“I also spend loads on skincare products. “When I was 13, my mum just put a bar of soap in the bathroom and that was it.” Charlie will say, ‘I need charcoal soap – everyone says it’s good for your skin.’ Or, ‘I need ginger shampoo because it’s good for dandruff.’” The recommendations come through Instagram, she says. Is she spending more than she should? “Yes, it’s expensive, but everything healthy costs more,” Helen says. Muscles, training and fitness – it’s not the worst vice to have.” “My husband says there are worse things he could be doing. ‘I wouldn’t say I was being bullied, but I was being pushed around by a load of kids, because I was really skinny.’ Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian. With thanks for the weights to: But she does worry Charlie might be damaging his muscles. “Maybe a 13-year-old isn’t supposed to have a 23-year-old’s body. If you’ve got a child who is overweight and eating loads of chocolate, you worry. I’ve got one who is extremely muscular and lean, and I am still worried.
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He doesn’t want to damage anything.”Ĭharlie was quite shy as a little boy, according to his mother, and had a slight stutter. “I wouldn’t say I was being bullied, but I was being pushed around by a load of kids, because I was really skinny,” Charlie says. His mother enrolled him in boxing classes, twice a week, after being told “boxing is very good if you get bullied. It channels your energy and controls your emotions.” He did karate twice a week. There have been studies that show boys internalise a desire to be muscular as young as six years oldĪnd as he got stronger, he felt better. “It made me feel I can handle myself,” Charlie says. He no longer gets pushed around by older boys. The way he sees it, working on his body is paying off. “He’s started a big trend in his year group,” his mother adds. “The boys want to be fit because he gets a lot of attention from being like this – from girls.” He also gets approval on social media, something that motivates many teenagers.
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“You have to look good on camera, or people are going to judge you,” he says. “It’s massively different to when I was young,” Helen says. “We might not have seen our friends after school. You wouldn’t have to look good all the time, whereas they are socialising 24/7, on their phones, Instagram and Snapchat, sending photos. They’ll be posing in front of the mirror. They’re still arguing, fighting, flirting, whatever. We went home and you wouldn’t speak to anybody.” “School is probably cancelled until September, so I’ve got a load of time to work on that.” Is there anything you would like to change about your body, I ask Charlie. “T he pressure on young men, and boys, to become more muscular has grown,” says Jason Nagata, assistant professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and an expert in body image and eating disorders.
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In a 2018 study of more than 15,000 US high school students published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, nearly one third of teenage boys aged 13-18 reported trying to gain weight or bulk up. This ambition affects even small children.