1 . Miriam Glassman, a top image consultant, is standing in front of her client, Lucy. ‘Can you give me an idea of what you are looking for?’ she asks. ‘Something cool,’ says nine-year-old Lucy. Glassman gets some jackets and marches off to the changing room with Lucy. This is a growing trend and the _________ for it are obvious: we encourage our youth to be successful and success, as everyone knows, is partly down to having the right _________. But when nine-year-olds hi re image consultants, you have to wonder: could things have gone too far?

Some of those caring most about image are _________. They know that everything — clothes, posture, voice—influences what people think of you and _________ , has to be carefully managed. In the 1960 US presidential debate, those listening on the radio believed that Nixon won, while those watching on TV believed Kennedy was the _________. The difference was that Kennedy was wearing make-up but Nixon wasn’t, and the viewers were _________ by his appearance.

Celebrities seek help from wardrobe, hair stylists, make-up artists and more just to manage their profile, and these professionals don’t come _________. Mari a Moriati, stylist to some of Hollywood’s A-listers, is said to be paid $10,000-20,000 a time to choose the clothes for a celebrity on a press tour. She will pack each outfit including detailed _________(‘roll up the sleeves twice and undo the top button of the shirt’).

It’s not just them that need an image boost. The cities, too, try to give themselves the marketing _________ of a style makeover. They know that most of the tourists don’t have the time to think in detail about where they want to go on holiday and instead __________ a few simple preconceptions of what a place is like. Those preconceptions are easy to __________ on people with an advertising campaign or a catchy slogan.

So, perhaps we should step back from our __________ in image and focus on what is important. Ignore the gossip and the websites telling us to manage our online profile and instead depend on __________ rather than image to reach decisions. All these suggestions sound sensible, but are they __________? How much research will we really do before deciding which celebrity we like or where to go on our next holiday?

And going back to our image consultant, surely Glassman must have reservations about taking on such young clients? Apparently not. ‘I get so many calls from teens,’ she says. ‘School is a(n) __________ place and image is important. Lucy is just taking control of hers.’