The curse of fame is making young people, especially girls, think that social mobility is all about looking hot and pulling the right bloke – Katia Ivanova is leading the way, writes Charlie Cashdan.

I haven’t got daughters, just two stepsons, who happily don’t give a flying fig about fashion or appearance and aspire to get loads of GCSE’s instead.

But the shopping malls are filled every Saturday with girls the same age as my boys in uber-trendy outfits and make-up, out shopping for the latest fashions and pouring over celeb gossip mags.

They see someone like Katia Ivanova who is now famous, loaded and on our screens every night in Celebrity Big Brother and admire her like crazy thinking that all they have to do is find a rich man and life will be sorted.

Therefore, looking hot, being pretty and thin is far more important in life than school, qualifications and aspiring to a good job.

Katia makes it look so easy, from poor struggling waitress to media darling in the blink of an eye via a 62-year-old Rolling Stone, and CBB.

There she is all over the papers and TV; we worship at her funky, quirky altar along with other pretty empty headed sweethearts like Peaches Geldof, Cheryl Cole and all the other WAGS. These are the role models we have on offer for the young women of today.

What do they have in common?  They are all wealthy, thin, trendy and generally known through their connection to a man rather than their intelligence.

When I was a girl, we had Thatcher!  Like her or loathe her, in my childhood the most famous, powerful person in the country was female and not there because of her looks or marriage.

Thatcher, Katia, if I did have a daughter I know which one I’d rather she aspired to be.

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