Catherine expresses herself in competitive dance and also enjoys participating in musical theater. She hopes to become a child psychologist someday "to build a new, strong, and healthy generation."
When Catherine heard her friends say, "You're such a blonde," she began to ponder just how deeply the stereotype had pervaded society. She hypothesized that women with any type of blonde hair would be seen as less intelligent but more attractive than brunettes.
Using a digital program, Catherine depicted two teenage girls and two middle-age women with four different hair colors each—silver blonde, blonde, light brown, and dark brown. She attached pictures of the four to surveys posted on the Internet, taking care not to place the same person with different hair colors in the same survey. Respondents were asked to rate these women's attractiveness, intelligence, friendliness, confidence, and sociability. Catherine found that the four women received the lowest intelligence scores and the highest attractiveness scores when they were depicted with blonde hair.
