Nine-year-old boys are asking why they can't have six-pack abs like Jacob from Twilight and eight-year-old girls hate their "chubby" tummies. What can we do as their parents to help them feel better about themselves? I offer tips, tools, games and projects to help parents empower their kids with the self-esteem they deserve. Here are some fun ideas to get you started.

We live in an image-obsessed, fat-phobic, thin is in, skinny jean-wearing, thigh gap-measuring, binging and purging, forever dieting, body-hating society where kids barely out of preschool are begging their mothers to keep them home from school because they feel like they're too fat to fit in. And that pisses me off.

I don't think that complimenting a little girl on her looks chips away at her self-esteem. I cannot see how simply telling a girl she's pretty somehow translates into telling her she's not pretty enough.

To most parents Toddlers & Tiaras is so offensive that we can hardly watch it, let alone relate to it. While this may be obvious to many, what we often fail to see are the grains of these behaviours "normal" parents may engage in. Here are the top five lessons all parents can take from these pageant-parents in order to help their daughters build authentic and long-lasting self-esteem.

It's so hard to believe that 15 years ago, your father and I were introduced to someone who would change our lives in the most amazing way possible. Anyhow, what I'm doing here is putting together some things to keep in mind as you go through the next year -- and decade.

Constantly trying to avoid being disliked can take its toll on one's mental health. Indeed, most of the people I have seen in therapy with such an issue were more harmed by the worry and anxiety caused by the possibility of being disliked than by actual instances of rejection or negative evaluation.

I grew up in the era of Tough Love. There was no pretending in my home. My mother called it as she saw it, and what she saw wasn't always pretty. I've spent years meticulously choosing politically correct ways of disciplining my children. Now I know exactly where I went wrong.

We're already into the second month of the year, and there are more than a few of us who'd just love to skip this one out because of two little words:...

The cyber world is new territory and for now, parents must improvise when dealing with these modern obstacles to raising a teen. Between the new culture of sexting and social media sites like Facebook, teen self-worth is in danger. Here's how you can help your child navigate the cyber world.

By Sharon Tanenbaum In a study published in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly in 2011, 93 per cent of college-age women admitted they f...

We live in a world where we've elevated starlets and hunks to god-like status because of the fact that they are thin and fit. We don't feel good enough. Skinny enough. Pretty enough. But a "thinspiration" website has gone a step further -- by calling Kate Upton (aka: Sports Illustrated cover girl) a cow. Is nothing sacred?

There is no absolute and true number when it comes to attractiveness. There are no real fives, eights or threes. Just because our society seems to be confused and mistaken in its understanding and conceptualization of physical attraction, doesn't mean that you have to make the same mistake as an individual. Having a realistic and grounded understanding of what attractiveness is and the role it plays in your life can have a big impact on your mental health.

As a mom, you may have noticed your teen struggling with self esteem. While it could be acne, weight gain or hormones, it might be your teen's smile. Are they proudly displaying their pearly whites or do they cover their mouth when they laugh? I spoke to Jennifer Vishnevsky, a contributor to TopDentists.com and she gave me some great guidelines to help you decide if tooth whitening is the right choice for your teen.

You must live life in the present -- the key to aging successfully -- but you can't do so if one foot is chained to the past and both hands are shielding your eyes from the fuzzy future. Your vision will be blocked, your hands will be full and you'll be teetering on one leg! Try to integrate the following eight habits into your day as often as possible.

My daughter does not even read magazines but the girls on television that are popular are impossibly thin while the heavier girl is either funny or obnoxious. These images trickle into our children's minds and they meanly call other kids fat or tell them they are not pretty. As a parent, how do you build your child's self esteem when it feels the world is trying to destroy it? Here are some tips that I have found really help girls to be positive and confident.

I recently wrote about rejection phobia and the impact it can have on people's lives. One of the more tragic aspects of rejection phobia is how self-sustaining the problem can be. In fact, people who are rejection phobic ultimately fabricate their own reality that perpetuates their phobia and can leave them socially isolated.

Prejudices against the overweight seem to develop early. One study found that children as young as three years of age believed fat people were "mean, stupid, ugly, and had few friends." People suffering from emotional distress in connection with weight problems are much less likely to succeed in their efforts to improve their health. For our society in general, a shift in attitude would help.

Imagine you're having coffee with your spouse or significant other. They seem a bit quiet, and you ask if everything is all right. They say that everything is fine. Do you believe them?

Oftentimes I ask myself, what weight, what number would make me happy with my body now? Would any number achieve that? It seems the answer is no.

You create a lot of unhappiness for yourself out of your impatience. Why not give yourself a break, enjoy the present moment and have more reasonable, realistic expectations of how long things should take? You'll be much happier, less anxious and more competent if you do this.