The report from Girlguiding also revealed that more than half of girls here (55%) aged 7-21 have received negative comments about how they look. Appearance pressures are starting younger than ever, with girls as young as seven feeling expectations to look and act differently to boys. And those pressures are one of the biggest concerns amongst girls, with some considering cosmetic procedures in the future, according to the findings of Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey.
The research reveals that girls are finding their own negative thoughts about their looks to be ‘all consuming’. More than half (61%) of girls aged 11-21 in Northern Ireland said these thoughts are negatively impacting their confidence. Girlguiding NI advocate Hannah (17) said she hoped the wider public shared her concern at the figures.
“Girls feel this way for a range of reasons, from a lack of clarity regarding filtered images online and a lack of self-confidence from societal expectations of the perfect look,” she said. She added that while she knows the expectations showcased online are not achievable, she fears thousands of girls don’t. “If we sit back and do nothing, we will achieve nothing,” she said.
In the survey girls also indicated they are held to a different beauty standard than boys of their age, and that they face more appearance-based scrutiny. More than a third of (34%) girls aged 7-10 years feel there are different expectations of how they should look compared to boys of their age. The gender disparities at such a young age are contributing to the confidence gap that exists between boys and girls, with girls experiencing significantly lower confidence at every age, a gap that only widens as they get older with many going to extreme measures to alter their appearances.
Over three quarters (79%) of girls aged 11-21 in Northern Ireland said that girls they know worry about the way their body looks and are reporting that they are willing to go to concerning lengths to change it. Around four in 10 girls aged 11-21 (41%) they would consider cosmetic changes to their appearance at some point in the next 20 years Some 65% of 11–16-year-old girls said they’d like to lose weight, 42% of girls aged 11-16 said they have been on a diet and 63% of 11–21 year old girls are aware of friends or peers who have experienced an eating disorder. Girls are also reporting negative views of their own appearance and concerns about things they see online, from harmful comments to filtered images.
In the last year, 48% of girls aged 11-21 in NI say they have seen images that made them feel insecure, and over half (57%) of all 11–21 year old girls said they wished they looked like they do with the filters online. A third (33%) said they feel pressure to use filters when posting on social media..
