A survey of English schoolchildren shows boys and girls are worrying about the way they look. The study found that over half of male schoolchildren lacked confidence because of their body shape. The figure for girls was slightly higher, at 59 per cent. Researchers questioned 693 teachers about how their students felt about their bodies. All the children had taken lessons on body image and self-esteem. Teachers said many children were very upset if others said bad things about their appearance. Around 55 per cent of teachers reported that girls were "ultra-sensitive" to comments about their looks; the figure for boys being easily hurt by taunts or teasing was 27 per cent.

Teachers gave a number of reasons why children as young as four years old are stressing out about their shape. Over 90 per cent of teachers blame the Internet and television. Children see images of "perfect" bodies every day and they feel they have to look that way too. Almost 30 per cent of teachers said their female students used sunbeds or sprays to look suntanned. Many children are on diets to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex. One elementary school teacher said: "I work with four to five-year-olds and some say things like, 'I can't eat cheese, it will make me fat'". A teachers' spokeswoman warned that children trying to look like "airbrushed celebrities in the media only leads to misery".