It’s a disgusting hate-your-body role reversal. Women who wax it all off in an attempt to look like prepubescent girls are now being emulated by those very same children.

According to a recent Today show piece, more and more mothers are taking their young daughters to waxing salons for hair removal. While there are no official statistics, salon owners say many girls are begging for hair-free legs, lips, and even bikini lines.

The most egregious quote in the story was from the owner of Wanda’s European Skin Care Center, a waxing salon in New York. She claims she’s waxed more than 200 young girls. She even offers a discount for girls eight years and older, who have “virgin” hair.

“Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just two to six sessions. Save your child a lifetime of waxing … and put the money in the bank for her college education instead!” the site boasts breathlessly.

We’re talking about eight-year-olds, people. Girls who should be grooming My Little Ponies—not their own pubic hair. (Do eight-year-olds even HAVE pubic hair?!) All that money being “saved” for college? It’s going to end up paying for your daughter’s therapy bills because of how seriously you’ve f’d up her self esteem.

I realize the onset of puberty is arriving earlier and earlier, and that unexpected body hair can create insecurity, but we need to teach girls that insecurity can be handled without mutilating—or sexualizing—your body.

Let’s set down the muslin strips, walk quietly away from the wax, and invite these tweens for an old-fashioned game of kickball.

They probably have years of sculpting, trimming, shaving, and waxing ahead of them. For now, let them have a perfectly unplucked ball.

By Carrie Seim, BettyConfidential.com

Photo courtesy of BettyConfidential