11:15pm

It's late and I can't sleep, so I wanted to write some more. I've been thinking a lot about certain things lately, things that haven't really concerned me until I had a daughter and had to start thinking about them.

A UK company has just brought out a new doll for girls called the Lottie doll. It's body is identical to a typically 8-year-old's body - no giant breasts, unrealistically curvy waist, perfectly shaped bum or long perfect blonde hair. Lottie doesn't have a boyfriend, a car or a 'dream-house'. She doesn't wear mini skirts and crop tops. In case you haven't noticed, I'm describing a typical Barbie doll. I've even recently seen Halloween-themed dolls, with vampire fangs and blue skin.

I've also noticed other small things that are bothering me. While googling Princess Catherine and her pregnancy today, Wikipedia informed me that she weighs 54kgs. How Wikipedia knows this, I'll never know, and I'm not sure I even want to. And at the gym last week, a young girl, literally no older than 12 was sprinting full-pelt on the treadmill next to me. I was at an almost snails pace next to her.

All of this and the fact that Charlotte is getting older is making me wonder about the pressure the media puts on girls to have the perfect image. I grew up on a Tasmanian farm as a kid and never cared about what I looked like. After moving to Canberra and as a young teenager I never worried too much about my body and my weight. Even after having Charlotte I barely think about it. I'll cast a vague thought to it now and then, like 'oh my thighs are a bit jiggly today' but then I'll completely forget about it. And I like being that way.

A few friends of mine are completely obsessed with their weight and appearance. It just seems really tiring and tedious to me. I think the number one thing I can do as a mother is make sure my daughter knows her self-worth. I know there's some things I can never protect her from, but what I can do is remind her every day that I love her, that she's beautiful, and that what really makes her beautiful is not what she looks like and her body, but her mind, her curiosity and her cheekiness and her happy demeanor.

For Christmas I am definitely getting Charlie a Lottie doll. That and a six-pack of nuggets, because she doesn't need to worry about the fat content just yet.