All I ever wanted when I was a kid was a My Size Barbie.
As a little kid, I already knew my family didn't have a lot of money. If you look through our old Christmas pictures, you'll see the same wrapped presents under the tree every year since we wrapped empty boxes to make the tree look more full (and then saved them for next year so we wouldn't waste time or wrapping paper). When the karate instructor asked my sister why we weren't doing karate anymore, she told him it was because we didn't have any money - the first month was free after all. But my eye was on the prize, I wanted that stupid My Size Barbie so I could pretend to be perfect, just like her.
So when the holidays were coming around, I begged and begged my parents for a My Size Barbie that looked just like me. I remember running around Walmart looking at the display in awe and then dove straight for the boxes. I screamed at my brothers to look at the other side to look for the Barbie that looked like me. I pushed aside the all the boxes looking for a Barbie with jet black hair and fair skin, but the more and more I pushed around the boxes, the more disappointed I got. Blond hair, brown hair, dark skin, move that shit over. I was this frantic little Asian kid just throwing around boxes while I screamed at my two brothers to keep looking, since there was no point of buying a My Size Barbie if it didn't look like me. Finally, my brothers had to tell me - Linh - I'm sorry, they ran out of the Barbies that looked like you.
As an adult now I'm just screaming. You dumb kid, did you not know you're Asian? You're not white, you're not like the rest of them! They didn't run out, they just didn't make little Asian Barbie dolls.
