Body image disorder at a young ageAccording to a Cambridge University study, girls as young as six believe they’d be better if they were skinnier. The Telegraph reports that when asked to choose their ideal body from three digitally altered images—one of which was their actual body size, and two others that were consecutively smaller—a whopping 50 percent of the six-year-olds surveyed chose the body that was three sizes smaller than their own. Worse, when questioned about their choice, many of the girls said being skinnier would make them more popular. How does that happen? While most articles geared towards helping parents navigate body issues focus on the teen years, Our Bodies Ourselves (a health resource) has some great suggestions, starting with telling your daughter she is beautiful, but also telling her she excels in an area that has nothing to do with looks—she’s a fast runner, or a good reader, or great with those poster paints. They also suggest combatting the onslaught of the Paris Hiltons by pointing out women who come up in the world by their wits, or talent, or ability to hurl themselves down a mountain to capture a gold medal at the Olympics. And lastly—help them understand that “advertisers and their clients (from fashion magazines to music video channels) must make girls feel bad about their bodies in order to turn a profit.”  Article by Yahoo! Shine

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