The vanity trap

Hong Kong is a particularly judgmental city where you can never be too thin or too rich,' says Lindsey McAlister, founder and artistic director of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation which uses art experiences to build the creativity, self-expression and self-esteem of more than 800,000 young people each year.

'Everyone wants to be the popular kid in school - the cheerleader with long blonde hair and not the Ugly Betty people make fun of,' she says. 'Kids have always been worried about what they look like but that concern has been filtering down to younger and younger kids. I've come across six- and seven-year-olds who think they're too fat.'

A regional survey of teenage girls by Harvard University and Unilever for Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty found Hong Kong girls became aware of their appearance at an average age of 12.8 - younger than girls in any other Asian country.

When feeling negative about the way they looked, up to 97 per cent of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 stayed away from the beach, swimming pool or spa, the survey also found. And more than 95 per cent of Hong Kong women want to change their appearance.

Dove launched its Self-Esteem Fund to educate girls on a wider definition of beauty. Working with the Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association, it has delivered talks on body image to 10 schools, with another 40 on the waiting list. The fund recently held a Celebrate Yourself Party, at which more than 600 students created fabric dolls as a representation of themselves.

Sharon Ho Suet-wing, 14, says much of the pressure to look good comes from herself. 'I decided to start dieting because my weight was something I could control and it could help me with my self-esteem,' she says. 'Among my friends, I always feel like the fatter one, the one who runs slower, the one who feels more stupid and really that I'm not good enough.'