My Heart to Yours

Someone yesterday told me about John Tesh’s radio show so I followed up and took look at his website to see if I heard what I thought I heard, and I have to say… his people do some good research! Having laid that out there, here’s an interesting article.

“It sounds absurd, but according to Psychology Today magazine, companies now market makeup to girls as young as three. There are Barbie makeup games, and hair straightening products that feature 7-year-old girls on the box. Gordon Miller, a spokesman for the National Cosmetology Association, says five years ago, the rule of thumb was that 15- to 16-year olds would come in for their first hair coloring. Now, the average age is 10! Unfortunately, the health implications are HUGE. Many scientists suspect that toxic chemicals, found in many of the products young girls are clamoring for, contribute to a disturbing trend: girls in the U.S. are entering puberty earlier than their grandmothers and mothers did. Early puberty begins a series of physical and mental changes. For example, kids start having intimate thoughts. This is a form of abstract thinking and when the brain gets crowded with these new, abstract thoughts, it becomes less flexible. This makes it harder to learn complex skills, such as playing a musical instrument, speaking a foreign language, or mastering a sport. Beyond that, girls who enter puberty earlier are at a higher risk for breast cancer and depression, and are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as drinking and unprotected sex.”