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Three Year Old Girls Already Link Their Self-Worth to Their Appearance
The results bring renewed awareness to long-held social norms the researchers call “a huge issue.”
Adolescence, around 10 to 12 years old, is commonly assumed to be when kids start caring more about their looks and finding their self-worth through others’ opinions about their appearance.
And, you’re likely well aware of the ongoing issue about social media and algorithms having harmful effects on youth mental health and body image.
However, a curious researcher had the feeling that we’re missing something, and her recent study shows she was right. It turns out that kids, specifically girls, start linking their self-worth to their appearance as young as three years old — long before their adolescence and teen years.
The Curiosity
May Ling Halim, a developmental psychologist at California State University, Long Beach, and the Director of the Culture and Social Identity Development Lab, wrote about her new research and the curiosity behind it in an essay published by The Huffington Post. She begins with a story about her friend’s daughter, whom she refers to as Lily.
“When Lily is supposed to be brushing her teeth, she looks in…
