4-yr-old girl gets spray tan from mum

4-yr-old girl gets spray tan from mum

Tate getting her spray tan. Pic from www.thesun.co.uk

A mum is giving her four-year-old daughter spray tans at a beauty parlour.

Jools Willis said of little Tate: "Beauty treatments help boost a child's confidence."

Tate said: "I like having a spray tan because it makes me look good. I like having the same as Mummy."

Appalled child welfare groups yesterday accused Tate's beautician mum Jools of sexualising her young daughter and making her a potential target for paedophiles.

But Jools, 37, of Hailsham, East Sussex, insisted the tans do no harm and says the beauty treatments she gives Tate and elder sister Darcie, ten, are good for them.

Darcie said: "I like having my nails done and a spray tan because I like going really brown. It makes me feel better.

"I wouldn't really mind being pale but I prefer a spray tan."

Tate's tanning is the latest in a series of scandals highlighted by The Sun involving the sexualisation of children.

Jools, who runs two beauty salons with husband Alex, said she sprays the children with a tan of her own formula.

She added: "The tan we use is our own so we know it's safe. They will not come to any harm.

"Tate has the lowest level of fake tan. It helps her feel included with Darcie.

Jools Willis insists the tan does no harm. Pic from www.thesun.co.uk

"Darcie doesn't have spray tan put on just for cosmetic reasons.

"She is a dancer and when she does shows the tan helps her under the stage lights."

Jools said she would not spray tan a four-year-old customer.

But she admitted she regularly treats slightly older children in her salons if they are accompanied by parents.

She said: "The little ones come in here with their mums.

"Mum ! has done it and they want it too. It is better to have things done by someone who knows what they are doing.

"Children can harm themselves trying things out at home."

Jools said she would be prepared to refuse treatment if she felt a child was too young.

But she said she has not yet felt uncomfortable with anything parents have requested. She also gives treatments to her sons Zac, 14 and Chayse, six, at her salons in Uckfield and Hailsham, East Sussex. Zac has collagen treatment to help clear up his spots.

Chayse said he liked the tickling feeling of the spray tan.

Child groups yesterday said allowing young children to have spray tans was "horrifying".

Claude Knights, director of charity Kidscape, said: "Spray tanning sexualises youngsters.

"A four-year-old is much too young to be getting beauty treatments. Children should not be encouraged to grow up too soon.

"We should let children be children. True confidence and self-esteem come from within.

"I'm sure mothers who do this mean the very best for their children. But they are inadvertently playing into the hands of paedophiles, who treat children as sexualised beings.

"We need to get this right as a society. We shouldn't let the values of The Only Way Is Essex seep into the family home."

Tate, who was born with only one hand, appears with her family in Sky Living documentary Pushy And Proud Pamper Parlour Mums, on Monday at 10pm.

Child psychologist Professor Judy Hutchings said of Tate: "What children of that age need is play and spending time with their parents.

"They shouldn't have a childhood where they have fake tans." - www.thesun.co.uk