Girls these days have few role models to look up to. Young females naturally gravitate toward famous women during their formative years. The problem is that many of the contemporary actresses and singers are terrible influences and piss-poor morally.

Exhibit A: Lindsay Lohan. The 24-year-old actress pleaded not guilty last week to a felony grand theft charge. Lohan allegedly stole a $2,500 necklace from a high-end jewelry store in Venice, Calif. Police say surveillance footage from the store shows her wearing the necklace right before it went missing.

Lohan is no stranger to the courtroom or the tabloids. The once innocent girl who gained notoriety in the 1998 Disney remake of “The Parent Trap” has had multiple run-ins with the law in recent years including anything from DUIs and possession of cocaine to theft.

Lohan embodies everything the youth of America shouldn’t be. In “The Parent Trap” she portrays two characters – twins. In reality, I truly do not believe the world could handle two Lindsay Lohans. One is enough. As a matter of fact, one is too many.

Young females see the likes of Lohan, and other party-hardy celebrities who may or may not deserve the fame they possess, dominate media headlines daily and think (subconsciously or otherwise) that their behavior is somehow the norm. As ridiculous as it sounds, there is definitely a correlation between the actions of the famous and an impressionable young girl or teenager.

The profiles of celebrities are higher today than ever before in history. Every time Paris Hilton drunkenly stumbles out of a nightclub at 3 a.m. or Miley Cyrus smokes salvia out of a bong, cameras are there, making the famous into the infamous and the good girls into the bad girls.

The female gender is hardly alone in its share of negative role models. There are plenty of crazy male musicians and actors. However, I think it’s common knowledge that girls, in general, are much more conscious of themselves and others (body image, etc.). That often means they are more impressionable than boys in their teen and pre-teen years.

It doesn’t help that the media gives preference to negative stories over positive ones. People aren’t as interested in hearing about someone doing charitable acts as they are with someone taking their fourth trip to rehab. It’s just human nature to be drawn to a disaster. We love watching movies with hurricanes and meteorites just as we love watching their human counterparts.

Unfortunately, with the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, these famous train wrecks seem to be more numerous than ever before. The sheer amount of exposure to the negative behavior, which many people (mostly young) willingly subject themselves to, has affected the way certain things are thought of, be it alcohol, drugs, whatever. It’s hard to see the exact effects in the short term, but lo and behold they are there.