Girls as young as 9 feel pressured to lead ‘perfect lives’ with ‘boyfriend and good skin’ due to influencers

Girls as young as 9 feel pressured to lead ‘perfect lives’ with ‘boyfriend and good skin’ due to influencers Young girls worried about the impact of social media on their self-esteem, researchers find - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Children as young as nine have said they feel pressure to lead “perfect lives” due to influencers on social media, researchers have warned. Researchers spoke with girls in years seven to 10 across schools in southeast England, about how they engage with influencer culture. One girl in the year group five to six (ages nine-11) described influencers as “probably [having] really long lashes and a really slim body. . . a nice-shaped nose. . . lip fillers, maybe”. Another girl in the year group seven to eight (ages 11-13) said influencers convey the “perfect life” in terms of their “boyfriend. . . job. . . food”. “Younger girls were worried about the impact of their self-esteem, actively trying to navigate it with their family and peers through practising self-affirmations and help from their parents. But they also had a need to feel validated, and were aware of things like botox and hair extensions,” Dr Robyn Muir, lead author of the study and senior lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Surrey, told The Independent. “Girls in years seven to eight were very ambivalent; they felt a comparison culture and lack of diversity in influencers. But they were also frustrated at the lack of clear strategy around how to ‘love yourself’. The girls in year seven were also saying girls need to be prepared from a younger age for the influencer culture. “The older girls in years nine and 10 were a bit more critical. They recognised a lack of diversity and how that can impact self-esteem, and unattainable lifestyles.” Dr Muir said with the help of the girls, they created a toolkit to think about how we can navigate influencer culture, as well as a diary to process their feelings and how to reach out to adults. The girls also said it would be helpful to see videos or facts that help demystify when people are filtering or photoshopping themselves. It comes as Sir Keir Starmer announced a ban that will prevent children under 16 from creating or maintaining accounts on major social media platforms this week. This legislation is designed to limit children's exposure to addictive algorithms, harmful content, and excessive screen time, with the prime minister stating that social media is contributing to children's unhappiness. The ban will apply to platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, requiring social media companies to implement robust age-verification systems, though messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal will be exempt. Expected to be enforced by Ofcom from spring 2027, this move positions the UK alongside other countries such as Australia, the US, and Norway, which are also implementing measures to restrict children's access to social media. Dr Muir stressed that issues of comparison culture and unattainable beauty standards were not invented with social media, but have “always been there”. “They were in magazines, newspaper headlines, films, books, adverts, songs. They have been here for a very long time. Social media has just repackaged it and made it very intensive,” she said. The researchers found that parents and carers do have some “common ground” with the girls in the way they interact with social media. Dr Emily Setty, co-author of the study, published in Children & Society, said: "Girls actually resist the idea that adults are inherently out of touch. They drew parallels between their own TikTok habits and their parents' use of Facebook. “But adults have to come to those conversations with curiosity and humility rather than control. That shift is entirely possible; it just requires us to take what girls are telling us seriously." Activities and resources to support girls navigate influencer culture can be found here. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments