Growing obsession of appearance among youth

 Growing obsession of apppearence amongs youth . Around the pool on a Florida vacation, an 8-year-old girl in a polka-dot bathing suit looks at the girl in line ahead of her for the waterslide. As her eyes go to the girl's waist, she sucks in her own tummy and reaches down to run her hands over the hollow she has created beneath her ribs, deep in thought. * * * It used to be that girls didn't worry about how their bodies looked until they hit their teens. But today, girls as young as 6 years old care deeply about their reflections in the mirror and many of them do not like what they see In fact, a full 50 percent of children from 8 to 10 years old report being "unhappy" with their bodies, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Nine-year-old Saray has complained to her mother that she is fat, that she wants to join a gym and that she hates her hair and body. She says she wants to be "hot" like Zendaya, the stick-thin star of Disney's "Shake It Up" and "Frenemies," or like Taylor Swift, the tall, lanky, blond singer. More than 81 percent of 10-year-olds said they are terrified of "getting fat," according to NEDA. "If you get fat, you'll look weird. People will make fun of you," said Kera, a 9-year-old student in the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District. "People will say, like, 'Get away from us,' and nobody will want to be around you." Having a negative body image is hard enough for peer-driven teenagers, but for such young girls, it can be devastating. "Brain-wise, kids this age think in a very black and white way," said Donna Fish, a clinical social worker and expert in parenting and body image. "The ability to tolerate the bad and remember the good is a more mature concept." Biologically, children just aren't cognitively equipped to wrestle with the types of ideas that older adolescents encounter as part of natural teenage development. More than 100 published studies make clear that girls who are dissatisfied with their bodies are at significant risk for physical and mental health disorders. They're more likely to develop eating disorders and depression, to have low self-worth and poor interpersonal skills, and to abuse drugs and commit suicide. Many of the negative feelings center around weight. Among girls in first, second and third grade, 42 percent want to be thinner, according to NEDA. Among 6-year-olds -- 6-year-olds! -- 40 percent have tried dieting or otherwise restricting their food intake. That's a problem, for many reasons. "When you're worried about how you look and what you weigh, you're not thinking of all the great things you can do in the world," Cook-Cottone said. "You can't find your purpose because you're too busy. So at last I want to conclude that your appperance does not matter only the thing matter is your ways to understand thing and focus on your goals so thats all thank you .