LCC Broadcast News Room

The amount of teenage girls suffering from mental illnesses such as depression and anorexia have trebled since the 1980's.

The latest government research says, teenage girls are a vulnerable demographic, urgently in need of help.

Dr Alison Tedstone, who led the research, said "the choices being made by teenage girls regarding diet, lifestyle and other health-related issues were so consistently damaging that they had become a standalone group of the population requiring immediate intervention."

It's assumed nowadays is that girls' lives have dramatically improved. After all, compared with previous generations they have more opportunities and freedoms and have increasingly out done boys in academic achievement.

But far from seeing the world as their oyster, teenage girls are struggling to cope with the pressures of modern society. Being raised in a world that demands super-skinny, super-sexy and super-brainy is causing more girls to be confused and unhappy.

A study from the Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology found; The percentage of girls who "thought of themselves as worthless" in:  1987: 5% 2006: 16%  The percentage of girls suffering from anxiety, depression and panic attacks in:  1987: 19% 2006: 44%

This generation has more opportunities than any other, but the pressure to be smart, beautiful and successful all at the same time has become overbearing. The report found that "risky behaviour" among girls - described as a combination of drinking, smoking and teenage pregnancy - was more acute in Britain than in any of the other nations apart from Turkey and Mexico. In Britain, more than 23 teenage girls per 1,000 gave birth in 2005

Last Thursday David Cameron said children - and young girls, in particular - were having their ­childhood stolen by a "growing, unnecessary and inappropriate ­commercialisation and sexualisation that is beginning far too young".

The Tory leader has threatened to ban advertisers who improperly target young children from bidding for government contracts for three years under a Conservative administration.

For more information or advice look at the links below and the audio above is a discussion with three students about the issue.

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/front-page

http://www.nightline.ac.uk/Home.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkj8