Children who are raised with 'tough love' by their parents are more likely to do well in life, a study showed

Girls start wanting to be thin at the age of 10, and half of 11 to 16-year-olds restrict what they eat to stay slim, a national survey of young women has found.

Girlguiding UK quizzed 1,109 girls and women aged seven to 21 on topics including binge drinking, eating disorders, plastic surgery, sexual health and body image.

It found 24% of 16 to 21-year-olds would consider having cosmetic surgery, while 12% of 11 to 16-year-olds would consider having a gastric band or plastic surgery and 5% would think about Botox.

The researchers found a watershed after the age of 10 when it came to appearance. Among seven to 11-year-olds, 2% were not happy with their appearance but this rose to 11% of 11 to 16-year-olds. When it came to being thinner, 5% of seven to nine-year-olds wanted to get slimmer, and this went up to 12% of 10 to 11-year-olds, and 27% of 11 to 16-year-olds.

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson said: "This report highlights the worrying number of teenage girls who are going on extreme diets or even considering cosmetic surgery because they're unhappy with the way they look.

"Today's unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago. Airbrushing means that adverts now contain completely unattainable images that no-one can live up to in real life. Girls shouldn't constantly feel the need to measure up to a very narrow range of digitally manipulated images."

The party wants to ban airbrushing of adverts aimed at under-16s.

Girlguiding UK's research also found that more than a quarter (27%) of girls aged 11 to 16 had drunk so much that they had vomited or lost control.

Although those questioned were concerned about the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, more than a third of girls in the 16-21 age group admitted to having had unprotected sex. And half of 11 to 16-year-olds said they had suffered from severe stress at some point, rising to three quarters of 16 to 21-year-olds.

Girls also highlighted a gender divide, with one in six children aged seven to 11 saying they never get the same opportunities as boys. This rose to a fifth of 11 to 16-year-olds.