Mom Says Having a ‘Beautiful Daughter’ Is ‘Stressful’ Due to Attention She Gets

A mother is consumed with worry over her teenage daughter’s looks.

In a post on the U.K.-based forum Mumsnet, titled “It’s Stressful Having a Beautiful Daughter,” the mom explained her concerns, stating that pretty teenage girls often receive unwanted attention and are forced to “grow up faster than they perhaps would.” 

Writing that her daughter “is only 16 (though will be 17 in 4 months),” the woman continued, “I already see men in their late 20s and 30s leering at her.”

She added, “I get so mad and want to shout ‘she’s a child, you creepy pervs,’ but I don’t think anyone would care or react.”

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The concerned mother further explained that her daughter “isn’t a young child, but she equally isn’t an adult yet, and all the weirdos and creeps about make me feel so uneasy.”

“How do [you] handle it if you’re in the same situation?” the Mumsnet user then asked others, concluding her post.

In the comments section, many shared their own experiences with receiving unwanted attention when they were growing up.

“It’s been many, many years since I had to cope with this sort of thing,” one person wrote. “At my age, I am invisible now! But I remember men calling out of cars, driving slowly alongside when walking on pavements in the dark, when I was around 14 a much older man told me he could see right into my ‘t—’ when on a bus. The only way I could deal with it was to ignore them.”

“I wasn’t especially beautiful but had long blonde hair,” the person continued. “I have never understood why men feel they have a right to do this and who also feel the girl likes it! To any man reading this: they don’t.”

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Another commenter said, “I am pretty average looking and was catcalled regularly by men when walking to secondary school. And I didn’t even wear short skirts. It’s not your daughter’s beauty that causes this behavior. It’s creepy men who see ALL women and girls as objects.”

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Others, meanwhile, told the mom she would still have to stress over her daughter, even if she wasn’t beautiful. One user stated that it would be even worse if her child were ugly. 

“Not to be rude to anyone … but I’d take that over having an ‘unattractive’ (horrible word, but still) daughter,” one person said of the woman’s “beautiful” teenage daughter.

“Life and men are unfair, especially for women. The awful truth is that beautiful women have a huge advantage over ugly women in many aspects of life,” the user continued.

“Yes, there are problems and you’ve listed the biggest one,” they added. “But still, on balance, the awful society we live in gives these attractive girls a huge advantage over lesser looking girls.”