Girls are so very different from boys ... aside from the obvious. My soon-to-be 6-year-old is a girly girl through and through.

I don't know where she gets it. I grew up being a tomboy — always outside, in the dirt, being rough and playing with the guys. I never truly cared what I was wearing or how I looked ... until I was in high school. Not the case for my little girl.

My little princess acts ... well, like a princess. She loves to play dress-up and is constantly changing her clothes and shoes. It didn't strike me until the other day that she is getting a little too particular about how she is dressed. After she asked me, "Do you think (so-and-so) will think I'm pretty in this dress?", and then with a turn of her hip and pointing her foot to the tip of her toes ... it hit me! She is too infatuated with looks and at too early of an age.

As soon as she gets home from school — if I haven't already directed her toward the backyard — she runs to her room, changes into a pretty dress, puts on my heels and prances around the house. She does this so often that my 20-month-old son has started to put my shoes on and follow her. She even gathers up her play makeup and heads to the bathroom to do her own makeup. I try hard not to laugh each time she shows me her latest creation. I say, "That's nice. Now, do you want to go outside and play?"

She has even gone as far as saying that she didn't like her big, winter coat because it didn't look right with her backpack. WHAT!? She clearly didn't understand that it was to keep her warm. And, then the shoes. Oh, the shoes!

She has one pair of dress shoes that she wears with special occasion dresses. They have a little heel to them, too. She wants to wear them with everything. She told me just the other day that there are a lot of girls in her school that are wearing heeled shoes. So, now she is comparing what she has to what everyone else has.

I fear that this new-found fascination with clothing and makeup will take a turn for the worst if I don't curb her the right direction ... and fast. I just have to keep remembering to tell her that she is her own person and that being different is awesome. It's so boring to be like everyone else.