Over here in the UK there’s a storm over Beyonce Knowles being “lightened up” in a hair dye advert for L’Oreal. It’s completely laughable because she wears a wigs anyway - wouldn’t you just by a wig in the colour you want it in the first place? I have a lot of respect for Beyonce, she’s a very hard working and successful role model, it’s just that this advert seems to be very misleading on many levels.

With regards to your daughter’s jazz class, I commend you in your determination to find another one! Sometimes we can be very ambitious for our children and this is a situation which could have left your daughter in a class which she was way too good for and a little bit isolated on account of it. I’m happy for her that she won’t have to suffer those sad little girls. I really do hope that they ditch their dirty attitudes though, for their own good.

If you go to this website, be sure to also watch the clip titled “Amy”. I sent this video out my friends and family with teenage daughters and granddaughters. I don’t have kids of my own, and I am both saddened and surprised by the number who responded that their tween/teen wanted to fill in the blank so the would look prettier… those same things that most of us have probably gone through.

I, too, could have used this when I was 14… I ran around with the tall gorgeous blonde and the redhead with the dimples and the brunette with the great car. Needless to say, I wasn’t first pick when it came to the guys. I was never going to be “the pretty one”. Although I came to hate any reference to my blue eyes, it didn’t occur to me that those were real compliments and maybe I was pretty in my own way. Sad to say, it was years later that those same boys confessed that they were too intimidated to ask me out because I projected a (non-existent) self-confidence that combined with intelligence and my own unique beauty to form a Bermuda Triangle of high school dating.

Jen – like I told you earlier, the cattiness displayed by the young women in that dance class are probably a manifestation of their own insecurities. I’m only an Aunt, so unlike you and Tracy M, it’s a whole lot easier for me to look a niece in the eye tell them that… and have a good heart-to-heart about how crappy it is to be a teenager.

I’m sorry about the dance class thing. I worry about that too- none of my kids are typical in size, and I really want to make sure their self-esteem is solid. It’s hard when my own isn’t.