How young is too young?

I've always loved fashion and dressing up, from an early age I remember having a dress up box, not filled with princess dresses or tutus, but a huge cardboard box with a pair of heels and wonderful skirts, dresses and tops, courtesy of my mum.  All had an 80's vibe, well it was after all the 80's.  It was wonderful.  I now have a daughter.  She's 5.  She has a dress up rail filled with Elsa and Ana dresses-she really wont let it go no matter how many times the song tells her to.  If I put on a dress or a splash of red lipstick my shadow wants exactly the same, she'll go to her own wardrobe and pick something out she'll think is suitable for the day ahead-of course it rarely is, but I love it, she's finding her feet and expressing her personality and I wouldn't have it any other way.  But when she's re-enacting mummy putting her make up on it does sometimes make me wonder how young is too young?  

Children are like sponges we all know that, so innocent and so impressionable.  At 5 years old surely it's not an issue yet right?  Kids will be kids they love to dress up and have fun, but when do we step into the dangerous territory of body issues and hang ups?  I think actually it can start as early as hearing that first negative comment about a body, hearing that mummy or daddy are on strict diets, catching a glimpse of mummy pulling at her stomach and sighing with disappointment.  When I trained to become a Style Coach we spoke about how clothes can represent you as a person, that can sound very materialistic can't it, I don't necessarily like that its true, but it is true.  A person can make up an opinion of you after just 3 seconds of meeting you, that means that they have judged you on your appearance, that sucks a bit doesn't it, but it's human nature and something we all do whether we care to admit it or not.  We know that what we wear for a job interview  for example is important.  If we are having a totally rubbish day and go out in our joggers with bleach stains on from cleaning the bathroom, hair scraped back we are telling people subconsciously that we perhaps don't really care about ourselves.  What we wear can emulate a perception of us.  

We live in a society that is full of contradictions, we are told as women to be who we want to be, express ourselves however we want, our bodies are just that-our bodies, and we can do what we want with them.......but we mustn't wear anything too revealing as we could be giving off the wrong impression.  It's all very confusing for adults let alone children,  So what do we do?  I think all we can do is to teach our children, and those children in our lives to be kind, to be kind to anyone who looks a little different, different is great.  To embrace their bodies, they are pretty damn special you know.  To follow our hearts and express ourselves, and most importantly take ownership of our choices.  Ultimately I will be telling my daughter to 'just do you darling'.

I have been thinking a lot lately about style services for teenagers, but it fills me with both excitement and anxiousness.  Our body shapes are important for styling, only in the sense that it can help us dress well and flatter our wonderful curves, that is the only time a body shape is important.  I don't feel I'd ever like to analysis a teenagers body shape, of course not all bodies are fully developed until late teenage years, but I'm thinking more from the aspect of creating insecurities that might not have been there to start with.  A colour analysis, style personality analysis and tips and advice on styling would be great for some girls, I personally would have loved it at that age, but its a very tricky area.

So let me know what you think - how young is too young?