Having read a fascinating and brilliantly written article this weekend by the highly acclaimed Australian psychologist Steve Biddulph (and one of our favourite psychologists, which is no mean feat as we don’t think most of them have a clue), we felt we had to share it with you and ask you what you thought.

In the Sunday Times’ Style magazine, Steve Biddulph’s article “Raising Girls Right” talks about what it’s like for girls in the twenty-first century, how parenting should change in the light of this environment and what stages we can expect our girls to go through and how we as parents can in turn provide a supportive platform to ensure our daughters are nurtured healthily through each stage.

One of the first things the article tells us is that today’s world is very different from past worlds in which we and others before us may have grown up in. Girls mature faster; as Steve Biddulph puts it, “18 is their 14. Our 14 is their 10″. And whilst the more conservative might take the view that this is somehow unhealthy or wrong, and that we must fight to push the clock back, we would disagree. And Steve Biddulph, it would seem, disagrees also.

Part of the reason why Biddulph advocates addressing this new, more accelerated form of childhood, is because it is our generation who have created this new environment. From media, to marketing as well as technological advances, the world at large has become more accessible to young girls and in turn corporations have sought to capitalise on this new, and vulnerable, market. The essence of Biddulph’s article then, is that girls are the new targets in a consumer driven world, who are being manipulated by mainstream media to look, act, feel, dress and even think a certain way and this is both perilous and damaging to a growing girl. His argument is that in today’s world, girls in relation to boys, have a much tougher time growing up. The world is harder for them, the pressures greater.

And whilst we love Steve Biddulph’s approach on the subject of raising girls and think the article makes for superb reading and indeed agree with much of what he says (it was in fact the January 6th issue of Style, which we only just got round to reading), it seems there are others too, who like his thoughts on the subject.

Plenty of feminists have jumped on to the bandwagon, like Kate Figes who feels the issue of girls growing up is underscored by an overt patriarchal dictum, but we’re not sure that’s what Steve Biddulph is focusing on. His now famous book, Raising Boys, talks about the difficulties boys face when growing up and is a strong supporter of fathers being actively involved in their children’s lives. We’re not sure though, whether, despite the very real difficulties girls face, boys do not continue to battle against age-old dogma relating to machismo and role entrenchment.

Coming back to the article itself, the five stages of girlhood make for a fascinating read as does the section on helping girls ‘Find their Spark” – or, helping girls find out who they are and what makes them happy. The article is packed with what we feel is great advice: love and your time as a parent are everything, don’t feel you have to give girls toys aimed only at girls (in fact Biddulph discourages it), support your daughters so that they can become truly unique, empowered and find out who they truly are and, as with boys, surround them with great role models.

We did scour the net looking to see if we could find the article itself, but the pay wall lurks. It is part of a series though, so if you like Biddulph’s perspective on little people or are curious to know more, you can pick up a copy of Style magazine with the Sunday Times for the next instalment or subscribe online. Biddulph’s books too can be found online, and make for excellent reading (we have Raising Boys on our Kindle)…. happy browsing……