This doesn’t just apply to young women, but young girls too. 

It is becoming more and more evident that young girls are growing up too fast. 

The question is – who or what is to blame? 

It’s always easy to blame the parents and, in some cases, rightly so. 

However, when looking back at what it was like to grow up as a teenager and young girl in the early 2000s, it’s obvious things have changed. 

The same pressures are still there. 

Young girls and women feel they need to be at the top of their class academically, sporting field and they should be popular with dozens of friends. 

Those things never change. 

But what has is technology.

Young girls have more access than ever to the world. 

It’s at their fingertips with the touch of a button on their mobile phone.

The way young women and girls use these phones is contributing to major problems in society. 

There’s the pressure to always look their best, so with one click on Google they can look up the latest trends, which undoubtedly will almost always include an image of a sexualised, thin young teen.

The Internet is hardly a positive role model for these young women. Then there’s Snapchat – the app that allows users to send and share photos with each other, set on a timer of up to 10 seconds. 

We’ve all heard the stories of young women sending partial or naked “selfies” to the boy of their affection and then these being used against them by the person it has been sent to.

It’s fair to say young women of today have a lot going on and they feel they have certain expectations they need to live up to. There’s no doubt it’s a tough world out there and it’s hard to imagine what it will be like for future generations of young women growing up.

The question is – what can be done now to ensure these young women don’t feel all of these pressures and act in ways they shouldn’t? 

Schools and parents need to be on top of it (most of them already are), but communication has and always will be the key. If young girls feel they can’t talk to their mum, suggest an aunty or another female role model in their life. It’s amazing what a simple chat over a cup of tea or coffee can achieve.