IT’S very difficult being a young woman growing up in 2016.

For a start, your whole life comes under the scrutiny of everyone else through the power of social media. So if you want to take a selfie, you have to look good which means knowing the angles that flatter you from around the age of 12 and never posting a picture that doesn’t come up to your own high standards, never mind everyone else’s.

Even then, expect some negative responses from others with an agenda of their own. So, you need to grow the hide of an elephant to cope with the expected abuse from both sexes, from people who definitely have no stop button when it comes to personal invective.

Add to that the often unreal expectations of parents, teachers who are themselves under pressure to prove their abilities through pupils’ exam results and schools and colleges which rely on high-fliers to boost their popularity and funds and you’ve got an often unbearable situation.

Small wonder, then, that young women can be besieged by doubts and worries as they go through their teens. In fact, a new study by the Young Women’s Trust concludes that a whole generation of young women in their late teens are wracked by anxiety, lack of confidence and despair.

What happened to all that “youthful confidence”? Did life simply beat it out of them?

There is now enormous pressure to do well in every area of your life; competition to be the best has never been stronger.

Young women have to be the slimmest, the sexiest, the most popular, the cleverest and the highest achievers. Second best is no longer an option.

Our obsession with celebrities and what is perceived as their dream lives also plays a major role. Even though we all know the media coverage of their lifestyles is carefully stage-managed and air-brushing photos is rife, young women still yearn to look like Kim, Scarlett and Rihanna.

Sadly, when we allow them to stop valuing themselves for who they are as individuals, we encourage them onto a very rocky road of self-doubt and worry.

So perhaps it is up to us as parents to start that process very early on, to show them that there is no one yardstick of success. That it’s relative to who you are and what you want from life, and simply to help them get there.