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"Is it 'uncool' to play with dolls at my age?"

What do I tell her? For that matter, how much do I tell her? She's asking me, begging me for the answers to questions she believes are essential to her life.

And they are, which is precisely why I should answer them exactly as they should be. "Li, Is it 'uncool' to play with dolls at my age?" she asks me.

She'll be twelve and a half in a month, and I'm her wise old sage of a sister at merely seventeen. Times like these I check my face for wrinkles.

I know how brutal it is for kids today on the playgrounds and cafeterias - especially if you're an individual and don't religiously follow the latest fads. She doesn't have her belly-button pierced; she hasn't had a boyfriend; she's never been to a pop-rock concert.

She does go to sleepovers, have theme parties for her girl friends, play outside with our younger neighbors and bake. Drugs aren't her thing; foul words don't leave her lips; skimpy clothes are not her style; the phone isn't glued to her ear all day long.

She's a conscientious student, an avid reader, respectful to adults, and has befriended the handicapped kids at school. It is excruciatingly important to me that she maintain her positive characteristics and continue to foster appreciation for people's differences.

Remembering the potency of the 'popular girls' on the playground and how exclusive cliques could be motivated me to write this article. As teenagers, as high-school students, as the people we are, we are role models to all the kids younger than us in our hometown communities.

That loads tremendous power and responsibility on our shoulders, and whether we want to accept it or not, we must each make some sort of choice regarding how to respond to that. Atlas himself wouldn't envy the burden this implies.

Even so, it need not be something we look at in a bad light. Is it so hard for all of us to conspire to use our manners so that our younger admirers think that being polite is not 'uncool'?

What makes it difficult for us to encourage hanging out with and accepting all types of people and promoting diversity of interests? I firmly believe all kids must learn on their own to conquer what social obstacles come their way, but hopefully we can uproot things like teasing and labeling that wound kids deeply for their entire hometown schooling.

We set examples for them whether we realize it or not, with everything we do. In the long run it is crucial to the future of our society that we make those examples good ones. It would hurt me to tell my younger sister that she has to sacrifice her interests to enjoy the rest of her young and fun years.

If we make kids feel like it is actually ok to be kids and not jump headlong into growing up, I feel that that would fulfill our responsibilities to be their role models.

If we show appreciation for kids as kids and not impress upon them that they need to be like us to fit in with the world, with luck they will follow suit.

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