It’s no secret that our society and the media have set and continue to promote a near-impossible standard of idyllic beauty against which women constantly judge themselves and always aspire to achieve.

With the advent of surgery and readily available aesthetic treatments, this search has reached a new high point. According to one estimate, American women spend nearly $7 billion a year on products used in the pursuit of beauty.

And we’ve all seen or heard stories of women addicted to Botox or plastic surgery; some have had so many pinches and creases that their faces look like cartoon characters and they still want more! These edge cases are the victims of a popular culture that is saturated with airbrushed, overly sexualized, and perfectly coiffed images of celebrities and models that can make even the most confident of us feel a little insecure or inadequate at times.

The extent of this problem was documented in a 2008 report published by the YWCA called “Beauty at Any Cost.” The report highlights the substantial implications for women’s health on the never-ending treadmill of “unrealistic beauty achievement.” Through chronic and unhealthy diets, the use of tobacco as a weight loss aid, the taking of unnecessary risks during cosmetic surgical procedures, and the absorption of dangerous chemicals through cosmetics, women are placed in precarious health situations to maintain some semblance of his idealized physical self. Women and girls are at risk of lifelong health problems, and the problems start at a young age.

Add to the mix a $50 billion a year unregulated cosmetics industry that puts unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products without the need for testing or monitoring for health effects, ready to profit from these tight standards of beauty to turn women and girls into customers for life. . Many of these companies go out of their way to market to teens and “tweens” (ages 8-12) as part of this goal. Their emphasis is on creating cheap products that appeal to this demographic with little to no consideration for the potential health or environmental impact of the chemicals used to produce them.

Clearly, girls and adolescents are more vulnerable and susceptible to harm than ever. However, with a little guidance, they can learn to make safer and healthier choices for themselves and set an example for their peers.

What can you do to help the girls and adolescents you know avoid falling into this trap? Here are some guidelines you can use:

1. Money starts and stops with you

Most children are influenced by the behaviors and attitudes of their parents and caregivers. Therefore, it is up to you to set the standard for what is acceptable. If you want your daughters, nieces, or younger sisters to adopt healthy clothing, be sure to do the same. Take a look at your inventory of cosmetics and personal care products and eliminate those that contain ingredients known to be harmful. If you’re not sure where to start, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database, available online.

Its comprehensive database contains over 25,000 cosmetics and skincare products from companies big and small that you may not even know about. All products have been investigated, listed, and classified for safety based on currently available data on the toxicity of their ingredients. The database also provides lists of the 10 best and worst products and companies based on their ratings.

Show them how to use the database and make it clear that you will not finance the purchase of products that have been classified as high security.

2. Make them smart shoppers

Share your concerns with them about the safety of many beauty products on the market and how even small amounts of repeated exposure to certain ingredients can cause harm. Teach them how to read product labels and look for problematic ingredients to avoid.

The US Food and Drug Administration requires that ingredients be listed in descending order of concentration. Therefore, the ingredients listed at the top are the most prevalent and should be given the most attention.

Teens Turning Green (formerly Teens for Safe Cosmetics) has compiled a list of chemicals in personal care products to avoid, called Dirty Thirty. You can download it on their site. Review the list together, then use it as a guide for reading labels and discarding products that contain them.

3. Encourage them to take action

There is nothing more powerful than children and adolescents united and engaged in action to promote a good cause, and what could be a more valuable cause than their health and safety? Encourage them to learn more about this topic and how they can get involved to make a difference.

Whether it’s taking action to pressure the government to regulate cosmetics, or participating in consumer boycotts that force companies to change in response to market trends, or joining groups that teach and promote self-esteem and healthy body images. All of these activities serve to enlighten them and reinforce the positive messages that will ultimately lead them to make better decisions and influence their friends to do the same.

4. Turn Them Into Greener Alternatives And Make It Fun

Host a spa party at your house for your daughters and their friends and introduce them to the ever-growing variety of safe and healthy skin care products, natural fragrances and cosmetics available, and make it “cool” for them to explore and indulge. of its meaning. Make it a recurring event so they have the opportunity to be constantly exposed to lots of new and different products.

Or take them to the local health food store for a shopping spree where you can review and compare products together and have a contest to see who picks the best ones first. Remember, just because a product is sold in a health food or health food store does not mean that the product is safe or natural. It can be a great teachable moment to help them (and you) become truly savvy shoppers.

5. Reward them for making good decisions.

Focus your efforts on helping them make the best decisions possible, and then reward them for it. Make sure the rewards you give them are in line with what you are trying to teach them. In other words, don’t reward good decisions in one arena with bad decisions in another (ie, taking them junk food or offering them candy).

If you can convince them that personal care products made with organic ingredients are better, chances are you can convince them that organic foods and foods made without chemicals or additives are also better for them.

Copyright 2009 Dropwise Basics