Kids grow up so fast, girls even faster.

I would like for somebody to approach me and tell me why when children reach the age of about 12 there is a divide into how girls and boys are considered. A boy may reach the age of 12 and still want to play Pokemon and think girls give you germs, whereas, a girl may reach the age of 12 and start to think that makeup makes a child's face look older.

The boy will be asked no questions. He is a boy, after all.

The girl, however, will be pat on the head and told how cute and 'underdeveloped' she is should she choose to steal her innocence for a while longer. She has to steal it, for after a certain age a girl's innocence may no longer be her own.

As soon as a young girl starts to develop, grow boobs, wear a bra, have wider hips, she is subject to the unfair interpretation of the world around her. Inside her head she may still be wanting to play outside when she gets home but to everyone else she should want to stick posters of boys on her wall and act twice the age she is.

It is not impossible for a boy to go through judgement if he does not grow up fast enough, but from my experience of still technically being a child it's a very real thing for little girls in their tween years. There are boys in my school who can still hold onto their childlike qualities without judgement, some of them are even accepted by the 'cool' groups.

But let a girl go innocently into year 8 with pigtails and a fresh face and CBBC straight on when she gets home, and you witness a reject. The darling little girl who thinks that makeup is silly and boys smell, bless. Compared to the girls already frightened of their own appearance she must be happier. She hasn't grown up. She probably doesn't have men second guessing her age and staring her innocence away as she walks down the street with the new body she didn't ask for. Because she held onto her childhood, she's allowed to be free from oppressive sexism just a little while longer.

Don't make girls grow up when they don't want to. Once you say goodbye to your blissful naivety, it never comes back.