Why did Rainbow Brite need to grow up and get Barbie-fied? Find out at Feministing, one of many great blogs in the Feminist Blogs network.

Big news, sports fans!

I’m so pleased to announce that Beauty Schooled is going into syndication, joining the ranks of Feministing, Feministe.us, Gender Across Borders and tons of other provocative, inspiring, and hilarious blogs on the mega-blogging network Feminist Blogs: Independent alternatives to the malestream media.

Current Beauty Schooled readers, don’t fret now: Posts will be published simultaneously on the Feminist Blogs feed and here on beautyschooledproject.com, in your inbox (if you’ve subscribed via email), or in your blog reader of choice if you’ve subscribed that way. (Hey, if you haven’t — click here to subscribe now and thanks a whole bunch for doing that.) But do click on over to feministblogs.org to explore all my neighboring bloggers there. And, if supporting independent journalism is your cup of tea, please make a donation, because us feminist bloggers rely heavily on the support of viewers like you.

New readers and fellow feminist bloggers who are just discovering Beauty Schooled: Hi there! You can find out what I’m up to here, catch up with school news here.

Or, just keep reading this post for The Pretty Price Check, your Friday (sometimes Monday) round-up of how much we paid for beauty last week:

• 40 pounds in 4 months: How Christina Aguilera got her body back post-pregnancy, as the baby weight craze gathers steam. Jezebel and Daily Beast explain why this trend sucks.

• $485: What you’ll pay for a session of skin needling, aka having a spike-covered roller run over your face to stimulate collagen production and make you look younger. Angelina Jolie is a fan, but let’s not use her as our model of good decision-making, okay? (Via tough-as-nails Beauty Counter, who says the pain is worth the gain.)

• $1.9 billion: A rough estimate of how much boys (yes, boys) aged 8 to 19 spend on grooming products, a trend that’s going way beyond Axe Body Spray, as explored in yesterday’s New York Times story. Sounds like Dove will have their finger on the pulse when they release their first Real Beauty ad targeted at men during the Superbowl this Sunday. (I remain on the fence about whether these ads are part of the problem or the solution.)

• $588: How much the average American (read, those of us who eschew skin needling and try to keep our kids off Axe) spends on personal care products and services each year, according to The Simple Dollar, who has a bunch of good tips on how you can get away with spend even less.