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Is image everything? asks youth editor Lauren Fraser

'Not my best side, I'm afraid'. It's unlikely I'm reciting Fanthorpe.

Far more probable is that it's but a record of one of the many conversations I have had with the mirror, the shop window or the camera lens.

The post-PE look is probably my worst - matted hair, unsavory sweat patches and clumps of smudged mascara are just a few of the unfortunate features that make up my image.

Despite how often I blow dry my hair, apply a little gloss and give it an extra brush, the fine strands manage to manifest themselves into a mess.

I'm the first to admit I would never leave my house without a full face of make up. The idea of walking into school with a naked face scares me as much as the extreme and I rarely leave home at weekends without a thoroughly thought-out outfit and a harmonizing bag in hand.

My vanity stems from the belief that image is everything - or at the very least, counts for a lot.

My pursuit for perfection started at an early age. It was year four when I started to actually notice' myself and a few months later, I'd be looking through photo albums cringing at my wayward fringe, pink skirt/orange top combination and the ultimate crime against fashion - sandals with socks.

Simply put, looking bad was not an option. In a society with hair dye, foundation and high heels, we have no excuse.

The obsession with perfection is sweeping the nation'- an outlandish headline? I think not.

In terms of image, we are always trying to find new, better, more promising ways of looking good. Revolutionary skin cream' can halve the wrinkle-rate, simple leg exercises' can tone calves instantly and sticking to this diet can ensure you lose all your baby weight (and more!) in just 10 days.

Maintaining our youth seems particularly important and with such readily available chemicals including Botox to choose from, who has an excuse? Anti-wrinkle cream, eat your heart out!

Pretty people just seem to have it easier in life. Companies admit that when there are two equally impressive candidates for the job, sometimes the decision will come down to who is more attractive. Making the effort to look good, at the very least, seems to pay off.

However, a healthy I take pride in my appearance' attitude can soon cross to the more unhealthy approaches, made up of people literally dying to look good'. Perhaps it's rather pathetic that I refuse to go to the newsagent au naturale, and that my first thought after gym is what I look like rather than if the workout was worth it.

There needs to be less emphasis on looking good and more emphasis on the substance beneath.

Everybody likes being told they're pretty, but beauty isn't a fuel for success or happiness and despite what the media may indicate, image isn't everything and it shouldn't interfere in our lives as much as it does.

To society and all its expectations, to conventional beauty' and all its demonstrations, to what she thinks, he thinks and they think: What, in any case, does it matter what you want? You're in my way.'

9:43am Monday 17th March 2008

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