Teenage girls are of course famous for their obsession with the body beautiful. Hours of preening in front of the mirror, shelves chock-a-block with lotions and potions to cure every conceivable blemish and drawers jammed with concealers, blushers, bronzers and a dizzying array of mascaras.

All fairly harmless and usually a passing phase.
But this obsession with ‘beauty’ is becoming increasingly scary. In this month’s issue, the editor or Dutch Cosmo dismisses the fact that only 2% of women are happy with their looks with the words ‘a pity, but too bad’. She goes on to add that they have after all a ‘realistic self image’ because ‘beauty is a scarce commodity’. Alarming.
And then there’s the front page of today’s Metro telling us in huge letters on the front page that girls are resorting more and more to plastic surgery in their efforts to obtain what they believe is the perfect face and/or body. This makes for downright scary reading.
If teenagers read the newspapers rather than magazines that feed the neurosis of this vulnerable age group they would know that cosmetic surgery can kill. And didn’t anyone tell these girls that beauty does not mean perfection? Not to mention the old adage: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.