I saw this article about Sindy in the Daily Mail on September the l4th 1996? It was written by Jenny Hope, their medical corespondent and blames our sweet Sindy for leading children's fashion and making them want a be slim! I've included it below, just in case you missed it.
THE years have been kind to Sindy - unnaturally kind.
While the generation who first played with her back in the Sixties worry about middle-aged spread, she is slimmer than ever. And that, say the experts should concern parents everywhere. Sindys is one of the super-skinny images bombarding little girls these days filling their heads with unrealistic expectations and anxieties. As a result, girls of eight and some as young as six are becoming obsessed with dieting.
Psychologist Andrew Hill of Leeds University, who analysed the attitudes of 176 eight-year-olds, found that, for girls, being thin was a measure of self-worth.
'They reported being involved in dieting by: trying to eat less, missing meals and choosing foods that won't make you fat,'
he told the British Association for the Advancement of Science
conference yesterday.
'She is now unashamedly blonde, pointedly thin, dressed immaculately with a lifestyle to match and bought for the six, seven or eight-year-old girl. Not only does Nineties Sindy depict the ideal appearance and lifestyle of Nineties women, she does, so for girls only halfway to puberty.'
Dr Hill's research showed the children believed fat boys and girls had fewer friends, were less liked by their parents, were very unhappy with their appearance and were likely to perform less well in school.
It also suggested a mother's dieting could affect a child's attitude, `The worst thing a parent can do is to ignore the issue of body shape and thinness', he told the Birmingham conference 'It is important and it's worth exploring with children.'
Their awareness was shaped by the same visual images to which teenagers and adults are exposed - such as advertising - but was also reflected in toys such as Sindy. 'Originally manufactured in the early 1960s as a toy for young teenage girls, thirty something Sindy has lost her brunette bob, plain clothes and doll-like shape,' he explained.
Sindy is manufactured by Hasbro Toys, who agreed the doll's dimensions have changed over the years, A spokesman conceded: 'Children are getting older younger, we can't get away from that. We have had to move with the times and make sure our toys are interesting to children.
'However, the media are the ones who are responsible for "thin" images. You can't blame everything on an 11.5 inch piece of plastic. We wouldn't do anything to harm our audience.
'Children look at Sindy purely from a fantasy point of view. And there is no substitute for good parenting. Parents need to give their kids - if you'll excuse the pun - a balanced diet of toys and games.'
Psychologists at Birmingham University say even six-year-olds are watching they weight these days. As a result some are at risk of developing eating disorders. In a separate study of children aged six to 11, nearly a quarter were worried that they were fatter than their ideal, and one in five believed friends would like them more if they were thinner.
Seventeen per cent said they exercised to lose weight and 10 percent claimed to have dieted, a British Psychological Society conference was told.
By Jenny Hope
Sindy (embarrassed), shows us her well stocked hostess trolley.
Also pictured right, Sindy exercising, further right Sindy as the top model beauty she is.