She was a pretty pink-cheeked toddler with wispy blonde hair and an array of cute little dresses. Fast-forward a few years and the dresses have been abandoned.
Gone too are the long blonde locks and everything else remotely girlish about four-year-old Shiloh Nouvelle Jolie-Pitt.
Shi has adopted all things boyish: cropped hair, poorboy caps, trousers, waistcoats, blazers, ties. Shiloh insists on being called Peter (after Peter Pan) or John (one of Peter’s Lost Boys) and won’t respond to her given name.
But is Angelina Jolie indulging her daughter a little too much? Jeans and takkies are one thing but the boys’ baggies during the recent swimming session have raised eyebrows.
Angelina sees nothing wrong with her crossdressing daughter. “She wants to be a boy,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “She dresses like a little dude. I think children should be allowed to express themselves and wear what they want.”
American psychologist Dr David Eigen says if Shiloh’s current dress style is allowed to continue it could lead to her “being picked on by her peers, which could cause social problems, anxiety and poor academic performance.
Dr Lisa Rene Reynolds, who is based in Los Angeles, agrees Shiloh could be in for teasing if her boyishness continues but maintains it’s a non-issue. “How a child dresses is little more than a matter of personal taste.”
Sarah Burningham, a childcare expert and advice columnist, thinks Shiloh should just be left alone. “Kids change their style constantly. Shiloh’s a toddler so this is probably just a stage. It’s important to just let it run its course.”
Read the full article in the YOU of 2 September 2010