This Campaign Is Aimed To Teach Little Girls To Stop Focusing So Much On Appearance

Little girls are brought into the world with society's pressures for them to maintain the illusion that they're sugar, spice and everything nice. The biggest pressure of all is something that parents and other adults can inflict on children without even meaning to: looking pretty. Oh, look at that pretty dress. You're so pretty. Pretty, pretty, pretty. It becomes ingrained, and becomes a problem.

Australian non-profit, Pretty Foundation, has worked endlessly to empower young girls and women to develop a positive body image, and their latest campaign is directed at little girls and their parents.

For the entire month of August, the campaign - called Pretty Powerful - is focused on getting parents to realise the power of their words, and the impacts that these words can have on their children. The campaign is aimed at girls aged from two to six years old, a crucial life stage where body image and self-acceptance begins to develop in children.

In an interview with The Age, the foundation's founder Melissa Forsyth, spoke about the campaign's mission and the message that they want people to take away from it.

“We want to drive awareness of the power of words on girls’ body image and provide parents with the tools and resources on the type of language we should use with little girls. Words are powerful, particularly when we speak them about ourselves and others and they can really have a significant impact on body image,” she said.

The campaign is determined to change the way that little girls think about themselves, encouraging people to bring up their children putting value and worth above appearance.

Peter Davis and his twin girls Madeline and Charlotte, participants of the Pretty Powerful campaign in August Credit: Justin McManus

Making little girl's understand their worth beyond their looks isn't their only goal this year though; in September, following Pretty Powerful, Pretty Foundation are teaming up with Liptember, an organisation that raises funds and awareness for women's mental health.

How little girls grow up viewing and feeling about their bodies is really important, and at a time where, in Australia alone over 50 percent of pre-school girls are already dissatisfied with their bodies, this is something we really need to nip in the bud.

If you're a parent, guardian, or even just deal with young children on a regular basis, Pretty Foundation has some resources for you to help make a change to the youngsters in your life.