I don't think it's that big a deal. Kids get therapy for divorced parents, ADD, a whole litany of things. This doesn't seem that different. If how you present yourself is creating problems in forming the friendships you want to make, or if you generally feel insecure about your body image or anything else, why not get some help? I wouldn't have minded this when I was a teenager, as I had very few positive models for the person I wanted to be within my family.

OK, I have no sense of style and never have. I leaned on my sister when I was young and now my teenage daughter to tell me what looks good. For girls with no family or friends to help out and no clue what looks good on them, what is wrong with a little professional help? There are some girls (like my sister and daughter) who are gifted that way and some, like myself, who are hopeless. I don't need any advice telling me who I am, a successful woman who knew what I wanted career wise since I was a teen, but I could use some help with clothes and hair. If you can go to a hairdresser to help with your hair I don't see any reason you shouldn't get some advice on what to wear and how to do your makeup. There have always been lots of books on these subjects so why not something a little more personal? I work with a lot of young women starting out in their careers that learned to dress for work from TV. Their choice of clothing and makeup is often inappropriate for the work place and a little professional help could go a long way to helping them to be taken seriously by older colleagues.

I think hiring a stylist goes a bit beyond "style help". It's not simply an extension of the older sister guidance role, but it is focused solely on cultivating this public image. I think Ms. Fortini hits the nail on the head- if legions of teenage girls, already image conscious, are given the funding to be molded vis-a-vie the popular culture and someone else's opinions, then they are not going to do the work to actually find out what it is that makes them tick. We will be besieged by a generation of girls who are nothing more than people-pleasers. They are interested in ratings, not friends or real experiences, and it strikes me as very sad that parents are so image conscious themselves that they would allow such a thing, let alone fund it.

As long as you are sexually developed, at least.

If you want to get a stylist to make you look better, what's wrong with that?

Of course I suspect the real issue that goads the author is that old thorny issue of women wanting to look good, period. It is right, proper and desirable that women should want to look their best. Pursuing this goal does not exclude normal adolescent development.

"...It builds character. And figuring out how to dress yourself in a way that makes you feel good is part of figuring out who you are."

Exactly - it is by the journey not the destination that we come to know ourselves.

"How can you have an image before you have an identity?"

You can do it if you construct your identity around your image. It is kind of like shoving your feet into shoes that are too small for them until your toes are all bent and mashed. Are those shoes pretty?

Image consultants are nothing new however, remember when the wealthy would send their girls off to "finishing schools"? Basically the same thing.

Agreed that there's nothing wrong with a woman or girl wanting to look good, TheComrade, though there's also nothing wrong with a woman or girl who dresses only to please herself and fit her lifestyle. As long as the criteria are hers alone, it's fine for her to be anywhere on the continuum of "as long as I'm covered enough that I won't get arrested and groomed enough that I don't smell" to being dressed to the nines.

But discovering one's own sense of style should be a personal discovery, much the same way that one should discover what kind of person you're attracted to sexually; whether and what kind of sport you play; or what books you read for pleasure. Having a professional decide that for you (and the professional image consultant, herself well-groomed and designated a professional, is going to exercise so much influence that it's almost inevitable that he or she will do the deciding) means that you lose on the self-discovery, the mistakes that seem humiliating at the time but later you realize taught you something, learning from and teaching peers as you trade things you discovered, and so on.

It's like going to an afterschool K-3 program that's all about academic enrichment and doesn't have any time for creative play or physical activity. It's all about the lesson and almost nothing about everything you need to learn.

Again, there's no problem with looking hot.

As long as you are sexually developed, at least.

If you want to get a stylist to make you look better, what's wrong with that?

Of course I suspect the real issue that goads the author is that old thorny issue of women wanting to look good, period. It is right, proper and desirable that women should want to look their best. Pursuing this goal does not exclude normal adolescent development.

I had to laugh a little (and cringe a little) that the first thing in this message mentions is being hot and sexually developed. In fact the article and most comments suggest that people are confusing image with looks.

It's right, proper and desirable that women *and men* should want to look good, period, so I don't think that's in dispute by anyone. A lot of people of both genders pay a lot of money and do a lot of work to "look good." More power to 'em.

Image consultants, if they are doing their jobs right, are more than stylists. Image consultants work on how people talk, body language, power signifiers, wealth and status signifiers. In short, they map all the things that contribute to how others see you to the image you want to project. Yes, visual impact can be a lot of that, but it's not all.

Let's say a teen wants to go to an image consultant because people think she is stupid and she wants to project a more intelligent, sophisticated image. That wouldn't necessarily translate into advice to improve her hotitude.

Should they be doing it? Some of them should - at least by college. If I could minimize or put an end to having to deal with clients asking me to send one of my 20-something staff home because her skirt is too short, I'd be very VERY happy.