New Essay in Skirt: Learning to Love Pink

Two fat, long issues of Skirt! came in the mail yesterday. It’s nice to get hard copies, as it’s a magazine I usually read on-line.

I have a Valentine’s Day essay in the current issue. It’s called “Learning to Love Pink.”

Here’s an excerpt:

Learning to Love Pink

First time?” A woman with platinum blond hair and a wide smile looks up at us from where she was getting her fingernails elaborately manicured as we walked into the nail salon, which was decorated with red hearts on the windows and miniature cupids hanging from the ceiling.

My husband has this idea that we should give experiences to our children instead of presents, so here we were: at the beauty salon to celebrate Valentine’s Day, just us three girls.

My daughters, ages six and four, are practically bursting out of their skin with excitement.

But they know they have to be on “indoor behavior” so they make an exaggerated show of acting lady-like.

The result is two grinning girls who wriggle rather than walk towards the manicure chairs.

“Can you tell?” I smile back at her.

The woman looks at me approvingly. “My mother would never have taken me into a place like this,” she says a little wistfully. A college-aged client with her toes soaking in a basin of soapy water looks up from her magazine and nods.

“Neither would mine,” I admit. “To tell you the truth, I’m not very girly. This isn’t really my thing…but my girls love this kind of stuff.”

My daughters are seated at two tables, and the Vietnamese nail specialists go to work buffing, filing, and beautifying their nails. They both sit very still with serious expressions on their faces. But when the stylist pounds on her hand as part of the hand massage, four-year-old Athena can’t help giggling. She knows exactly the color she wants for her fingernails—sparkly red (of course).

You can read the rest of the essay of how I’m learning to love pink here.

Published: February 8, 2009
Updated: January 20, 2020

About Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D.

Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an investigative journalist, book author, and Fulbright awardee. She is the author of Your Baby, Your Way: Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Parenting Decisions for a Happier, Healthier Family, co-author (with Paul Thomas, M.D.) of The Vaccine-Friendly Plan, and The Addiction Spectrum: A Compassionate, Holistic Approach to Recovery. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.