People should be focusing on positive personality traits rather than appearance when complimenting children – especially when it comes to young girls. Psychotherapist and author Stella O'Malley was speaking after a new survey found that girls as young as seven feel they're held to different beauty standards than boys. The findings from Girlguiding in the UK reveal that appearance pressures are one of the biggest concerns amongst girls, with many considering cosmetic procedures in their future.
The research shows girls are finding their own negative thoughts about their looks to be all consuming, and over half (59%) of girls aged 11-21 say that these thoughts are negatively impacting their confidence. Girls as young as seven say they feel they are held to a different beauty standard than boys of their age, and that they face more appearance-based scrutiny. More than one-in-three (34%) girls aged 7-10 years feel there are different expectations of how they should look, compared to boys of their age – an 11% increase compared to 10 years ago.
Ms O'Malley told Newstalk Breakfast a compliment can become a paradox in itself. "It's an extraordinary paradox that the more you tell somebody [that] they're gorgeous the more they, kind of, check themselves to see if they are," she said. "There are so many photos everywhere on Facebook, Instagram and [other] places that kids are more than ever are being told 'You're gorgeous' and girls get it way more than boys.
"Boys tend to be told .