Lots of great comments to share today. Let's start with Barbie selling make-up. To get a sense of Barbie's competition, check out what Bratz is offering here. Also check out this commentary on Gawker's new blog Jezebel.

Teresa writes:

I completely see your point that it may be sending the wrong message. But isn't Bonne Bell already marketed to little girls -- at least their younger stuff, like LipSmackers? I'm curious to see what types of make-up they end up producing for 6-9 year olds with the partnership.Lipgloss--like LipSmackers--and nailpolish seem like a natural fit, but others I think you would sense the "growing up too fast" nudge.

Nedra writes:

I think (hope!) the "covering up" aspect of make-up doesn't come into play until later. My 6 year old loves to have me put blush on her cheeks (even though I put so little that you can barely see it). And she's been to birthday parties where they do dress-up that includes some make-up. I think at this age, it's about feeling like a big girl, or pretending to be a princess. I don't know at what age it changes to "my face isn't good enough so I need to make it look better." And I hope that's not the angle those marketers will be taking.

Yesterday's Essentials provoked some reaction as well. Ypulse readers were surprised that teens told Lucent they wanted more branding on their phones.

Sonia marveled:

I can't believe people actually ask for branding...

And Izzy chimed in:

I hate cell phone ads. I was in the UK last week and I kept getting text spam. Ticked me off.

Sigh. Oh kids. Gotta know the latest of the hotest of the bestest (yes, bestest) of the trends in marketing & licensing created for them.

Although... once again, flip.com's method of advertising rocks. Personalized advertising is cool when it's done well.

TrueScoop's style of vigilante justice seems to have some support out there. Pat Dane wrote:

The Truescoop service is meant to be somewhat like a vigilante service. In order to stop all the violence there is out there parents need to band together. Adding notes that I saw so and so standing around a school bus stop or walking thru a school yard is certainly something that I would like to know about and share with other parents in my local area. The idea of me getting alerted to that is a good thing.

There more parents that get involved the lesser chance that a convicted sex offender can harm another kid.

I am in the non-fear mongering camp. So while I agree any violence against children is terrible, I think parents need to teach their children to be safe and to live their lives.

For people who are interested in what's happening to my old college, lots of alum are chiming in over at The Huffington Post.

Also, Izzi asked what I thought about user generated content in squeeky clean branded communities. I think if you are building a branded community for kids under 13, you obviously have to have a heavy hand in what gets posted and make sure it is 100 percent brand and parent friendly. With older teens and young adults, you risk alienating them (like Wal-Mart did) by requiring parent approvals and lag time between when they post and something appears for screening. Especially when they're used to posting and having stuff appear instantly on MySpace and YouTube. I think you can be careful about where stuff shows up (manually program all top level pages), be clear about your community standards from the beginning and take down stuff that is hugely inappropriate when you find it.

Posted by anastasia