It's coming via iPhones, the Internet, Facebook and Television. It takes strong boundaries on your part as the parent because the media has seeped into every nook and cranny of our homes. There are things you can practice in your home now to protect your child's childhood. Kids want their parents' approval most of all, and it's more likely that if they want beauty it's because parents want them to be beautiful. I'm convinced that it's the parent who wants the social accolades for having a beautiful, talented and charismatic child. Teenagers and children have grown up in a technological world, and the idea of privacy is somewhat foreign to them. I think children at that age must be protected, guided and mostly loved. Technology moves fast, instant responses and instant gratification are impacting attention spans for young children and teenagers alike. Many parents will tell me that their 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds want to be in pictures, movies and magazines. You can go back to being a normal little girl now.' Once a child is forced into that media-driven craze, there's no way to redeem the innocence stolen from their childhood.

You cannot take a 6 year old and make them a beauty queen, shower them with photographs and accolades and then tell them, 'OK, it's over. According to this model, whether development is slow (with teens taking longer to get to adulthood) or fast (getting to adulthood sooner) depends on cultural context. The most distressing part of all of this is that when a society sexualizes children, there's no going back. They can have plastic surgery, Botox and other cosmetic procedures to help them fit into that narrow concept of beauty at just 16 (with their parent's blessings). Teens are desperate to be seen as more adult, while older women.

Our young people's minds aren't fully developed until the age of 22 years, and yet they're growing up fast. 13 Going on 30: Are You Growing Up Too Fast Throughout the aging process, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Teens growing up too fast