The media glorifies the “fabulous” lives of young Hollywood starlets who have become role models for today’s children, negatively impacting their views on the role of women in society, and creating a new generation of girls who are becoming increasingly body conscious, over-sexed, and addicted to drugs.

It is common knowledge that celebrities are overly aware about their appearances, as it is “part of the job” and this concern certainly includes weight, but their personal struggles with body issues have become so popular in tabloid headlines, that young girls have begun to emulate their idols by attempting to gain similar physiques. This would not be a problem if Hollywood promoted healthy, balanced nutrition and lifestyles, but this is not the case.

Celebrities like Nicole Richie have recently been in the spot light for shedding incredible amounts of weight in seemingly brief periods of time. Although speculated to have an eating disorder, Richie denies the claims and states that she is naturally thin, and that the former “chubby” image that audiences had seen was due to her post-rehab weight gain. Although Richie may not have ever been the best role model, even at her heaviest, an approximate 130 pounds at 5’1, still within the normal weight range for her size, seeing a popular TV personality who wasn’t a stick figure was actually refreshing.

Unfortunately, as the pressure to be thin increased, partially due to her best friend and co-star on the Simple Life, Paris Hilton, Richie dropped the weight and instantly secured a huge amount of exposure, even surpassing Hilton’s already wide fan base. What will your girls imagine if one “best friend” can outshine another by being thinner?

Girls who feel self-conscious about their bodies often utilize sex as a tool to acquire attention or external validation for their appearances. This writer doesn’t claim to know about the inner thoughts and lives of celebrities like Paris Hilton, but her sex tape was enough to indicate her disinterest in having intercourse with her then “boyfriend.”

If viewed by younger girls, it serves as a model of women’s roles in relationships and sexual interactions: bystanders to the act and only for “use” by males. In addition, Hilton’s popularity sky-rocketed after the release of this tape, which indirectly condones exploiting her sexuality-to-gain fame.

Hilton’s friend, or enemy, depending on the day of the week, Lindsay Lohan, has also joined the ranks of these over-sexed Hollywood stars. Internet blogs post millions of articles about the hard-partying and gallivanting flirtatious starlet who has a reputation of sleeping with the most coveted Hollywood bachelors, an activity which has earned her several nicknames including “Firecrotch” and “Blohan.”

It may seem that girls would not want to be called these names, but as Lohan’s career continues to blossom and her popularity continues to grow, girls are only left with the logical reasoning that if Lohan can do it and get away with it, so can they.

Although Lohan initially broke into the Hollywood scene with wholesome roles provided by the Disney Channel executives, her current nickname, Blohan, reveals much more about her life off screen. The name serves a double meaning, not only for the aforementioned sexcapades in which she takes part, but for her rumored drug use, which insiders say is at an all time high, earning her a place in a rehabilitation center. It certainly doesn’t help young girls when the media makes a big splash about these stints in rehab.

It seems as though these clinics have become a seemingly popular hang out for celebrities, almost a rite of passage, but inconsequential nonetheless. Although Lohan may reportedly be going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, she continues to “party” and abuse alcohol through binge drinking and the stories of her late night outings are often glamorized the next day in entertainment magazines as a part of her fabulous life.

Hopefully, parents will become more aware of popular culture and the affects the media has on their children. Even respectable news networks have fallen victim to the addiction of celebrity gossip. For this reason it is important to talk to your girls about the negative consequences of choosing to live a life like a Hollywood starlet and to point out that the media focuses its attention on these girls because of their irony that despite their popularity and seemingly fabulous lives and loads of money, they are rather vacant, self-conscious, and unhappy.