A survey recently revealed, somewhat unsurprisingly, that today's teenagers prefer to curl up with a copy of Heat magazine rather than Shakespeare's finest works. Unsurprising because, at times, we all like a window on a fantasy world and what's more fantastical than showbiz parties?

Stories about Pixie Geldof (under 18 but not averse to attending glitzy events where the champagne flows) and the many “boyfriends” of teenager Emma Watson, star of the Harry Potter films, provide escapism from exams, parents and peer pressure. But they also send out a confusing message.

Drugs, sex and alcohol are as much part of the celebrity lifestyle today as designer handbags and miniature dogs - but the celebrities have a much younger audience than before. As celebrities become younger, so does their fan base and so even pre-teens are being exposed to lifestyles which used to be the preserve of adults.

Last week, Miley Cyrus, famous to pre-teens across the world as the Disney character Hannah Montana, posed partially naked in Vanity Fair magazine. The 15-year-old actress/singer sat for the famed photographer Annie Leibovitz and the pictures caused a storm. Cyrus claimed she had been manipulated and did not mean to alienate her young fans by appearing in such a grown-up pose. But it's too late now, young girls have seen their idol go from wholesome girl to pin-up girl overnight.

Closer to home, 10,000 people - many of them 14 and 15 years old - turned up at Hampden Park in Glasgow to audition in front of judges for a place on the TV reality show The X Factor. What the organisers did not realise was that the day of the first auditions was the day before the start of the Standard Grade English exam, one of the most important exam days of many teenagers' lives.

Faced with thousands of S4 pupils at Hampden, TV bosses decided to fast-track the youngest applicants to the front of the queue so that they could get home to study. But how many of them would have been willing to buckle down to revision after an afternoon spent dreaming that their Hollywood break was just around the corner?

The reality is that while for a tiny proportion of teens, their red carpet dream will come true; for the remainder, a fulfilling life will depend on finding a career and attempting to be all they can be. Never before has it been so important for our young people to be guided, engaged and trusted.

Our children need to learn about the need for commitment, trust and respect in loving relationships. They need to develop knowledge, skills and understanding of relationships, sexual health and parenthood. And most importantly they need to develop a sense of self worth.

That is why this government is committed to ambitious curriculum reform which will build and maintain the confidence, resilience and self- awareness of Scotland's children. Curriculum for Excellence is challenging teachers to think about how they can continuously develop their teaching for the benefit of pupils. We want young people to become confident individuals who can develop their own sense of identity.

Learning and Teaching Scotland will, on Tuesday, release the draft outcomes for Health and Wellbeing under the new Curriculum for Excellence. Health and Wellbeing offers many opportunities for young people to develop their knowledge of relationships, sexuality, substance abuse and mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing.

In order to create a healthier Scotland, it is important we give every child the best start possible. No child should grow up believing that domestic violence is a part of ordinary family life, no child should grow up under the impression that having a baby will make them feel better about themselves and no child should believe that they should bow to peer pressure when making choices about sex, drugs and alcohol. They all deserve better and longer lasting futures than the stars in teen magazines.

The only way we can achieve this is by providing information and support to young people throughout their school career as they come under different pressures to experiment with all kinds of “adult” experiences.

For many young girls, having a baby is a response to feeling that they have no place in society. The latest figures show that in Scotland 56.7% of women falling pregnant are under 20. Some of these may well be planned pregnancies, others are not. However, a substantial number will come under the category of planned simply because “a baby will be someone for me to love and someone to love me”.

It is sad that someone who is little more than a child feels that the only person capable of loving them is another child. In order to break this cycle, our young people have to realise that they are valued. If that is not happening at home, then it needs to be the case in school and they need to know that they have support they can turn to. They, in turn, will then value the lessons to be learned in school and the skills they need to develop as young people. Ultimately, they will identify their goals in life, developing their own potential and celebrating their own achievements.

Paparazzi photographs of young designer mums, drunken models and drug-taking pop singers will always sell magazines, but the antics of celebrities should never sell our children short on ambition. Every child can be a star in their own right.

Maureen Watt is the Scottish minister for schools and skills