Last year, I posted a photo on my personal blog of a shirt that blew my mind. It was the size for a kindergarten girl and it said “Kiss the Rim.” The shirt was supposed to be about basketball (I guess), but I couldn’t shake off the sexual undertone of that shirt.

Raising three daughters, we are well aware of how girls are sexualized in the media and even with toys. It’s a hard battle to fight when your little girls see dolls dressed seductively on commercials during their favorite kid shows. Unfortunately, if we’re not careful, girls can believe that this is the norm, how they’re supposed to dress and act; how they’re supposed to let others treat them.

Some may say that I’m being too sensitive. That girls are just being girls and that these dolls and clothing mean nothing. Maybe I’m just imagining that advertisers are targeting my daughters and trying to make them into sex kittens.

Maybe.

But then again, maybe not.

Actually, I know that I’m not just being paranoid. Why? Because advertisers and marketers have a special phrase to describe how they market these items to young girls these days–they call it “Kids Growing Older Younger” (or KGOY), and apparently use it as a reason to market push-up bras to our seven year olds.

(Now do you think I’m paranoid?)

Why Understanding KGOY Is Important

What I find ironic about the whole KGOY thing is that one of the reasons our kids are growing up at earlier ages is because of media and advertising. Check out videos, toys and even Halloween costumes (like the one pictured here) and you’ll see that the advertising to young girls is all about sexing it up. They say kids are just acting older at younger ages; I say we are making them that way.

Check this out…

Isn’t it time to take a stand? If you don’t think that they’re targeting our daughters, then ask yourself, “Why do they have a special phrase for it in the industry?”

We, as parents, need to stop taking the path of least resistance and start standing up to our kids. The fight is worth it. There are no “Hottie” or “Foxy” shirts, or suggestive phrases like “Sexy” across the ass of sweatpants, in this house.

ALSO ON PRIME PARENTS CLUB : Raising Daughters | Everything is Beautiful (Or, Is it?)

It’s time to stop supporting the networks, magazines, toy, clothing and media companies sexualizing our daughters. If not now, when?