If ever there's a time when a girl longs to blend in, it's when she's perching on the brink of adolescence. But for 12-year-old Malia Obama, blissful obscurity won't be an option: for one thing, she's America's First Daughter; for another, she's shot up to 5ft 9in tall.
Seven inches above the average height for her age, recent photographs of the Obamas returning from holiday show Malia standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with her mother, Michelle, who is 5ft 11in. So what is it like to be a tall, young girl?
"You feel conspicuous," says Charlotte, who at 12 matched Malia's long-stocking proportions. "I became acutely aware that society is skewed in favour of small women – I still feel that rage whenever I go into Karen Millen."
"You instantly attract attention," agrees Kirsty, who reached 6ft by the time she was 14 – an age at which fashion-awareness can determine popularity or social death, she says. While Malia looks comfortably chic in cropped pants and ballet flats, at the same age Kirsty found trousers tricky, and "was always in boring lace-ups".
But there are bonuses. Having a tall, confident mother as a role model must help. Other adults, meanwhile, will perceive her as mature and responsible, says Kirsty. "I was always able to tell other kids at school what to do."
And then there's boys. Charlotte admits, "I developed a penchant for older guys, just so I could snog someone taller than me. I think I became more mature, socially, because I looked grown-up. Now I'm 40 I've only grown another half-inch."
One person making sure Malia doesn't grow up too fast is her father. Speaking in Kansas in July, President Obama stressed, "Even though she's 5ft 9, she's still my baby."
