At the present moment, both my children are revising for their summer term assessments. While assisting my son with his history revision, about the Victorian Era, I was reminded of the book The Body Project: An Intimate History Of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg 1998.

Ms Brumberg looked at a number of diary entries scribed by girl’s in the nineteenth century.

Unsurprisingly, she discovered that the concerns of girls of the day, are very different to the issues that affect girls and women in modern day society.

"Nineteenth-century girls often noted in their diaries when they acquired an exciting personal embellishment, such as a hair ribbon or new dress, but these were not linked to self-worth or personhood in quite the way they are today... character was considered more important than beauty... And character was built on attention to self-control, service to others, and belief in God, not on attention to one's own, highly individualistic body project."

Firstly, I should note that today’s modern women have the vote (they can even be Prime Minister), can be financially independent, are equals in relationships and can decide whether or not they are going to have children. Social and political empowerment that their Victorian counterparts could only dream about.

In regard to what 19th century girls and women found important, it the emphasis at the time was on inner beauty; where the focus was on being virtuous, of good character and having a pure and kind heart.

I am certainly not saying that physical appearance did not have an important part to play e.g. Ms Brumberg's highlights the shift in attitudes about acne and complexion and documents how the beauty industry (targeting the middle-class) first influenced and then capitalised on appearance.

Today, the focus has shifted to valuing outer physical beauty much more and often more than inner beauty.