At four or five, [girls] are comfortable vamping in makeup for the camera and capable of mimicking the erotic moves of the models and pop start who call the cadence in American popular culture.
[Greenfield's] photographs consistently point to the unhappy symbiosis between the especial psychological needs of adolescent girls and the superficial, narcissistic context of so much of what young people see in the popular media.
Lily, 5, shops at
Rachel London's Garden,
where Britney Spears
has some of her clothes
designed, Los Angeles,
California.
Britney Spears [wears] those blue pants with the white flowers. I have those. Even Madonna wears them. I only like to shop for cool clothes.
I don't think my modeling is good for society. I mean, ultimately, what am I doing? I'm making a bunch of little girls feel bad about their bodies and go anorexic.
You have to be the same supermodel that everybody else is. Two-pound Gap lover with the same nice haircut, same straight look... It’s all Gap and J. Crew and these really expensive brand-name stores that people just think are the greatest places on the face of the Earth.
Lisa, 13, in her room, Edina, Minnesota.
When you’re walking around, [designer clothes] say to everyone that you’re successful: “I have the Gucci bag, so I’m doing well in the city.... though it seems quite shallow, it makes me feel good.”