Natural beauty and don't grow up too soon

I read an interesting article in the Sunday Star Times today, about skinny women styled by 'Zoe' (say 'Zo' to rhyme with 'No').

Then I took a look at my daughter - 13 years old, slim - and despite her attempts at sophistication, still a young girl.

Please, please - let her stay this way!

I also thought long and hard about the criticism of people like Lindsay Lohan and other young stars who have moved from the naivete (well, perhaps our belief in their innocence) in their early teens to the trash clash of their late teens and early twenties. Is it that we can't just let them grow up? Our ideal seems to be to hold onto the age at which they first hit the screens (and hence our attention) and then to leave them in a time-warp, while criticising their every move towards 'normal' defining of themselves. Of course, some court the attention of the media deliberately - but some find their privacy invaded by intrusive interference with normal activities like going shopping...

Rather than haranguing them for their lack of restraint, perhaps we could consider restraining our desire to know every detail of their growing up?

Long live the youthfulness of my daughter.