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Why Do We Have a Problem With Little Girls Wearing Makeup?

Maybe it's nobodies business what they put on their face.
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The one thing you can't help noticing about parenting posts that go viral is there is more happening in the commentary around them than in the original post. It doesn't matter what the content is, you are almost guaranteed to have commentary from the people who say it's boring/stupid/a waste of time...

Personally, I can't get enough of people who say they don't care about something but take the time to make sure everyone knows they don't care. You hear from the angry brigade -- the people who say the parent posting or appearing in the post is an idiot who doesn't know how to raise the next generation. These comments usually say more about the people making them and almost without fail you can see their issue is not with the actual post, it is with their own untamed anger.

And then you hear from the people who know better. They are not angry, in fact they are very supportive of other people, it's just that their native tongue is passive aggressive and they have to be heard above all the other noise.

All three of these 'warriors' shouted to be heard earlier this week when Katie Price posted a picture of her 10-year-old daughter Princess alongside the caption 'Just look at her'.

Just look at her 👑👸🏼

A post shared by Katie Price (@officialkatieprice) on

A quick Google search reveals comments in the hundreds, newspaper columns were written and TV talk shows spent time discussing the merits of Princess' face and hair and the amount of makeup she was wearing.

Advice poured in "Let her be natural. Let her be a kid. Let her be young and not want to look older than herself. Don't let her be you..." they beseeched Katie. "Let her be natural while she's still so young. There's plenty of time for makeup and lashes when she's older" -- it was clear that the people had spoken and the people thought Katie should not let her daughter wear so much makeup.

Maybe she shouldn't. Or maybe she should. I don't think it's that important if someone you don't even know wears makeup, a balaclava or a beard of bees on their face. Actually, a beard of bees could affect other people; makeup? Not so much.

It's got to a point where we are no longer surprised or even saddened by people having extreme opinions about another person's parenting, so it was no surprise to see the thousands of people commenting on the mother of eight-year-old Nemis Quinn Mélançon Golden, a little boy with an alter ego who happens to be a glamorous blonde drag queen named 'Lactatia'.

When Elle Magazine featured a video showing Lactatia's impressive transformation from young boy to fabulous drag queen, the haters and the trolls came out, because they always do.

But, what really surprised me was the number of people sharing this video and commenting on how awesome Nemis' mum is for allowing him to express himself this way -- in full makeup and long wigs. It was affirming to see the support for what looks to be a very amazing young boy and his mother, who seems just as awesome.

A Google search on Lactatia revealed a list of articles on how wonderful she is and how important it is that we allow our children to express themselves in the way that suits them best. This shows great strides, no columns devoted to how awful wearing makeup is or how much make up is appropriate for an eight year old, just acceptance of a brilliant persona.

And this is great, but I can't help wondering why it's okay to let a boy wear makeup but it's not okay to let a girl. When you Google '10-year-old Princess wearing makeup' you get pearl clutchers and anger, when you Google 'eight-year-old Lactatia wearing makeup' you get applause and support.

We are getting somewhere, if we can shut out people blaming the devil, and allow our children to be themselves. It's great that we can applaud little boys wearing makeup but it makes no sense that we can't extend the same applause to the little girls who do it.

Maybe we can start to let people raise their kids without getting involved with what they put on their faces? And, maybe we can start to respect kids for the way they express themselves regardless of their gender.

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