“Catherine loves to mimic me: the other day I found her rubbing body lotion into her legs,” says her 47-year-old mother Tracey Holden, from Brentwood, Essex. “I’ve highlighted her hair before and she’ll quite often go out with a pair of my ‘chicken fillets’ under her top to give her a bit of cleavage. When she goes to the school disco, she’ll wear eye shadow, mascara and dress up in glittery clothes, and she has also signed up at Alphabet Kidz model agency. She’s a natural and she absolutely loves it.”

Tracey Holden’s daughter Catherine isn’t in her teens, as you might expect; she’s just 7, not yet out of Year 3. But a love of beauty products inherited from her mother has propelled her from the wide-eyed innocence of childhood into a world of make-up and glitz more commonly inhabited by girls three times her age.

“I come from a long line of women who love make-up,” says Tracey. “I have always made sure that my appearance was of a high standard and my two girls have followed me. I believe that if a child is grounded, dabbling with a bit of make-up or having her hair highlighted isn’t the crime of the century. Appearance is very important to self-esteem. So why not make the best of yourself?”

Kids can choose their own identity

A desire to emulate a mother’s grooming ritual is nothing new, but is it just harmless mimicking or are we exposing our children to undesirable attention? On the positive side, the journey into tweenhood – the transitional stage between girlhood and adolescence – can be seen as a natural part of growing up. With it comes peer approval, a feeling of belonging, a chance to measure up to older friends and siblings. After a lifetime of being dressed by parents, they are finally allowed to mould their own identity and there are no end of tween role models, from Kylie and Britney and Pop Idol stars to the fairytale princess in films such as Enchanted, Disney’s eagerly awaited tween offering that hits the big screen on December 14.

“There has been a big resurgence in the US of princess and girlie icons,” says Jean Ford, the co-founder of Benefit cosmetics. “The idea of transforming into your favourite storybook or movie character is very popular with tweens.”

Fatima Bholah, the beauty editor of Mizz and Bliss teen magazines, says: “Young girls have always been interested in make-up. It’s natural for a young girl to want to play with make-up on themselves and their friends. The emphasis is not vanity at this age: it is about experimenting and dressing up.”

But, says Karen Sullivan, the author of You Want to Do What?(Collins, £9.99), a manual for parents of teenagers, there is a darker side to a preoccupation with self-image and a desire to look good in front of your peers. “Children may acquire the trappings of maturity, but their judgment and development are far behind. It is not harmless fun to encourage children to seek physical perfection through makeover parties, hair removal and choosing highly sexualised clothing. It leaves them vulnerable to feelings of inadequacy when they fail to match up to their role models and, at a time when body image is being established, this can have profound implications.

“Eating disorders and extreme dieting are increasingly common in youngsters,” Sullivan says, “as are early sexual encounters and alcohol abuse. It goes without saying that if a child is treated and dressed like an adult, they will naturally experiment with other aspects of their lifestyle. It also creates a ‘what next?’ mentality. And what is next? Breast implants at 16? Cosmetic surgery? A lifetime of seaching for elusive perfection.”

Baby groomers are a lucrative market

However, the glittery pound is stronger than ever. Last year a Euromonitor International report entitled Tweens – A Force to be Reckoned With: Changing Consumption Habits of 8 to 12-Year-Olds estimated tween spending worldwide at $170 billion (£82 billion). Now able to get their hands on more money than ever before, through allowances and gifts, young girls want products that cultivate a sophisticated, adult self-image. “Agelessness is now a major social trend,” claims Nica Lewis, of the market analyst Mintel. “While grandparents are acting and looking younger than ever before, kids are doing the opposite – getting older younger. They have more responsibility thrust on them at a younger age and are increasingly making their own purchasing decisions.”

Keen to claim their slice of this lucrative market, the beauty industry has come up with a growing number of products to satisfy the new generation of baby groomers. Recently the US company Nair launched Nair Pretty, a hair-removal product aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, after focus groups revealed to the company’s research directors that tweens were regularly treating themselves to “hair-removal slumber parties”.

In addition, L’Oréal Paris Kids now has its own shampoos; Barry M Cosmetics Nail Paints and Dazzle Dusts were originally created for a young market; and Superdrug, the store for all things sparkly, has become a huge draw for tweens.

Should eight-year-old girls go to spas?

A growing number of tweens are dipping their manicured toes in treatments at pampering haunts such as spas salons and nail bars. Spa Finder, a worldwide online spa resource, recently reported the number of requests from consumers for tween services such as manicures has tripled in the past year. Its 2008 directory will, for the first time, list the minimum age for spa-goers at each spa, the youngest being 8.

Hannah Webley-Smith, the co-director of the Ritual Rooms in London, whose Little Miss treatments include an Anne Semonin “Face Wash” (a mini cleanse, tone and moisturise), from £42, and a Little Miss “Petit Mani”, from £15, believes that you’re never too young to start grooming. “It’s good to get into beauty rituals at an early age; it teaches girls to look after themselves,” she says. “Our clients are definitely sophisticated for their age, in their dress sense and accessories. Parents tend to pay for their treatments, and we sometimes get five or six bookings in a week. We saw a definite growth period over the summer.”

Party organisers across the country are also reporting increased requests from parents to treat their tween daughters and friends to make-up parties as part of their birthday celebrations. Pamper parties – such as can be found at www.gorgeousgirlsparty.com – even invite girls as young as 4 to experiment with temporary hair extensions, make-up and nail art. The two-hour party includes mini makeovers for all the guests, games and a gift for the birthday girl. So much for pass the parcel.

While some mothers are only too happy to see their children transformed into mini adults, others are less comfortable with the idea. Lesley Chivers, the PR manager at the cosmetics company Bourjois, wants her daughter Nicole, 8, to hang on to her childhood as long as possible.

“Since the age of 5, Nicole’s been pleading, ‘Can I have my ears pierced?’ My husband and I always say the same thing: ‘No, not this year’. I think she should wait till she’s 12 or 13. And rather than spend time together at a salon, I’d prefer to bond with her in other ways; we’ll go clothes shopping or take the dog for a walk.”

For Alma van Vuuren, 43, it is her 11-year-old daughter who finds the whole idea of tween cosmetics a turn-off. “Ronelle would much rather spend time painting pottery than painting her face. She has often said to me that her friends don’t talk about anything other than make-up and boys, and she finds that annoying.”

So why are some mums happy to let their daughters indulge in adult grooming while others put their foot down? Sue Palmer, an educational expert and the author of the best-selling parenting handbook Detoxing Childhood (Orion, £9.99), says: “It depends on their background and self-confidence, and the extent to which they’re able to resist marketing pressures.”

Karen Sullivan says: “We can’t remove the media from children’s lives completely, but we parents can balance its impact by teaching moral values, encouraging children to value personality, personal achievement and positive virtues over an all-consuming interest in looks.

“We can encourage children to wait until the appropriate time for various freedoms and rites of passage, such as getting ears pierced, or wearing make-up and suggestive clothing. It is not a parent’s role to play best friend, but to guide and nurture, and, most importantly, to protect their children.”

Should you let a six-year-old wear make-up? Have your say at

timesonline.co.uk/makeuponchildren

What can parents do?

Talk to other parents and express worries about kids dressing as mini adults. You’ll find that many parents share your feelings, and together you can shift the balance.

It’s unfair to exclude your child from parties but you can express disapproval. Negotiate a compromise. Say you’re happy for her to go to the makeover party but you won’t agree to anything permanent or invasive – no piercings, no waxing and no hair colour.

Start a trend for different, healthier activities, such as pottery painting, bowling, trips to the cinema, theatre or local football match. Hold make-your-own music video parties with the family video camera. These may seem old-fashioned, but they are suitable and fun for tweens.

Watch your behaviour. Tweens learn a great deal about the world through parents. If you’re preoccupied with dieting, beauty treatments and sexy clothes, you can be sure that your child will follow suit.

Make sure your child develops a healthy self-image by praising effort, personality, achievements, and sense of humour rather than focusing on looks.

KAREN SULLIVAN, the author of You Want to Do What? (HarperCollins, £9.99)

Painting by numbers

63% of 7 to 11-year-olds wear lipstick, more than two in five wear eye shadow or eyeliner, and almost one in four wears mascara

75% of 11 to 14-year-olds wear eye shadow, and a similar proportion wear mascara

80% of 11 to 14-year-olds wear lip gloss or lipstick

50% of 11 to 14-year-olds wear blusher, with 14 per cent using it at least once a day

58% of girls wear perfume by the age of 14

Source: 2004 Mintel report

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