Self-Imaging and growing up- Is advertising at fault for teens self-imaging?

Are we growing up too early?

I was at a ski hill a few weeks ago for a costume day and was taken aback by what parents allow their children to wear out of the house. I literally had to do a double take when I saw a 12 year old girl wearing fish-net stockings, booty shorts and an overly tight tank top showing way too much skin.

Here I am in my mid-twenties and I would never be caught dead wearing that out of the house because it is too revealing. This girls' mother let her (and 4 of her friends) dress like this? It blows my mind to think how trends and styles have transformed over the years, and especially in the past decade.

Young girls are dressing more and more scandalously by the minute in an attempt to look more sophisticated and older.

Is advertising to blame for this?

Products are targeted specifically to women. A few decades ago becoming a woman happened somewhere around a girls' sweet sixteenth birthday, but now the line separating pre-pubescent teens from full grown women is a gray area. Young girls don't look young anymore, especially when they adorn the looks of a 23 year old at the age of 13.

Ads like this are a staple in the magazines that young girls idolize. 

When I saw this Evian ad (posted above) I thought to myself, I want a mirror like that!

As a society we are in a constant hurry to get things done, to travel between destinations and to grow-up. Why is that? Is this something that has been forced upon us? Or is it a consequence of our society and marketing norms?

Ads are designed to make women feel like they need to dress-up and be beautiful and don't get me wrong, there is nothing at fault in that. But when girls look to these ads, they forget their own age and try to be something they are not- older.

It's amazing, we spend our entire childhood wishing we were older and then the rest of our lives wishing we were younger.

I believe that this is greatly due to very backwards self-imaging and societal impacts, where being too young is not ok and looking your age is absolutely out of the question.