Why Bindi Irwin's make-up and filter-free selfie (left) message backfired. Photo: Bindi Irwin Instagram/Getty

It started with telling young girls to cover up. Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, told journos she is ‘a big advocate for young girls dressing their age’.

“I almost wish I could tell young girls, ‘look, in ten years when you look back at yourself, you’ll cringe honey, honestly’,” she said.

Apart from the very obvious issue of a girl in a khaki safari suit talking about fashion choices that will make people ‘cringe’, I take great issue with any girl of any background telling any other young girl how to dress. EVER.

However, Bindi has now taken her teenage guru efforts even further, posting a no-makeup, no-filter selfie on Instagram, and beseeching young girls not to wear makeup.

“I just wanted to remind you how pretty you are,” she writes. “You're loved. The world puts way too much pressure on girls to be perfect, but you already are. I'm sending you a hug. Be true to you."

Now, Bindi Irwin is fifteen years old, and I am not going to heap criticism on a teenager. I have no doubt that she feels she is doing something positive for young women’s body image – albeit somewhat hypocritically, as she is frequently photographed wearing an adult-serve of makeup, a fact not negated by one carefully posed selfie.

What offends me, however, is the notion of any female, of any age or position, telling other females how to dress or not to dress. And when the females targeted are young girls and teens, it makes me even more enraged.

The teenage years are tough for girls. It is a time of experimentation and insecurity, of pimples and budding boobs, of unrequited crushes, and wanting to fit in, and wanting to stand out, and wanting to be admired. Teenagers trial different looks, play around with different clothes and hairstyles, and try to negotiate that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood as best they can.


Shaming kids for dressing a certain way is incredibly unhelpful. There is no right or wrong way to dress; one person’s safari suit is another person’s leather mini. And advising girls but not boys to ‘cover up’ is blatantly sexist and anti-feminist, and I do not want my own thirteen-year-old daughter exposed to those messages.

But pleading with girls not to wear makeup takes the whole anti-feminist message to another level.

Because here’s the thing.

Bindi posted a picture of herself looking gorgeous without makeup to remind other girls ‘how pretty you are’. If she is genuinely trying to make girls feel better about their own bodies and their own looks, posting a flawless photograph of herself is not going to help. In fact, the opposite is true. Because here is another teenager, with perfect skin and perfect hair and a perfect smile, looking perfect without makeup. And for the average teen, with their pimples and their gawkiness and their overweight, it is just a reminder of how imperfect they are.

Contrast Bindi’s pic with that posted by singer Lorde recently, highlighting her acne and reminding young girls that ‘flaws are okay’. This, to me, is genuinely empowering. By revealing her own imperfections, Lorde made other teens feel better about their own. And by demonstrating that one doesn’t need to be perfect to be successful, she proved the point in actions, rather than words.

Besides, Bindi is wrong. The reality is that not all girls are pretty. And whilst that’s okay, because not everyone has to be pretty, many girls like a bit of makeup to make themselves feel better. Some coverup for their zits. Some eyeliner to make their eyes pop. Some mascara to compensate for pale lashes. If that makes them feel good, if that gives them confidence, then who the hell is Bindi or anyone else to decry their choices?

Bindi Irwin is very young, and she has a lot to learn about empowering girls. I just can’t help thinking that when she looks back in ten years, she will cringe, honey. Honestly.