I felt the same way at her age. I wasn’t allowed to shave until 12 and it made me anxious to see the hair. I used lotion to slick the hair down so it wasn’t fuzzing up everywhere. Might not help her but it gave me a little bit more confidence.

not that this is necessarily part of the conversation, but please don’t let her shave her arms. i always wanted to as a young girl and i’m very grateful my mom didn’t let me. legs and armpits is where i think it should start and end!

When I was around 10-11 I had a similar situation when I burst into tears and told my mom that I felt fat because all the other girls on my volleyball team had uniforms that fit them differently (looking back, i was the only one who had developed breasts, so not much to be done about it.) My mom had absolutely no idea what to do but she held me while I cried, and then she planned a day where we could go to the mall and I could pick out a few new shirts and she helped me pick ones that fit 🧵

“Let her shave” comments are terrible.. she’s NINE YEARS OLD.. she does not need to be shaving so early.. I would say be hairy with her? Show her that hair isn’t disgusting and it’s something that protects her. That’s what I would do. Maybe she just needs to see that having body hair isn’t something horrible and it’s most likely she’s probably being teased at school or by neighborhood kids :(

Validate how normal her feelings are and help her to think critically vs. telling her how beautiful she is. Being a girl in this mysogynistic world is hard!!