How to Build Your Daughter's Self Esteem

Self-esteem is a vital characteristic for a healthy individual and an important development in growing up to be a contributing and productive member of society. Girls, in particular, have to be fostered through the process of developing a healthy self-esteem as they deal with body image and peer pressure. Several methods can be used to build and boost your daughter's self-esteem.

• 1

  Provide your daughter with a loving, safe, nurturing and encouragement environment starting at a very early age. Use words such as strong, smart and beautiful to build a strong foundation for your daughter. In addition, empathy will play a vital role in your daughter's self-esteem building as she deals with issues relating to personal development as well as developing relationships with her peers and other people in general.

• 2

  Encourage your daughter's personality to develop and encourage her to find and use her voice. Having open communication during your daughter's early developmental years will establish clear channels as she enters her adolescent years. The dinner table often serves as a good place to talk about day-to-day events. Make sure that no subject is off-limit and your daughter can rely on you for open, honest and accurate information about any topic.

• 3

  Limit your daughter's access to the media at an early age and attempt to provide her only with positive role models. Set parental controls on the television shows that your daughter is allowed to watch and monitor her actions on the Internet. The media often sets unrealistic physical standards for girls and tends to portray over-sexualized images of women. If unchecked, the media can wrongfully influence your daughter's self-esteem. Instead of media role models, focus her attention toward more real women, who can serve as better role models. Remember, that you are the most powerful role model in your daughter's life and as such, your actions will be of great influence to building her self-esteem.

• 4

  Encourage participation in positive activities, such as organized sports and camps. Sports can help your daughter develop confidence relating to what she does rather than how she looks. Camps are another self-esteem building activity. A camp environment will enable her to make choices and contribute her share toward achieving a common goal. In addition, especially in an all girls setting, a camp allows your daughter to be with other girls her own age without the pressure of needing to impress the boys. This allows your daughter to develop a positive body image and helps to develop strong values for later on in her life.