I Just Stepped in a Pile of Sassy!

Well, a pile of something: Sweet & Sassy, the tarting-up spa and salon party zone for little girls, is opening two Chicagoland locations in the very near future. One at 1730 W. Fullerton is set to open December 5, and another is in the works for the newly opened Oak Brook Promenade. A Sweet & Sassy spokesperson told Crain's that the company is looking to open 12 stores in our area in the next 18 months.

Sweet & Sassy offers party packages where young girls can pretend to be models, pop stars, princesses and celebrities on the red carpet (career not important); get their hair, make-up and nails done; and have glamor shots taken.

On the one hand, we can totally understand little girls going apeshit for this kind of thing. Gosh, I probably would have. But all these parties are based on Looking Pretty, and all the fantasies the girls get to live out are exclusively image-based. It's a complicated message to send — let's make your dreams come true, as long as those dreams are about the way you look — and one that six-, seven- and eight-year-olds aren't all that capable of unpacking. Let's hope it isn't the only message Chicago's girls are hearing.