by Raegan Thurlow, Guest Blogger

As a 7-year-old, I thought I was Madonna. I didn’t want to be Madonna, I thought I was Madonna.

I knew every word of every song on her first album. At the time we didn’t have cable, so MTV and its music videos weren’t a part of my existence. (When we finally did get MTV, I was only allowed to have it on the TV if I put a blanket over the screen – the music was okay, but according to my mom, the videos could corrupt me). There are home movies of me dancing in a leotard and skirt, very much acting like a grown woman (possibly one employed in the world’s oldest profession). I’m not sure where I learned to dance like this. It certainly wasn’t from my “music videos are why teens get pregnant” mother. And it wasn’t from music videos. I knew better than to take the blanket off the TV.

Abercrombie Kids recently made headlines for selling padded bikini tops to 7-year-old girls. The worst part is, they were called “push up triangles.” The offending term has been removed, but there was no mistaking the intention here. Almost puts to shame their scandal a few years back when they were selling thong underwear to the same age group.

Seeking sexual attention and approval is in the human DNA. But are we really to believe that Abercrombie is just doing a supply-and-demand kinda thing here? I don’t think that the absence of padded bikini options for girls is going to keep them from growing up too quickly. I mean, Nickelodeon’s TV stars are tomorrow’s sultry singers.

Young girls, like all kids, pick up on what’s going on around them. You can’t go to a grocery store without seeing scantily clad women on the cover of nearly every magazine at the cash register. Regardless of your age, you can’t escape our “sex sells” culture. But what’s next? Victoria Junior’s Secret? Pushing the envelope is one thing, but pushing up the chests of young girls is another.

As a child, I wore a rainbow-striped one-piece bathing suit. At no point in time did I think the beach was for anything other than playing in water and building sand castles. I never took time out from digging in the sand to push up my cleavage. And boys?

Boys were gross. They chased you at school and played with GI Joes and one of them used to store his boogers in his desk (true story). A bathing suit meant I was going swimming. It was fun. It wasn’t insecurity-inducing and it wasn’t about attracting a boy. Not yet.

More than the sexual exploitation, I think it’s just sad if we’re robbing kids of a time when they can have fun and be themselves. It’s a lot of pressure to try to look or be a certain way to attract attention. And that pressure should be put off for as long as possible. It’s time to throw the blanket over the TV.

About Raegan Thurlow: By day, Raegan works in Silicon Valley as a mild-mannered interweb ad sales manager; at night, she dons a 100% cashmere cape and becomes a freelance fashion writer looking to rip into trends for a living. Like her? Then you’ll like her Facebook page, right?