A friend of mine is having her first baby, a girl, in a few months and I was wondering about what to get the little doll. My friend is definitely a girly-girl and I’m sure she’ll have plenty of fluffy pink bears and bows for her hair. But I was thinking of getting something a little less conventional, and maybe a lot more empowering...

But what the heck is empowering for a baby girl? A duckie with a Rosie the Riveter t-shirt? A pacifier with a feminist symbol? I don’t want to rock the boat and I don’t want to make my friend upset, but I also want to give them both something that will help foster a lifelong strength—or maybe a little girl power.

So I’ve decided—in addition to some practical gifts like diapers, wipes, and things my friend can definitely use and will need—that I’ll be making the little lass a dream book. I love scrapbooking, in a less conventional way—my daughter’s journal/scrapbook is more like a combination listing of events coupled with art journal entries—and will be making a fill-in-your-own type of book she can place photos and mementos in, much like a baby book, but with a modern twist.

In the first places for dreams, I’m going to make pages for the new mom to place in her hopes and dreams for her baby—her future, her health, her life in general. She can write all about her—and the best part will be that I’ll be including plenty of blank pages in this binder-formatted book, so she can readily add as many as she’d like.

Then, when it comes to baby growing into girl, she can create her own collages, lists, and drawings of her dreams and desires with prompts like “I will change the world by…” “I love my body because…” “I love being me because…” I’ll also include traditional listing sections for her favorite foods and music, as well as favorite ways to volunteer, change her mood, and celebrate life.

Every girl should be encouraged daily to be able to do whatever she wants—and to love herself just as she is. This baby is sure to get that kind of love and affection with her doting mother and father, and this book will simply be reinforcement for that love as well as her own personal blueprint for taking on the world by storm! (This can also be made for a little boy, of course—and surely should!)

Welcome to the world, little dreamer… I can’t wait to meet you!