robot_parade

So, I've read a fair amount about self esteem and young girls, since we have a daughter, and I'm concerned about that sort of thing. I thought I was somewhat prepared for having to help her deal with those sorts of problems as she grew up. Well, the time might be here already. She's come to us very upset on a few occasions in the last few months, in tears, because, as she says, she 'doesn't like the way she looks'. She doesn't like the shape of her face, or her complexion. She wants to look 'different from the way she looks'. This is the sort of thing I expected...the problem is, she just turned six! All of the stuff I've found online about girl's self-esteem talks about pre-teen girls - in the 10-11 range. I haven't found anything about girls this young.

She doesn't get a whole lot of exposure to 'popular culture' - we don't watch much TV, mostly movies (and a lot of those happen to have strong female role-models - we have most of Miyazaki's kid movies). We homeschool, so she doesn't get stuff from school. She doesn't get exposed to any of the teen magazines, music videos, ads on TV, etc. She has a fair number of friends about her age.

I've tried talking to her, and encouraging her. This didn't seem to have much effect. I told her that *I* thought she was beautiful, to which she responded: "It's not about what you think, it's about what *I* think." (Exactly right and logical - did I mention she's a very precocious 6 year old? ;-))

So, I'm not sure what to do, or even how much I should worry about this, so I'd appreciate other thoughts and opinions. She doesn't talk about it all the time, and is mostly very happy and well-adjusted, but she has mentioned it several times now over the course of a few months. My wife doesn't seem too concerned about it, but I worry...