Self Conscious DD

[monkeytree]

Hi
Just looking for a sense of 'normal' on this one. I have a dd who is about to start secondary school in Septemberl. She has done really well and passed for a good grammar school in the area. In my opinion, she is also a pretty girl too. She does have some confidence - she recently got a lead part in a play and held her own on stage but just lately she has started to worry about her appearance from "I have spots," (they are tiny), my face is too long, I have dark patches under my eyes, my eyebrows are too bushy, I have a strange smile and so on. It seems that other girls at school can be quite cruel and pick on her x you have spots etc and really aren't helping the situation, I wonder if it is spitefulness because dd has performed well at school and also because she is quite pretty. I seem to then spend quite some time unraveling it all - reassuring her, showing her statistics on the internet talking through various scenarios that have occurred at school between herself and quite frankly some not very nice girls but there is limits to how much reassurance I can give, I feel like I am constantly shoring her up at the moment whereas dd needs to start believing this for herself. Is it attention seeking behaviour I wonder? Has anyone else had experience of this? I'm guessing it can only get worse as she enters her teens and hormones begin to kick in (perhaps they are already). Do I just roll with it, any advice would be much appreciated.

[highinthesky]

Have a word with DS' teacher. Her fellow pupils need a reality check of their own.