STUDY: Girls as Young as Six Say They Want to be "Sexy"

New study finds girls say they want to be sexy

New Study Assesses Young Girls' Self-Sexualization

In a world where young girls are getting waxed and clothing for kids has become more provocative, it's not surprising to hear that six-year-old girls say they want to be "sexy."

They grow up so fast -- let's try to preserve some of that childlike innocence, okay?

A new study in the journal Sex Roles says that little girls (yes, even six-year-olds) want to appear "sexy."

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To obtain this information, the researches showed 6 to 9-year-old girls pairs of paper dolls for each question asked. One doll in each pair was dressed in a sexy/tight/revealing outfit, while the other had more conservative and loose clothing, albeit still trendy.

LiveScience.com reports that each girl was asked a series of questions with different pairs of dolls (one in sexy garb, the other not) and asked to choose the doll that "looked like herself, looked how she wanted to look, was the popular girl in school, she wanted to play with."

And it was "sexy" for the win, as 68 percent of the girls chose the more sexy doll in response to how they wanted to look, while 72 percent perceived the sexy doll as more popular.

The study further looked at factors that influenced the girls' choices -- including the results for those who played sports, watched TV, and had religious mothers.

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Lead researcher Christy Starr said, "It's very possible that girls wanted to look like the sexy doll because they believe sexiness leads to popularity, which comes with many social advantages."