Coming out in August is Architect Barbie: fashion isn't the only place to use your eye for design

Hey Girls,

While I am not crazy about Barbie's long legs and her unproportioned body, I am happy that Barbie's have become more career focused and themed around "jobs."

When I was at Seaworld a couple years ago I saw a Seaworld trainer Barbie, perhaps to inspire girls to pursue being marine animal training when they are adults?

Coming out in August is Architect Barbie. When I was in high school I took an architecture design class. I had my ruler and special pencils, and drew a one level house and created a cafe called Monkey Tales, I really can't remember the theme of the cafe, but I don't think the cafe had actual Monkey tails on the menu or were there stories of monkey's invovled, but whatever, I had my semester with architecture design and it was challenging for me, since I am not a math wizard, but it was also fun to see the final result of hours of measuring and making perfect straight lines with my ruler.

When I was a kid I did play with Barbie's but not obsessively, I have this memory of using my Barbie to makeout with Ken. I think it was my first sexual thought, not positive though. Maybe it was just a memory from a dream I had, I don't know.

A recent article by Cheryl Wischhover for the Today Show, called Move over, Mike Brady: Now Barbie’s an architect too, shares that "The number of practicing female architects hovers at about 20%, according to Stratigakos. What’s particularly discouraging about this number is that women actually account for about 40% of students in architecture programs. While female student numbers have increased over the past decades, Stratigakos explained, “The number of women actually entering the profession and remaining there remains pretty flat.”

I went to college for Advertising, and in college I was friends with some architect students, they had long hours of projects to finish, always seemed stressed with all the hours they spent building and planning and learning. Some of them were girls.

We hear a lot these days about fashion design careers, it seems every girl wants to be a fashion designer, and that is worth pursuing if you have a true passion and love for fashion and would do it for free, I recently heard Pat McGrath say that about a career as a Makeup Artist, "If you would do it for free, then do it."

I think what she means in that is the amount of work it involves, and the importance of having true passion for what you pursue as a career or foundation for your career goals.

But let's not forget fashion isn't the only place to use your eye for design. Here are some websites, articles on careers as architects and architecture:

http://www.architectmagazine.com/

http://archrecord.construction.com/

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/rem-koolhaas-at-the-festival-of-ideas-for-the-new-city.html

http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/architecture/overview.html

http://architectureforhumanity.org/

I hope you enjoy these!

~Isobella



P.s: if you want a signed copy of  my books Almost 5'4" or Short Stuff click here.