Win the Chance to Shadow J.K. Rowling on Take Your Daughter to Work Day with Barbie
Contests
Posted by: Rosi
March 17, 2010, 11:03 AM
After naming Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling among the 10 Women to Watch in 2010, the Barbie I Can Be website has announced a new competition where you can win the chance to be shadow J.K. Rowling for a day. The competition is only open to girls between the age of 6 and 14 (as of the 1st of March, 2010) and the winners will be asked to report back about their experiences with "photos, videos and a short written essay." Other women winning girls will have the opportunity to shadow include Editor-in-Chief of Glamour Magazine Cindi Leive, Professor Yoky Matsuoka of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington and Olympic Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler. Entries must be in by the 22nd of March and you can find more information here on the I Can Be website.
314 Points
Huh?? This makes no sense. First of all, what about JKR’s section on her website, the bit where she talks about the unfair ways society projects “good” things onto skinny people and girls call each other fat and so on? I would think Barbie would be another example of that — they’re not going to be making her doll particularly plump, I don’t think.
Also, I know I’ve read an interview where someone asks what it would be like to follow her around for a day, and she just said something like, “very boring, because all I do is sit in a cafe”. So… what would this “winner” do? Where would they go? I can’t imagine her lawyers would allow them to read anything as-yet-unpublished by JKR and I find it hard to visualize her letting them as well, at least before editing.
I’m annoyed by this. JKR has always been one of the people I most admire and to let them do this… I don’t know. It seems to go against everything she’s said about appearances and morals and so forth. Quite aggravating.
Read the small print – many of these 10 Women to Watch in 2010 have generously committed to mentor a girl for one day – that is MANY not ALL. So JKR may or may not be one of the people taking part in this, and given the competition is in the US and Jo is based in the UK I think it less likely that Jo is one of those who has volunteered.
519 Points
This sounds interesting, but I’m not quite sure that I am grasping the concept, but good luck to all young witches that enter!
This is not the only time I’ve wanted to be a 14 year old girl…