It never fails, whenever I click on one of those ever-present links on Facebook--you know, the ones about "13 Secrets from *blank* movie" (or other random hooks like that)--there is always another type of article linked on the side. Articles about the "ugly-duckling child stars that turned into hotties." Or, articles about seeing which "hot star this child turned into."
It's just another aspect of our societies warped views on beauty. Why does a child *need* to be physically beautiful/good looking? They're a child for goodness sake. They're meant to be playing with their friends, and reading, and imagining magical and adventurous worlds.
Our society is so focused on outer beauty, that it is seeping into younger and younger age brackets. (Following statistics from ANAD--Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders)
• 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures
• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape
• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
Young girls are seeing these articles...seeing the importance that is, years later, being placed on a celebrities outer beauty while young. Young girls are feeling the need to focus on their outer beauty sooner, because, if these beautiful celebrities are being called "ugly ducklings" as children, then young girls are susceptible to being held up to the same standards of beauty. It's not fair. It's not healthy. And it's robbing children of the right to their childhood.
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