FIVE-YEAR-OLD Ava Hampshire has an enviable cache of dolls, many of which have been inherited from her older sister Helena, now 10.

If Ava follows her sister and peers in the current trend, within two years she, too, will put aside her Bratz and Barbies in favour of a Nintendo DS, an iPod and borrowed time on her mother Viv's laptop.

Ms Hampshire says she finds herself saying "no" a fair bit, most recently to Helena's requests for a mobile phone and an expensive bracelet a lot of her friends are acquiring.

The activity the sisters still do have in common is watching music videos on television, but Ms Hampshire says she often finds herself switching the channel.

"Ava loves dancing … she does the whole Kylie thing, but some of the clips are quite raunchy."