For those of you that missed it, our favourite Aussie supermodel Robyn Lawley welcomed her first child, Ripley, with partner Everest Schmidt on February 26 of this year.
Following the likes of Blake Lively and Kourtney Kardashian, 25-year-old Lawley has surprised no one by choosing a unisex name for her daughter.
But, when it comes to parenting styles, this model has certainly piqued our interest.
In an interview with Brands Exclusive magazine about her unique parenting style, the model explained: “I want gender neutral toys and clothes.”
We like this idea. A lot.
She added: “In all honesty, I think we separate the genders too greatly by the toys and hobbies.”
Want more? Try: You can buy your daughter trucks and lego. Doesn’t mean she’ll play with them.
We hear you, Robyn. By dressing our daughters in pretty pink dresses and sparkly shoes we’ve been teaching our girls that appearance comes first. And it doesn’t.
Also, Ripley is a pretty great name. So well done there.
Robyn Lawley.
Top Comments
Gender neutral always seems to come with the implication that being "girly" and liking pink things is the thing that must be avoided at all costs - especially for girls.
Gender equality is not about seeing a girl wearing something pink and sparkly and assuming she's shallow (as is implied in the above article). It's about exposing our children to all that is available to them, socially and intellectually, as well allowing them to make their own age appropriate choices. For boys AND girls.
Unfortunately, in our efforts to create gender equality in our children, we still run the very real risk of demonising being a girl.
You know what? I think this topic needs to be framed differently. Because this is not about a child's personal choice or a parent putting restrictions on so much as it is about the commercialisation of children and the choices that parents and children make WITHIN the structure of our consumerist lives.
My advice is- leave the tv off and avoid the shops. My kids have no idea who Elsa, Dora the Explorer (etc etc) are, and my daughter likes pink, but also other colours. My son likes red and also other colours. They have many toys that are creative and open ended- heaps of ordinary duplos, legos, art and craft stuff, dress ups (no 'character' dress up's- no Elsa etc, just pretty dresses, cowboy chaps, dinosaur tails etc), cardboard boxes and glue and sticky tape make for hours of fun.
My girl and her brothers all play with cars and blocks and duplo etc together. They play differently- my sons making planes and cars and crashing them- my daughter making houses so her little block people can visit each-other.
We op-shop for clothes and I sew alot as well. When my daughter picks fabric it is usually pink. When my boys pick fabric it usually has dinosaurs.
You can't bubble-wrap your kids- but you can shield them (for a little while at least) from the many voices that will scream at them 'buy this! buy that!'
(This post is not me thinking I have parenting all together- I SO don't. This is just one thing I set out to avoid as long as possible and I am enjoying the results so far.)