Society is moving towards an obsession with looks at a younger age, which is resulting in difficulty finding age-appropriate clothes for girls. 

That's according to Mary McCarthy, Columnist with the Irish Independent.

She told Lunchtime Live she recently went searching for a confirmation outfit for her daughter.

"Nothing makes you feel more ancient than going shopping with a 12-year-old girl," she said.

"My idea of what is kind of appropriate for a confirmation is a little bit different to hers.

"Times have changed - now the kids are wearing converse and denim jackets and little black dresses.

"That's totally fine... but I just think body con dresses for a confirmation is just way too young to be wearing revealing clothes".

'Bet on leggings'

Ms McCarthy said it was hard to find anything appropriate around Dublin city centre.

"We looked in the kids section and my daughter would regard a lot of it as babyish," she said.

"I found some of it kind of inappropriate; there was PVC trousers in a few of the shops.

"Some of the clothes they'd have panels missing, backless maybe, or a little jumpsuit with a panel missing from the front to show a bit of tummy.

"Crop tops and really tight, bet on leggings."

A clothing rail with clothes

Ms McCarthy said they then tried the adult section, looking for extra small sizes.

"All her friends are going to the adult extra small [section] anyway," she said.

"I find it uncomfortable that 12-year-olds are going around in clothes that sexualise them.

"I just think they're too young, even if they may look like teenagers."

 'Hyper-sexualising'

Ms McCarthy said balancing that fine line can be tricky.

"They have a sense of what they want, and they don't want to wear the floral dress," he said.

"You can argue, 'It's their style, they can wear whatever they want'.

"I kind of feel there's a normalisation of hyper-sexualising for kids way too young.

"I just think it's wrong and I just think parents maybe should say, 'I don't think you should wear make up when you're 12'".

A rack Of clothes. Picture by: Darren Greenwood/Design Pics via ZUMA Wire

She said people are doing all this at a younger age.

"A lot of the girls now are getting their hair cut with layers and they have their nails done," she said.

"The information that the kids have today, we didn't have access to that.

"They can see hairstyles, they can see make up and they see all this and they want to be part of it.

"The younger you get into that real focus on your looks, I feel like it's not good for anyone.

"When I see 20-year-olds getting Botox, I just think that is alarming.

"We're like the frogs in the boiling water: we don't realise how this is going.

"I just think it's slightly dangerous.

"For all the feminist talk today, it seems like we're regressing and it's more focused on your looks than ever," she added.

Listen back to the full segment below:

Main image: A neon sign on a woman's clothes shop in London, England in November 2019. Picture by: Robert Evans / Alamy Stock Photo