Mum horrified by 'sexualised' swimwear for children

A "horrified" mum has called for a fashion brand to stop selling clothes that "sexualise" young children.

Kayleigh Shore, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was with her seven-year-old daughter when she saw a Shein swimsuit - for girls aged eight - with a "padded bust section" for sale in a charity shop.

"I've never seen this before," said the 40-year-old, whose petition asking Shein to take action has been signed by 25,000 people in a week. "It was gross - I was horrified. It is sexualising a child, in my opinion."

A Shein spokesperson told the BBC that padding in children's swimwear can be a "legitimate design feature" but said action would be taken if listings did not meet its standards.

Mum-of-one Kayleigh said she initially left the swimsuit in the shop but went back to buy it just to prevent any other child ending up wearing it.

"I would never put my child in this," she said. "I would never want to see another child in it.

"A child would put that on and not understand what is wrong with it. It's horrible."

Kayleigh, who owns a children's fashion brand, said she understood having an extra layer of protection in swimwear for modesty purposes, but said this particular padded design was "not OK" for an eight-year-old girl.

"Children grow at different rates and for some eight-year-olds, having some more modesty in swimwear is absolutely appropriate," she said.

"I agree with there being an insert or an extra layer of fabric - but I just think in no world is there a time where an eight-year-old should be wearing big padded breast cups in a swimsuit.

"It is not OK.

"There are definitely ways around it that don't have to make it sexualise a child, in my opinion."

Kayleigh said she had since discovered the item was not a one off, claiming there was "a whole array of products that are designed in this way" on the girls section on Shein's UK website.

"Unfortunately, this is not the only product on Shein that has this," she said.

"I started speaking about it on my social media and it caused a huge uproar.

"I realised maybe it wasn't just me that couldn't get it out of my mind."

The mum said she then wrote a petition asking Shein to remove "inappropriate children's clothing" from its website.

"I am a mum of a little girl who is that age, so it struck a chord with me.

"But [about 25,000] people have signed the petition now, so it obviously is striking a chord with other people too," she said.

"We as parents need to take the responsibility for what we're dressing our children in, and to make sure the places we are shopping are age-appropriate and doing the right things," Kayleigh said.

"Ideally, I would want places like Shein to have some kind of accountability for what they're doing, to review all children's products and have some kind of rules to make sure that everything is age-appropriate. And to then recall anything that's not meeting the standards."