To me, dress up is a past time that I have always enjoyed. Some of my earliest memories were of digging through my mom’s old dresses and pretending to be all kinds of different characters. I still love dressing up for Halloween and for any reason…just give me a reason and I will do it! I always knew this play time benefited me, but I could not tell you exactly how and why. These days with all the stem toys and talking toys, you can easily forget about Dress Up play. I am excited to discuss what I learned in my research about dress up and self esteem building and also give you my tips on how to build a dress up closet that boost your daughter’s self esteem.
Here are just a few things that I learned about why dress up build self esteem and is so beneficial to our daughters! (I say daughter’s here, but I cannot imagine why this doesn’t apply to boys too…I just have a daughter so that is what I am focused on.)
Memory
The memory and brain is exercised when your daughter acts out scenes from the day. Remember when you try to memorize something, you say or do it over and over again. Dress up play helps with the reenactment.
Empathy
By being in the shoes of another person, your child has to relate to them. They grow more empathetic and have a better understanding of how others feel.
Imagination
Kids have amazingly limitless imaginations. have vast, open imaginations. They are able to let their imaginations go wild with the context of the character that they are playing.
Gender Roles
My father constantly told me as a child that if it can be done (by anyone male or female), you can do it. This mentality is something that I want to pass on to my daughter. When I was building her costume closet, I filled it with all kids of different costumes that will allow her to explore stereotypically male professions and gender roles.
There are so many benefits to playing dress up that I could not possibly list them all. If you are interested, feel free to use google to search – ‘benefits of dressing up in costumes’ without the quotes. Let’s dive into How to Build a Dress Up Closet that Boosts your Daughter’s Self Esteem and what costume’s I chose and why.
How to Build a Dress Up Closet that Boosts your Daughter’s Self Esteem
Favorite Character Costumes
My daughter is obsessed with Disney Princesses and loves pretending to be them! Her favorite Disney gals are Princess Anna, Queen Elsa, Moana, Princess Ariel, Tinker Bell, Jasmine, and Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I adore that her favorite Disney Characters are multi-cultural and help her explore and learn about different cultures.
Professionals
We have costumes for all kinds of professions everything from a Doctor to a Chef to even an Astronaut (on of my faves). This helps give way to the idea that girls can choose any profession even those dominated by boys.
Get the Astronaut Helmet with Sound here & the Astronaut Costume
Get the Jr. Chef Costume with Hat here
Super Heros
My daughter loves super heroes and has Iron Man, Captain America, Batman, and the Hulk. Rey from Star Wars and Starfire from Teen Titans are on wish list for her birthday. Super heroes are extra special because they have powers and imagination already built in.
Pirates
PiratesKids get to be scoundrels and ruffians as pirates! Pirates are very popular for a reason and it is because you get to be slightly bad with getting in trouble. You can get in on the fun by setting up treasure hunts! There is nothing a good Pirate likes more than treasure.
