Rise of the child women: The new breed of girls as young as ten who dream of manicures, diets and breast implants



Model ambition: Georgie Swann, 10, wants to have breast implants to look like Jordan as soon as she turns 18

Georgie Swann fashions herself on the celebrity icons in Heat and Look - the weekly glossies she loves to read - and spends a lot of time in her bedroom trying on her favourite outfits and her large collection of shoes and handbags.



'Georgie finds it almost impossible to walk past a mirror without checking her appearance and seeing if she's put on an ounce of weight,' says her proud mother Dawn.

Dawn, a 47-year-old teacher, lives in Shirley in Solihull with her husband Julian, also 46, who works for the National Grid. The couple have two older daughters, Stacey, 25, and Laura, 20.



Georgie, you may be disturbed to discover, is only ten.

'The model Jordan is Georgie's absolute idol, and she tells me and her father that as soon as she's 18 she's going to have breast implants so she can be just like her. She's been saving up her pocket money for the operation for the past few years.

'She adores make-up, too - she must have 20 lip glosses. She's seen an expensive designer set of make-up, and that's what she wants now.'

Forget pass the parcel or musical bumps: the last party Georgie went to involved a stretched pink limousine, a disco and oodles of make-up.

'I can't remember when she last played outside,' says her mother, who insists that regardless of what others may think of her daughter's desire to grow up fast, she can do little about it anyway.



'It does worry me that people often take her for 13 or 14. And she's so independent, I can't tell her anything.'

Georgie - a charming, beautiful child - is already ambitious and wants to be a model when she grows up. Not that she hasn't grown up already. And, in that, she is not alone.

Bob Reitemeier is chief executive of the Children's Society, which recently reported on a two-year study into childhood in the UK.

'There's no doubt that we are putting so much pressure on our children today to grow up too quickly,' he says.



'What really worries me are the increasing levels of anxiety among children, especially young girls, who feel they are not thin enough, not beautiful enough, and compare themselves to the impossible images of their airbrushed idols in magazines.'

Olivia Maher had an operation as a baby that left her with a rounded stomach so her mum offered her a tummy tuck when she's older

Another recent survey, by children's organisation TellUs3, questioned 150,000 children and found that an astonishing 26 per cent of ten-year-old girls are obsessed with their weight and feel they're not thin enough.



Meanwhile, more and more girls under the age of ten are being diagnosed with anorexia.

Reitemeier says: 'Childhood is changing so much. We are allowing them to access information which is way beyond their level of maturity in terms of sexual and relationship behaviour.'

The irony is that children like Georgie are by no means in the minority. Today, the majority of ten-year-old girls are obsessed by hair, fashion and make-up. Their favourite TV shows are American soaps such as Friends and Saved By The Bell, which centre around relationships.



Reitemeier says: 'Children are being inundated with images which they are simply not emotionally mature enough to cope with.'



His fears are supported by recent statistics which showed that fewer than 20 per cent of children play outside on a regular basis. As parents work longer hours and have less time to spend with their children, it is all too easy to dump them in front of a television screen.

Yet many TV programmes aimed at teenagers, and music videos which are virtually soft porn, are played on an almost continuous loop on satellite channels.

'The key to a happy, secure childhood - which is vitally important in creating stable and responsible adults - is to feel good about yourself and know who you are,' says Reitemeier.

'If you're constantly measuring yourself up against an impossible image and being made to desire emotions for which you are simply not ready, then I am very concerned about the level of anxiety and depression these young people may face.

'It is a ticking time bomb for the future.'



Though many people will be disturbed that these girls are so mature - and even precocious - parents like Dawn feel their daughters' obsessions are harmless and fun.

She does, though, admit her daughter is driven. 'She really cares about looking her best at all times, and she's always wanting new things,' says Dawn. 'We can't walk past a shoe shop without her wanting to go in.'

Other parents find themselves struggling to keep their daughters' increasingly adult obsessions in check.

Daisy Phillips is obsessed with clothes and watching teen soaps



Yet there are other mothers who positively encourage their daughter's fascination with shopping and consumerism.

Annalie Maher, who runs her own public relations firm, has two children, Olivia, ten, and Krishna, five. Annalie is married to Mahesh, a computer consultant, and the family live near Milton Keynes.

'Olivia and I have really bonded over shopping,' says Annalie. 'I adore fashion, and Olivia and I flick through the magazines like Vogue and Elle together.

'I find it terrifying how precocious she is, but she's highly intelligent and she really knows her own mind.

'She is extremely grown-up for ten, and has very definite ideas about her own style.

She spends ages blow-drying her hair to make sure it is perfect, and she always looks immaculate.

She spends a lot of time on her skin, using a face wash and moisturiser.'

Annalie says Olivia is very conscious of what she eats and of the need to be slim.

'When she was born, she had to have an operation which left her with a rounded tummy, but I told her when she's older, if she wants, I will pay for a tummy tuck.'

In the school holidays, Olivia is booked in for manicures and pedicures, and she's recently held a girls' makeover party.



Annalie says: 'She certainly knows about designer items and their desirability. Recently, when we had to wait at an airport, Olivia spent her time negotiating for a Chanel lip gloss. It's now her proudest possession.'

The recent Children's Society report, The Good Childhood Inquiry, made some substantial demands for a change to this galloping trend to turn children into mini-adults, exposing them to all manner of inappropriate imagery, much of it sexual.

One particularly disturbing figure is that 16 per cent of girls in the UK now start puberty at eight - the youngest age ever recorded. The EU is so concerned that a team of clinical experts is investigating why the onset of puberty is happening to younger and younger girls.

Bob Reitemeier says it is up to parents to stand firm, and establish clear boundaries as to what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to wear, or watch on TV.

But it's almost impossible to stop ten-year- old girls from chatting to their friends, reading certain magazines and being obsessed about their figures.

Headstrong: Abigail Dyer (L) with Georgia. Abigail wore high heels, make-up and a boob tube for her school disco

Catherine Phillips' daughter Daisy is also ten. Like many girls of her generation, she is obsessed with clothes and loves to watch teen soaps. Catherine, 37, from Braintree in Essex, is married to John, 43, a chartered land surveyor, and the couple have an eight-year-old son, George.

'Daisy won't listen to me any more,' she says. 'Some of the outfits she puts together are terrible, but she insists she knows what suits her. She's into the "Gothic" look. At her age, I was playing down by the river and climbing trees, whereas she's painting her nails and doing her hair.

'And the TV set would be on all day and every day if she had her way.

'I worry that she's trying to look too old, but it's very hard to put my foot down. She looks much older than she is, and she goes off shopping with her friends.

Although I think it's sad that she's growing up so fast, I don't want to isolate her from her friends. It's what they all like to do.'

It's a complaint that's all too familiar to Nicole Dyer, whose daughter Abigail is very fashion-conscious - so much so that Nicole says she often has to put her foot down about what she wears.

Nicole, who is 38 and a housewife from Romford in Essex, lives with her husband Gary, 41, a businessman. The couple also have a son, Henry, eight, and a daughter, Poppy, three.

'Abigail has always been headstrong, and she knows her own mind,' says Nicole. 'She went to a performing arts school at primary level, and she's always wanted to be a model. From the age of five, she was telling me what she wanted to wear.'

Nicole says now that Abigail has started secondary school, she's dressing more like a 14 or 15-year-old.

'It does worry me,' she says. 'She'll come down before the school disco wearing loads of make-up, high heels and a tight boob tube with a T-shirt underneath.

'She looks amazing - but certainly not 12 years old. She's often taken as being much older than she is.'

Occasionally, Nicole does put her foot down. 'I don't like her looking false and tarty,' she says. 'And I hate to see her caked in make-up.

'My parents say she's growing up way too fast, but what can I do to stop her?'