American Girl

Here's a post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Amy Hatch about American Girl's newest doll.

When I saw in my Facebook feed last week that American Girl is offering an option for girls to choose a doll without hair, I was overjoyed — and it took me right back to 10 years ago, when I lost all of my hair to an autoimmune disease called alopecia areata.

Basically, your body sees your hair as a foreign invader and kills it off at the follicle. Most people lose only a small patch of hair (which was how my case presented at first, a dime-sized bald spot behind my ear) but in severe cases those afflicted can lose all (universalis) or most (totalis) of their head and body hair. I lost 90 percent of the hair on my head and I was bald for nearly two years.

Related: Tori Spelling on the joy of a delivery room surprise

I was lucky that all my hair grew back, thanks to what doctors believed was a kickstart of hormones from my first pregnancy. But when my first child was about three years old, I started to lose my hair again. Expecting to go bald again (spoiler: I didn't), I sat down to explain it to my daughter so she wouldn't be scared as my appearance started to change. Having a doll to use as an example would have made that hard conversation a lot easier.

I love that Mattel opened the door for dolls like this with their bald Barbie (which isn't available for sale), but there's something about a hairless bombshell that reminds me less of someone suffering from a disease or dealing with chemotherapy and more of Demi Moore in G.I. Jane. Don't get me wrong — I don't have anything against Barbies in general, but American Girl is a brand with a little more gravitas. Cancer treatments and conditions like alopecia are hard enough, but the changes that happen to your appearance can be just as devastating and this doll will help a lot of kids get through that with a little less pain.

Hats (hairs?) off to American Girl for making this terrific toy available for everyone!

More great reads from BabyCenter:
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Infertile women are twice as likely to succumb to alcoholism
7 ways to pamper yourself during pregnancy
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Living in a house full of women has taught Harry Connick, Jr. a thing or two over the years. Most of all, the crooner, actor, and activist has learned to be quiet and listen.

The father of three — Georgia, 15, Sarah Kate, 13, and Charlotte, 9 — is now hoping that others will do the same. He and his middle daughter, Kate, are working with American Girl to introduce the dollmaker's two newest dolls Cécile and Marie-Grace from 1853 New Orleans — and raising money for after-school programming for children at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in NOLA. The father-daughter duo wrote and recorded "A Lot Like Me," based on the message of diversity that streams throughout the new dolls' accompanying books. Each time the song is downloaded, a donation is made to the music center. I recently spoke with the duo about working together and life at home.

LilSugar: Kate, what was it like working with your dad?
Kate Connick: It was great! It’s always fun working with my dad no matter what we do. It was really cool, because we got down to business. And he helped me not only as a dad, but working too.

LS: Harry was it a dream come true working with your daughter?
Harry Connick, Jr.: It's one of those things where before I had kids I would dream about what it was like to have kids and now that I have three girls, it's such a blessing. I never really thought about the prospect of having any of them want to do anything similar to what I do, but Kate's shown interest from early on. To not only have the pleasure of hearing her sing, but to be able to work with her — Kate's very serious and she has a really hard work ethic — it's a joy, I love it!

LS: The books in the new series and the song all celebrate diversity. Harry, you grew up in the diverse world of New Orleans. How do you instill the importance of such diversity in your kids?
Harry Connick, Jr.: We live in Connecticut now, and Connecticut is not as diverse as New Orleans by a long shot. I've told them for a long time that this is kind of a brown world we live in and [where] we live in Connecticut is not by any means representative of the world. So Kate's been to Asia, to Africa. She’s been all over the world, and she sees that this is a diverse world. The music that I play is also very diverse. The musicians that I play with come from different backgrounds, so Kate's pretty steeped in that.

LS: Harry, with three daughters, you're constantly surrounded by women. What's the best part of living in a female-dominated home?
Harry Connick, Jr.: I stay quiet, and I listen. Is that right?
Kate Connick: Oh, yeah.
Harry Connick, Jr.: I mean, who’s the boss of our house?
Kate Connick: Mom
Harry Connick, Jr.: Yeah!.

LS: Kate, do you guys ever gang up on him?
Kate Connick: No, he’s the only guy in the house, so we help him out.

Keep reading to see how Harry works family into his busy schedule, and how he answers our Four Lil Questions.

I'm all for exposing my child to the different walks of life. One of the reasons why I believe in the public school system is that children can get a taste of the real world by making friends with different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Taking kids along to volunteer can open their eyes and show them how good it feels to help those less fortunate. Having said all that, I'm not sure where I stand on the newest addition to the American Girl doll lineup.

As the economy has suffered, more children have become homeless. As a way to teach children about the unfortunate plight of some youngsters, the toy makers created a limited edition "homeless" doll named Gwen. I understand the concept and think it could be a great talking point but it does seem a tad ironic that the pretty lil blonde lass costs $95. While that's the going rate for the highly coveted dolls, it seems the company could have helped the homeless cause even more if they made the proceeds go directly to a homeless cause, say one that might actually help homeless children even. What's your take on the latest American Girl doll?