Because today's children are bombarded by the media with the message equating blonde with beauty, we hypothesized that young children would display a strong preference for blonde hair and that this preference would be stronger in girls than in boys. Young children were interviewed, shown a picture of four dolls (identical except for hair color), asked to pick their preferred doll, asked their choice of the prettiest hair color, and asked the color to which they would like to change their hair. Children preferred the blonde doll, responded that blonde hair was the prettiest, and most often stated they would change their hair to blonde. We discuss the implications of these findings with respect to self-evaluation and acceptance.

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