Power of Beauty Amongst Kids

The pressure to look good amongst the kids in reining high in the city discovers Lachmi D Roy.
Right from the time you are born beauty matters. The lifestyle media, both television and print often uses pretty faces to sell their products. Britain’s Exeter University psychologist Dr. Alan Slater says attractive people tend to do better in life than less attractive people. “Nobody ever says evolution was fair,” he says. His premise was based on a recent studies on newborns which showed an instinctive fascination for people who look like Hollywood film stars and an in-built prejudice against ‘ordinary’ looking adults. Conclusion: we are genetically programmed to love a pretty face and newborns are not that innocent as we thought!
 
 
Children as young as ten flock to salons for facials, funky hairstyles, waxing and threading. Nilofer Rane, a beautician who runs her own beauty parlour in the city says, “Little girls just love the idea of being pampered from head to toe. They love it because it’s what their moms do. All little girls like to ape their mothers.
Considering that we live in such a looks obsessed society, is it right to get them hooked on beauty regimes at such a young age?
 
Sughatha George, a mother of a nine- year-old says, “Though I don’t allow my daughter to thread or wax, but I allow her to decide on the kind of hair cut she wants.”
 
Considering the time and money teenagers are willing to spend on perfecting themselves is amazing. At the height of what should be their ugly-duckling phase teens today look as sexy and smooth as never before. City kids also have the money—of course, their parents’ money—to transform them selves. Once they start spending, and seeing the results, it’s hard to stop. Like any addiction, it starts with the light stuff. Anika Sharma, for example, a 15-year-old student pays for regular manicures, pedicures and waxings. She’s had her hair straightened twice ("I need to touch it up!") at the Javed Habib’s salon.
 
The idea to look good is not only reining amongst the girls, but the teen and pre-teen boys too. The boys too don’t want to feel left out. “My two year old son makes me apply sun-screen lotion and perfume on his body before going to play- school,” says Sudeshna Basu, a mother of a two year old.
 
The pressure to look good is high. “You can’t blame the babies, because ironically, the treatment they receive at the hands of others depends on their own looks. “For example, in a nursery, prettier babies are touched more, held more and spoken to more,” says Sudeshna. Teachers interact more with pretty children, ask them more questions and prompt them more answers. And the preferential treatment continues through out life.

"I’m pretty high-maintenance," Ms. Duff, a school teacher in the city admits. "But the younger girls at my school are a lot more high-maintenance. They wear designer clothes, fancy glares and get their nails done every two days. I guess the younger generation is more particular about looks than what we were."
 
"God, I remember being that age, and I looked like a giraffe! Gawky!" said Aarty Krishnan, a mother and a computer professional. She further adds, "It’s amazing what’s going on: No one’s going through that weird, ugly stage of being odd-looking, scrawny and knob-kneed."

And judging by the way teen girls in the city look these days—spending hours at hair salons, making trips to the health clubs, firming up their abs at aerobics and dance classes. Sudeshna Roy, a fitness instructor says, “The awakward phase of girlhood has disappeared. I was a late bloomer—and looking back, I’m glad, because I think it slowed everything down," Sudeshna further added. "I was always forced to rely on my personality instead of my looks."
 
"It’s horrifying," says Anjana Bhargava, mother of a thirteen-year -old girl "The kids are so aware of themselves. Girls are obsessed with being beautiful at this super-young age when they should be out playing games and having fun. I find it incredibly sad."

At the high-end salon in Lakme, for example, roughly 20 high-school girls have weekly standing appointments for blow-dries. Instead of doing arts and crafts, we’d stay in our cabin and do makeup and manicures, talk about fashion and what’s in "and what’s out, and play with each other’s hair," says Ananya Joshi, a 13-year -old school student from the city.
Parents, eager to solve their children’s problems (or silence their complaints), probably feel that their ability to pay for prettiness necessitates that they do so. It’s doesn’t end with hair, of course. "We pretty much raised them into these monsters—not bad monsters, but indulging monsters," sighed Monalisa Desai, mother of a ten year old girl. "They need. Everything is a need. These are no more luxuries," adds Monalisa. In this rats race of looking good, parents in the city have realised that they have to give in to their kid’s demands. “The parents are competitive also," said Shalini Roy, a lecturer in the city. "They feel the kids are doing better if they’re looking better," Shalini adds. In this pressure to look good every body wants to be a ‘Cosmo Girl’ over night.
Yoga Instructor, Shalini Deb, who runs local Yoga classes in the city says, “A 10-year-old girl one day asked me- ‘How do I make my abs tight? How can I stop this from jiggling?’ “And its like, ‘Are you kidding? You weigh 40 kgs!”
"Depression has increased for my generation," said 15-year-old Juhi Malhotra, an aspiring actress. Juhi further adds, "I think some boys and girls use shopping as a way to make them feel better—to keep pushing the sadness down instead of confronting how they really feel. But then they have to keep going and can’t really stop."

(Some names changed to protect identities).
 
Image Courtesy : www.vfundude.com