MOMS & DADS TALK: Shape Ups and Rump-Toning Shoes For Girls

With companies pushing image-conscious products from food to new-and-improved renamed girdles, one shoe company has drawn public scrutiny for its recent marketing campaign aimed at little girls.

Skechers, which makes Shape-ups, the shoe made popular by Kim Kardashian's Super Bowl ad, specifically designed to help women tone their legs and bottoms, now markets a version for girls. And there's an animated commercial to go with it.

What is drawing the ire of some is that the shoe company doesn’t make a version for boys, which some experts say creates a double standard as explained in a recent story produced by Fox News out of Dallas, TX.

Huffington Post Blogger Augusta Christensen has started an anti Skechers Shape-Ups for Girls petition at change.org urging parents to pressure the shoemaker to discontinue its line. And in one of Christensen’s recent blog posts, she debunked comparison’s to first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign.

The Moms & Dads Talk Question of this week is twofold:

First, how young is too young for girls to start feeling pressure to be fit and sexy?

Second, how do you encourage little girls to have a positive healthy self-image without going overboard?