Felicity Wishes is a British children’s book series created by Emma Thomson. The main character Felicity, is a fairy who “makes friends with lots of people wherever she goes”. She is blonde and her favourite colour is pink. She always wears a lot of pink and her signature is her pink and white stripy tights. Felicity wants to be a “Friendship Fairy” when she is older.
Surprisingly, Felicity has turned out to be quite popular. I say ‘surprisingly’ because after reading her description I already want to throttle her. Sadly, her popularity has led to the launch of a magazine series.
And here, my friends, is where this whole depressing mess reaches new levels of facepalm. The magazine encourages little girls to dream about their future lives. “Every issue I try out a new job, from cake-maker to nurse, to popstar!” Felicity squeals. “Part 1 comes with a cute Felicity Wishes doll and with every issue there’s a sparkly new outfit to dress her in!” If you like smacking yourself in the face, you can view the TV ad here.
It would seem that besides aspiring to be a “Friendship Fairy”, Felicity also fancies herself as a careers advisor. Unfortunately I’ve had the unpleasant task of sifting through the magazines, an experience which has scarred me for life, and I can quite confidently say that Felicity should stick to her day job. The occupations she recommends for girls include (in alphabetical order)…
Woah thanks Felicity for inspiring the next generation of trolly dollies, butterfly feeders, and clowns. “Felicity does not come with an astronaut’s costume or a train driver’s hat, and seems to want little girls to grow up to be homemakers and pop tarts and use too many exclamation marks” commented The Independent.
The majority of careers promoted by Felicity are low paid, a significant number involve servicing people (not like that), and 91% require no higher education. Why not go the whole way and have Felicity Lap dancer, Felicity Dinner Lady, Felicity Surrogate Mother, and Felicity Chip Shop Worker.
Here’s an example of the magazine’s contents, taken from the “Beautician” issue:
