Tearful 13 year old, lack of confidence, says she hates herself (cry)

[StormyLovesOdd]

My daughter is 13, over the last 12 months she has been getting more and more down and depressed about the current situation, not seeing her friends and how she looks.

DD chats to her friends every day on WhatsApp but obviously she can't see them in person so I know it's not the same. We've had lots of chats about the vaccine and how this current situation isn't forever and things will improve in time. I've tried to boost her confidence, told her she is beautiful (she really is) and that looks aren't important anyway but she's just feeling worse and worse and I don't know what to do.

I've always said no to make up but most of her friends wear a bit, maybe I should let her as I always feel better once I've put a bit of blusher on so maybe I'm being too hard on her.

Does anyone have any other tips on how to improve her confidence? I'm making her come for a walk to the park with me this afternoon to get her out of the house as I think that's part of the problem, she just wants to stay on her room all the time.

There are some amazing YouTube videos on make up and there's a BBC1 programme on iPlayer called Glow Up which is a make up competition (bit like Bake Off) where they have to do different types of make up eg horror, TV, cat walk, etc. She might like watching something like that. This year's winner of Glow Up was incredible.

In reply to Stormy. An art journal is about self expression with imagery. It can be just pictures or it can be written pieces too. Anything goes. Paints, pencils, collage, doodles. Have a look at pinterest. You do it often like a diary maybe a page a day and therefore you can see progress.
All you need is a book with probably thicker paper than a typical notebook, but there are so many options.

I'm happy to read about your makeup shopping spree. At 13 I was copying makeup looks Madonna used to wear in her early career. All those colours!

@StormyLovesOdd

She's little - yes, I think so too. I want to do the right thing and protect everyone from the virus but the isolation is really effecting DD's mental Heath and it's getting worse the longer it goes on. At this age they really need their friends don't they 🥲

they absolutely do need their friends and sometimes decisions have to be made on balance. My older daughter shielded for many months and then decided her fragile mental health would kill her before covid!