Evening star., 1938-12-17
A Young Girl
Yearns for
SlinneSs
Teach Her Healthy
Habits as a Basis
For Loneliness
By ANGELO PATRI,

ny AI<ULLO ia nj.
Girls have to look their best II
they are to be happy. If nature
has not been generous with her
rations of beauty, girl has to dc
what she can to help herself, which
means that most girls have to give
thought and real effort to look
their best and keep looking that way
1t cannot be done without care and
effort which often becomes a sacri-
f1cial rite.
When girl is pudgy-and young
girls, those in their early teens
whose childhood Is still apparent
upon them, are very likely to be
she wishes nightly to be slender
and graceful as a lily swinging in
the breeze. On every hand she
hears how weight can be reduced
and this enviable slenderness ac-
quired by using this and that pre-
scription or diet. The temptation
is hard to resist. A pill a starva-
ton diet for a brief time, and the
trick is done.
1t is too bad to deceive young
people that way. The older ones
know better and have themselves
to thank for the trouble that over
comes them. The youngsters do
not know and do not understand
and are victims of false advice.
They have to be taught that the
right diet-that is, right for them
and the right exercises are the
only safe and sure way to the right
weight for their height, and their
age.
1t is little too much for a 15-
year-old girl, still with the traces
of her plump childhood, to want to
put on the formal gown and figure
Of the professional stage beauty.
That dream can wait. But it is right
and greatly to be admired, that this
girl should want to look her best.
She ought to be helped to do so by
her mother, the family physician
and her teachers. I believe that
schools should teach personal care
for the creation of personal beauty.
Girls in their teens should be
taught how to use cosmetics, and
when and where, just as they ought
to be taught health habits as the
basis for beauty, fitting clothes for
the occasion as the basis of good
taste in dress, gracious behavior
as the source of social success.
Girls must have beauty of form,
beauty of appearance, beauty of
character in order to be at their
best. 1t is their duty to acquire
these gifts as characteristics, and
1t is our duty to help them.
1t is easy to smile at the over
dressed, overpainted, overmannered
girl, staggering along the side
walk on spike -heeled slippers that
were intended for the dancing floor.
But 1t is not easy for the girl to
understand why her efforts, her
painful sacrifices at the altar of
beauty do not meet with the appre-
citation that'is their due. Somebody
is to blame for every such mistaken
girl. Somebody should have taught
her the right way.
AAAo" tllaC many people 1rOWn
on the artificial aids to beauty that
young girls use, and many Of the
frowns are justified. But the mis-
takes are made through ignorance.
Teach the girls that health, atten-
ton to diet, care in selecting and
wearing clothes suitable to the oc-
casion, gracious manners, can be
acquired by patient practice. Then
help them to that end. In spite of
all the exaggeration and mistaken
gestures, our girls today are cleaner
and prettier than ever. They need
encouragement and training to avoid
false standards. We should attend
to that ourselves.
Mr.. Patri will give personal
attention to inquiries from par
ents and school teachers on the
care and development of chill
dren. Write him in care of this
paper, inclosing Scent stamped,
self-addressed envelope for re-
ply.