The recent cover story of India Today brought out the growing obsession of Indian youth with beauty and body images. Teens are doing manicures, hair styling, laser surgery and body grooming. What really surprised is that they are even doing breast implants, liposuction and skin lightening.

In many cases, parents are behind this trend and dreams of turning their kids into glamorous stars and beauty contest winners. But it also reported that this is a dangerous trend, making them adults long before their time.

Some are thriving as a result of shifting trends -branded apparrel makers, gyms, salons, cosmetic surgeons and fashion designers. Urban clothing for 12-16 year old is $40 million growing at 30 percent in India. With nearly 500 million people under the age of 20, there us enough room to grown and thrive in this marketplace.

All this is indicative of growing consumerism, prosperity, materialism and image consciousness of the new generation in India. But sadly beauty is only skin deep and pushing them to adult roles have negative consequences. Character, values etc does not seem to matter to this generation. We are also seeing consumeristic mindset and growing promscuity among teens in India.

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