More than third of North East girls unhappy with way they look

More than a third of young girls in the North East are unhappy with the way they look according to a new report from the Children's Society.

They estimate that one in seven ten to fifteen year old girls are not happy with their lives overall.

The charity says it's desperately worrying that so many young people in the region are suffering rather than thriving.

The Children’s Society’s annual state-of-the-nation review of young people’s well-being finds an estimated 10,900 girls aged 10-15 across the region say they are not happy with their lives overall – one in seven of all girls in that age group.

The picture is even starker when it comes to personal appearance, with the number of 10-15 year-old girls who do not feel happy with their looks reaching 26,900 across the North East – more than a third (34%) of the total.

One teenage girl told the researchers:

“There are so many things that are difficult about being a young person. There are so many pressures from your friends, from your family. You don’t know who you are going to be, you are trying to find who you are in a certain way.”

Another said:

“Girls feel pressured by the boys that they should look a particular way and that leads girls into depression or low self-esteem and makes girls feel ugly or worthless.”

The trend builds on findings from last year’s Good Childhood Report, in which England ranked last out of 15 countries for happiness with appearance and also had the most pronounced gender differences of all participating countries. The same report suggested that gender differences in children’s well-being are not inevitable.

The Children’s Society is calling on Government to take action to improve children’s happiness across the nation with a legal entitlement for children to be able to access mental health and well-being support in schools and FE colleges across England and Wales.

Rob Jackson, North East Area Director at The Children’s Society, said: