'My 10-Year-Old Talks About Being Fat And Having Thin Lips. How Can I Help Her?'

Maria Stapleton has two daughters, aged 10 and 12, and has watched with concern from the sidelines as they increasingly compare themselves to their peers.“I have found that my younger daughter in particular is acutely aware of how she looks,” the managing director of a PR firm tells HuffPost UK. “Despite being slim and girl-next-door pretty, she has spoken in the past two years about being fat (we don’t have scales in the house nor do I ever comment on my own weight), not being able to tan, her hair being too thin and most worryingly of all, her lips and how thin they are.”Sadly, her situation is not unique. While there might be more visible conversations about mental health nowadays, there is also a huge pressure on the shoulders of today’s youth. A staggering four in five parents with young daughters feel like they are being pressured to conform in society from as young as nine, according to new research commissioned by the toy brand Furby.Stapleton, who is 44 and based in Edinburgh,