Weddingbee boards

Hi, WeddingBee!  I haven't posted in a month or so - but I thought I'd ask you fellow Bees about this - it needs womens' perspective and I'd feel silly asking my girlfriends.  Hope you don't mind.  :-)

My daughter is five and a half years old, and she's an uncommonly pretty child.  Long, curly blonde-streaked hair, striking green eyes, etc.  I'm not saying that because I dress her up in girly clothes and parade her from ballet class to beauty contests (far from it - she does soccer and Tae Kwon Do) - I'm saying it because I'm concerned about it going to her head already.  Since she was two or so, strangers have routinely approached me to say how cute/beautiful/adorable (fill in the blank) she is.  Just last weekend, we were walking down the sidewalk together, and overheard strangers passing us say, "what a gorgeous child" - and my daughter immediately turned to me and said, "they're talking about me, Mommy, because I'm so cute."

She's otherwise a fairly grounded child and does well in school, but I don't want to raise a daughter whose self-worth is so tied up in her looks.  And I don't know what to do because that was so not an issue for me - I was the fair skinned, dark haired nerdy girl with glasses and braces.  The one who was president of debate team and on the "Academic Bowl" team - not the head cheerleader.

Any advice?  Thanks in advance (I'm probably worrying for nothing at this point, right?)

I might also encourage your daughter to always thank people for complimenting her, as it might subtly counteract this creeping sense of entitlement that I think you're picking up on.  I would also just try to minimize talking about it with her, and pulling from my child psych background here I think one of the more corrosive effects of this kind of unsolicited praise is that it's not really as great for self esteem as when a child is praised for something he or she genuinely did well (and being born beautiful is unfortunately not an actual accomplishment).