We read in the ARA about the book by British journalist Ellen AtlantaVirtual Diva(Deusto, 2025), where he criticizes the business ofinfluencers"as a symptom of what millions of girls and women experience today," who "feel compelled" to imitate and admire her content. The publication discusses the model andinfluencerKylie Jenner, who embodies a "patriarchal beauty standard that is becoming increasingly strict, but disguised as female empowerment."

Amid the avalanche of pink gifts and gifts to "feel like princesses", influencers Or actresses, makeup for 3-year-old girls shines brightly. "Fun and family-friendly" makeup for before school, according to retailers. So the answer to the question that heads this article is YeahMany mothers and fathers will be giving a gift this holiday season. kit of makeup to their three-year-old daughters... perhaps without realizing that, with that seemingly innocent gift, they are also giving them a critical view of their own bodies from ages when they should be able to live freely, without pressure, without aesthetic self-censorship and without the feeling that they must "improve" themselves to be good enough.

Like almost all women of my generation, I've spent my life dieting. That is, to be exact, starting and stopping diets, over and over again. I can hardly remember a long period in my life when I've eaten without feeling guilty.

There are injections that heal, but others can hurt deeply. The images ofinfluencers and celebrities promoting themselves on social media with Ozempic slimming syringes are leaving a lasting impression on adolescents. Almost half of Catalan girls aged 12 to 16 (47%) want to lose weight—according to the Catalan Women's Institute—although the vast majority already have a healthy, balanced body. This unfounded desire erodes self-esteem, fuels obsessive thoughts, and triggers anxiety to the brink of depression. The allure of extreme thinness, presented as a desire, becomes a path to emotional pain.

As soon as we entered the mall, we ran into a large group of girls getting excited over a doll that was simply a furry brown rectangle with eyes. I felt old and embarrassingly analog in front of all these young women who behaved as if this pile of synthetic fibers were a rock star or a genie who granted wishes. "Jellyfish!" they shouted, "Jellyfish!" I suddenly became an innocent anthropologist before a primitive culture that was completely incomprehensible to me. Why were these people so excited about an object with no objective value that the observer could grasp with the naked eye? Did it perhaps have healing or magical properties? It was evident that the product contained some kind of value that went far beyond reality. All civilizations and cultures have created things to which they have attributed an invented symbolic charge, from religions to everyday superstitions. The novelty in these times of ultra-liberal and digital capitalism is that useless objects are bought and sold en masse, and the meaning given to them is volatile and changing.