compassion and dignity can keep you on track to achieving your loftiest goal. And, even for little girls, that goal can be the White House.

So I vote to keep Barbie dolls on the store shelves, right next to the Hillary dolls, available, of course, in a variety of hairstyles and colorful pantsuits. Our girls are free to make a choice. But let's encourage them to choose Hillary who exemplifies the true measure of a woman.

Come November, when voters make the right choice, I'd love to say to all the little girls in America, this one's for you.