Venus has partnered with parenting expert Alyson Schafer to help moms guide their daughters through navigating beauty norms and skin confidence.
Alyson Schafer, Parenting Expert
• Mother of two daughters • Family Counsellor • Author
Venus has partnered with parenting expert Alyson Schafer to help moms guide their daughters through navigating beauty norms and skin confidence. Adolescence is a time of tremendous change and challenges for our daughters. The onset of puberty creates many changes to a girl’s body, including the development of leg hair, armpit hair, stretch marks and more.
This is also a time when peer relationships become increasingly important. Often, teens stop seeking support from their parents, fearing they may be too critical or out of touch with their issues, while preferring help from friends instead. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to negative influences, often stemming from peer pressure to conform to a beauty ideal, or to prevent teasing or bullying over one’s appearance.
With social media, the peer pool is not only expanded, but there is also a growing culture of sharing curated, perfect lives (with lots of filters) that inform our daughters about what it means to be beautiful and attractive—these beauty ideals are often narrow & unachievable. Girls have to find a balance between conforming to the norms of their peers in order to feel a sense of belonging, while also finding their authentic selves.