Tweens: Then and Now

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Booey is 11. She is a tween. In 1990, I was 11. I wasn’t a tween, I was just 11. In fact I only heard the term tween first mentioned a year or two ago. When I was 11 there were no such terms. Until you were a teenager, you were a child. How things have changed.

The “tweens” of today are so far from 11 year olds of 1990. For a start, I definitely did not have a mobile phone. We had a landline phone and we could only use it with parents permission. And when it was time to come in your mum/dad shouted your name out the back door and you came running!

We didn’t have a tv in our bedrooms (I did when I was older) and we certainly didn’t have all the channels available now. I had to watch whatever was on or what my parents were watching. One thing that hasn’t changed in tv respects is watching Saturday night telly all together. Booey still likes to do this with us, I hope this doesn’t change for a while.

Make up is a big thing for tweens now. Booey’s make up bag is impressive. And unlike me, she knows how to use it all properly. At 11, I may have had one or two make up items, probably nail varnish, but I would only be allowed to wear it with permission. Booey puts face powder and eyeshadow on when ever she leaves the house at weekends.

The clothes available for tweens are starting to be very grown up. I see short shorts, crop tops and other clothes that I think are not really suitable at 11. I am lucky in the fact that Booey doesn’t like these things (yet). But I see other girls wearing them and it makes me anxious. What is wrong with some nice jeans and a t-shirt or a nice (knee length) dress. The world seems to be in such a rush to make our children grow up.

It is thanks to Zoella and other YouTubers for this. Our daughters watch them and want to be like them. They see the make up and clothes they wear and want it all. Not to mention the branded products they bring out themselves. Children worry enough about fitting in without the added pressure of whether they have the right foundation or not.

I don’t want to censor what my daughter watches on YouTube too much, but at the same time I want her to be what she is, a child. Go play at the park, climb some trees, play, draw, use their imagination, we need more of this in their lives. We were always outside if we could be at that age, why would you want to be stuck indoors.

Society please, let our children be children, loosen the pressure on them to grow up so quickly. They only get one childhood, let them enjoy it.

Take care everyone.

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