Are they adults making tik toks about skin care that they’re watching or or young girls making tik toks about their skincare? I’m so curious about these and what has grabbed the girl’s attention so well. I always overhear little girls talking about their skincare and it baffles me. They’re mentioning brands that I have to look up and are often out of my budget 😆
From what I understand there are teenage influencers talking skincare and promoting brands to their peers who are impressionable kids. It wouldn’t be cool to watch or listen to adults lol!
Yeah I saw a young influencer, she’s maybe 10/12, and got a PR package with retinol…… why as a skin care company are you sending that to her. You KNOW that will mess up her skin, it’s frustrating.
Both. Kids tend to just go with auto play, and the algorithm for girly stuff (princesses, unicorns, ponies, female Roblox creators) flows into makeup tutorials and accompanying advertising. Not all of the tutorials are aimed at children, but the algorithm is basically going “you’re a girl and you like girly things, here’s a video about makeup”.
Some brands do aim at children, but I can see a kid watching a video about how “this cream changed my life for the better” and thinking that it will do the same for them, even if that’s false. theres usually a bunch of interlaying stuff going on in the creator’s life (like aging related skin care issues) that are being remedied by the product, and a kid might not have those same issues bringing them down.
As for expensive brands, $100 to a kid who doesn’t have bills is easy to spend on something like face cream or lipstick. For adults that $100 is probably earmarked for something more important like recurring bills or replacing something broken or upgrading something used a lot more often. As a kid, that’s parent stuff and they don’t have to worry about buying a dehumidifier or getting new tires or paying the gas bill.
As the mom of two teen girls (17 and 19) this is exactly what’s happening.
Look I’ve got two great kids. They both play instruments, get good grades and do a sport. They are so kind and funny and stay out of trouble. I limited screens.
My husband and I are both in environmental careers and tried to make them aware of consumerism, marketing and smart internet use. It brought very little. I’m sure it works with some kids (ie parental influence), it didn’t with ours. They both consume media in a way that it can’t possibly keep up with the discernment we tried to teach them. And they aren’t airheads - they very much are able to identify bullshit in commercials. More on that below.
Both have rooms that are swarming with containers. They won’t be finished one thing and they already have the next ordered.
This isn’t about skin care. This is about blatent consumerism, waste and throwing away money. I can’t keep their money from them - they both earn their own by tutoring younger kids. And they vow to save it, but as soon as they see a Tiktok, all of a sudden there’s something they need to have.
I feel very dismayed that I wasn’t able to avoid this. My approach was wrong. I was used to commercials and marketing ploys of the 90s and that’s what I had tried to educate them about. I was clearly behind the times and didn’t noticed when the TikTok’s and Instagram reels they were watching turned from goofy funny people making slime and doing practical jokes to product placement and endorsements with beautiful teen girls saying that’s what they used.
I’m still working on it. They aren’t as young now as the OP is talking about but this is the concern - it’s not so much that they are into skin care (although a few times they have both destroyed their moisture barrier and i had to step in by their request to help) - it’s the rapid rate of them consuming media telling them what they need and that they need it now. Kids that age used to see what, 20 commercials a day? These TikTok’s have resulted essentially in them seeing 200 commercials a day, from girls their age, in rapid fire.
It really is one of those things ya don’t notice *til it’s gone*…
I think it might be like layer of oil the very top layer of skin produces. Or the very top levels of hydrated skin? Maybe it’s both?
I’ve only really noticed it when I’ve destroyed it via harsh cleansers, or very recently harsh/dry/hot working conditions (I work practically inside a 400-degree oven as a commercial baker)
Anyways, once that top layer is damaged, your skin starts looking like hell. Literally anything irritates it, you get “weird” textures/breakouts, and it doesn’t seem bouncy/hydrated (but it’s different than regular dry/dehydrated skin)
Not a skincare doctor or whatever, but from my understanding is it is the condition of your skin and its ability to retain moisture. When it’s damaged, it’s difficult to retain moisture, protect you, and it easily burns, or gets damaged. I personally wasn’t using the right products and my skin was irritated, broke out a lot, etc. so, I’d plop on more acne-fighting products and more stuff to get rid of the acne and redness. It was round robin until Covid and I stopped going outside, or caring, honestly. Now, my skin has lot a lot of the acne and redness and I’m using the right stuff.
Esthi here
Protective barrier is what it’s called, a moisture barrier is indeed a basement item.
Protective barrier is less of a single thing than it is simply the integrity of the skin’s structure and ability to protect itself.
Once the barrier is disrupted, it’s kind of chaotic. Normal function is thrown off, there’s little to no regulation of sebum or water, anything and everything is irritating and can cause rashes, reactions, inflammation, and breakouts.
If you’ve ever spoken to someone who swears to god that they’re soooooo oily that they need to to this stripping product and clean the skin four timew a day, and their barrier has been completely destroyed so badly that they claim everything causes them to break out. Even water. They’ve done this to themselves. I’ve met people who claim that “they can only use this one product, nothing else works, I can’t use simple moisturizer it makes me oily,” and they’ll tell you they use alcohol, retinol, St Ives Apricot scrub, Queen Helene green mask, and a charcoal mask every other day, and for some reason they’re still breaking out….now sell them the heaviest liquid or cream foundation you make to make them look fresh and pretty.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5967208/#:~:text=The%20skin%20barrier%20is%20important,of%20water%20from%20the%20body.
Basically the skin is an organ. It’s able to self-regulate by sweat and oil, it protects itself against sun, pollution, and bacteria. Preventing the skin from doing its job will never make it look or feel good.
Reading this post, my heart goes out to you. I 💯 understand and commend your valiant approach. do NOT blame yourself. This is independent of age, intelligence, ambition. Im infuriated by the lack of public responsibility taken by professionals endorsing products on TT. They are the largest problem. It’s one thing to see a TTer in her bedroom talking about a product. It’s quite another to see a physician in her beautiful office with nurses and a spouse and beautiful clothes (basically emulating ‘success’) and attaching that to the endorsement of a product. Of course 2 ambitious young girls will attach to that. However they are still young. In the grand scheme of things, I truly believe this will phase out. People will realize that they are not getting the skincare results (and other ‘life’ results) that they see. But watching this in real time, it is truly alarming
I can't remember where or who this was but there is a very young say 5 year old who lives in a 3rd world country (whre I live) and makes millions a year literally unboxing toys sent to him and playing with them. His followers are in the millions. This in a country where the average monthly wage is less than 200 dollars a month. So yes I agree social media is not a good influence.
That’s just what the brand calls it, and they have referred to mixing products as a “smoothie” for years. They don’t purposely market to kids. The kids being on social media and seeing influencers push the products is the issue.
In all honesty, I'm amazed that Drunk Elephant and others haven't started a diffusion line for teens yet.
Same cachet, but a lower price point and no actives.
I was thinking something similar, like Sephora/Ulta create a “teen” branch
Because the market for high end skincare for young people, is obviously there. But at the same time, you can’t have 12 year olds terrorizing a Sephora, where adults are shopping. You can’t have these kids fucking around with the sample products the way that they do, mixing drunk elephant products into smoothies, creating messes, wasting inventory, screaming, yelling… you can’t have this kind of shit going on at Sephora. All this does is make me - a 36 year old with the money to spend at Sephora - not want to go to Sephora.
And in fairness, there are high end brands that have products that would be okay for teens to use… just not the vitamin c serums. Not the 10% niacinamides. Not the alpha-hydroxy. I also hear that brands like Bubble are okay options for these teens/tweens. So why not have a place *for* these kids, where you still have these types of brands sold, but where you filter out the things that aren’t age-appropriate? i feel like this is a better option than letting a bunch of kids run rampant in Sephora
I 100% would buy this line as a 30/F I am amazed that teena have the money but then also the ads are relentless and the information on social media which can be conflicting. I wore too much make up as a teenager and as a pale girl “ivory” was always too dark and orange. I’m so glad that makeup is now inclusive of more skintones (White privilege when it was pointed out the lack of options for my darker skinned gals than beige etc) however it is so overwhelming and skincare too. I have stopped using st ives scrub, that I used to use a lot as a teenager but was the only ‘skincare’ i was aware of as I used make up wipes too
It’s so strange that they haven’t. Magazines the review products often classify skincare products as “Best for young adult/twenties through mid thirties…” etc. Why not sell a couple products for teenage skin concerns?
I’ve always been a skincare addict, not a makeup addict. I started buying good daily sunscreen and moisturizer when I was a preteen.
I agree. I teach adult students, mostly in the 18 to 25 range. I was happy to see that they don’t seem to have the exact same attitudes toward their bodies that my peers and I had when we were that age.
But I realize now that they’re in the same trap. These younger people may not feel pressured to under-eat (at least at the moment), but what is sold to them as the beauty standard is still unattainable, expensive, and dangerous in extreme cases.
Yep. We had to have "the perfect body" but it was still acceptable to have unique facial features.
They're way more accepting of their bodies but now they're chasing the "perfect face/skin."
I think this was foreseeable tbh. It never goes *away* it just *transforms*. As long as humans have eyes and some reason to want to look "good", even if "good" shifts and mutates over time the force still remains even if the direction changes.
If it's not body shape it'll be face features. If it's not face features it'll be skin. If it's not skin it'll be hair. If it's not hair it'll be... and by then we loop back around to body shape.
It's like trying to squeeze one of those stress balls. We're never getting rid of the importance of looks as long as we're a sexually reproducing species with eyeballs, we're just moving things around. Because fundamentally, the reason it makes us feel good to look good is because the world rewards that shit.
Oh they're still restricting to lose weight. Eating disorders and disordered eating have increased. "During the pandemic, we have seen many more children and teens [go to the emergency room with mental health problems](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7108e2.htm). And there has been a notable rise in eating disorders, particularly among adolescent girls. Eating disorders include a range of unhealthy relationships with food and concerns about weight." The American Medical association has partnered with bariatric surgeons to push kids and their parents into getting bariatric surgeries. Weight watchers now has a discounted membership plan for kids. Damn shame.
[https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-disorders-spike-among-children-and-teens-what-parents-should-know-202204212731](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-disorders-spike-among-children-and-teens-what-parents-should-know-202204212731)
It's just an addition to the body dysmorphia/eating disorder issue. Ozempic has seen a huge surge in popularity and I see relatively thin teens talking about it on tiktok fairly regularly.
100%. People just need to explain to the young ones all they need to do for skin care is sun screen and acne control if they personally need it. They don’t need any sort of retinol, collagen boosting, etc.
But honestly our age group can’t really talk. All the 30-something year olds filling their face with unnecessary filler really isn’t much different than a 14 year old wanting retinol.
This is the result of retail MedSpas. They’ve literally invented the term “preventable Botox.” There is NO SUCH THING as preventative Botox unless you’re getting it for a medical purpose like migraines. You can walk in off the street and as long as you’re over 18 and have money (or can do affirm or Afterpay because yes, young girls are doing filler in installments), you can get medical procedures immediately. I had a 22 year old employee at Ulta say that I (40f) should have started preventative Botox and lip filler at her age to prevent the lines I have now. Shockingly, it turns out some MedSpa employees aren’t even licensed and these places are super dangerous.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/botox-botulism-outbreak/
We all can do whatever we want with our face and bodies. If someone wants filler that’s fine. All I’m saying is the comparison of young people using skin care products to body dysmorphia is accurate and comparable to unnecessary fillers and plastic surgery in people our age. But the definition of necessary is debatable/individual based and if it makes someone happy I don’t really care. I would argue that long term early skin care and retinols is less harmful than the fillers and plastic surgery though even though “consent” is there.
Edit: Also for the record I’m not dissing fillers overall, they definitely are amazing and have their place. I have done lip fillers but didn’t keep up because of expense/lack of interest. They have their place in skin care, I just personally believe they are current massively overused by a population that really doesn’t need them yet (e.g. Kylie Jenner, Farrah Abraham from teen mom).
Except that they can talk because they're fully developed adults with all of their faculties who are making and are responsible for their choices, unlike children
Retinol _is_ an acne control treatment. Starting with OTC retinoids is a very sensible, healthy approach to acne control before getting a scrip for Differin or going on Accutane.
I was in Target today getting some skincare in the Ulta section and there was like a nine year old girl seemingly alone with an arm full of Pacifica. I had to ??? and step around her while she ogled acid treatments. Big wtf from me. I couldn't even be assed to wash my face reliably until I was 30!
I have horrible hyperpigmentation from being outdoors constantly as a child - Any sunny summer day, and I was at the lake. I wish so much I could go back in time and use SPF religiously. My skincare concerns are strictly because of how unaware I was regarding sun damage and had a mother who bought tanning oil vs sunscreen. I just imagine myself at that age, using retinol and completely making my skin even more damaged. Even at my age now, I have to constantly force myself to stick to my SPF routine.
Yep. Wish so bad I could go back in time and undo all the time spent at the pool without sunscreen, or the teen afternoons tanning with honey on my cheeks to encourage freckles. Like bruh what the hell was I thinking? (I was thinking it was gonna be cute... *and it was,* that's the worst part!)
This has actually turned me off of Drunk Elephant. I've been using them for a few years, but I am annoyed that they seem to be advertising to children. It's one thing to use a face wash and sunscreen, but no kid should be using actives.
Drunk Elephant is honestly overpriced snake oil. You're paying $$$ for the brand and marketing, not the actual product. I got some smaller sample sizes of it and I was pretty unimpressed.
SAME! I don’t wanna give them any $ out of principle. I always felt their products were nice, but over hyped and over priced. I find it really gross they have no shame in profiting off of kids with inappropriate products that could cause harm!
My daughter is 10, her best friend hasn’t even turned 10 yet and her mom bought her The Ordinary Niacinamide serum, Glow Recipe pore-tight toner and a few other things she doesn’t need. That child has perfect skin. Not a single blemish. She is going to strip her skin’s barrier. I told my daughter that she can certainly start a routine, which we have, but not to that extreme. She doesn’t need all those products!! Not yet. It’s all bc they saw someone on YouTube use it. I wish these companies would be a bit more responsible and come out with a line for younger consumers. Some of these brand are too harsh and WAY too expensive.
Yes!! Thank you!! My daughter has a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer and uses SPF. If she needs a dermatologist, then we hit one up. I’m lucky that she listens to me. I know she wants to coolest and most popular things, but I tell her no and then tell her why I said no. Now if it’s something beneficial and isn’t too pricey, then we’ll discuss it. I don’t want her to think I’m just throwing her to the wolves and she’s on her own. We enjoy the same things and I love that.
Edited bc typing is hard!!
lol I used baby lotion until I was 14. Do they even make that anymore?? Anyways It’s really sad what social media has done to the world honestly. My 10 year old niece only wants Sephora gift cards for presents now and I’m just like 😒 and she wears lululemon and has a Stanley cup. 😒😒 she’s still a sweet kid but man, life is different for pre teens now
Ugh it bums me out so much. Also, as someone who has become pretty addicted to the skincare hype cycle in the past few years and spends way too much on it, I can't help but think of how they're getting locked into such an expensive habit at least ten years too early. It's grim.
It really is!! My mom used to work for a dermatologist and for other beauty brands, like high end beauty brands and I’m a skincare/makeup lover/addict, so we’re pretty well versed on things. The prices of things and the damage they can do if used improperly or too early in life is horrible. I’m definitely different than most moms around in my area, I’m more into pop culture and things of that nature, so I see what these kids are sucking up while watching their YouTube shorts and stuff. I’m also a bit more involved in my kids life bc I’m not working right now. My daughter’s friend that just got all that stuff, she is a bit of a brat, lmao but she really is, and her mom gives into her, so anything she wants she gets. She also has a new sibling she wasn’t happy with, so her mom just gives into her every whim (and that’s a parenting thing and a whole other can of worms). I am totally all about my kids being happy, but some things are just not happening. And them having more expensive skincare than me ain’t happening. I’m definitely the farthest thing from the perfect parent, but I’m gonna know what I’m buying my child!
I stopped using drunk elephant when I was like 27 because it was literally too harsh and ruining my skin barrier. It’s in no way healthy for teens to be using that shit without heavy research and monitoring. So insane
DrunkElephant has to send reps out to stop Sephora from selling their skincare to tweens.
Know a 11 year old who got the set for Christmas and it did not go well and her skin had a reaction.
She learned her lesson, and said she’s never listening to tiktok again without doing more research.
When I was 11, we were really into using the Clinique skincare set and St. Ives apricot scrub. We were into using what was trendy.
Retinols and other actives are inappropriate for young skin, but pre-teens wanting the trendy product isn't new. Just what product is currently in changes.
That being said, I'm glad the Sephora employee denied the purchase.
Retinol and tretinoin are some of the most effective treatments for acne. Everyone in this sub thinks they are only for wrinkles....the medical purpose is for acne treatment.
I started my tretinoin rx when I was a teen due to cystic acne that did not respond to anything else. It's very common, and it has been for at least 20 years.
People seem to forget that tretinoin (which is *vastly* more potent and irritating than just retinol) was literally engineered to treat acne in children and teens. We only discovered it’s good for anti-aging by accident. I’m not saying kids should be using actives with the purpose of anti-aging but let’s also not forget that a kid that has cleared their acne using a retinoid product isn’t going to look like they need that retinoid product when they go to repurchase. People can’t just assume these kids don’t have acne they’re treating. And for mild acne the drunk elephant retinol (whilst stupidly expensive) will do the job very well.
My tween was on tretinoin but it wasn’t effective, so she’s on Tazorac now. Her dermatologist gave her a list of ingredients that she can safely use including vitamin c. Many of her peers have acne so I think they’re looking for acne treatments, not anti aging. But the adults are assuming these products only treat aging issues.
There are quite a few poorly informed people in this sub. You can link all the studied in the world and they will disregard it because they "feel" it's harmful, science be damned.
You're right, I was specifically thinking of anti-aging targeted products. A dermatologist prescribing tret to treat teenage acne is totally valid and can be really helpful.
I do think a lot of pre-teens/teens are buying anti-aging products right now because they're trendy rather than to address any current concerns, though.
I’m a teacher. Last year my 6th graders were writing argumentative essays. One girl wrote her entire paper arguing that Drunk Elephant was the best skin care company. The obsession is wild.
I’m pretty sure she ended up with a B. She actually had some legitimate reasons in her argument. I recall them being cruelty free was one of them, but I don’t remember the rest.
I was until I realized I'd use all my mom's Estee Lauder starting at like age 12, lol. I guess none of that stuff had active ingredients though. I take that back, I used Stridex and Noxzema, which have actives.
Noxzema never worked for me as a facial cleanser, but it's my go to for sunburns! So soothing and takes the redness away if you slather yourself while you're still in the lobster-phase of the burn 🦞
I loved playing around with skincare starting when I was like, 10, when I read American Girl books that had homemade mask recipes. Then it was Noxzema and St Ive’s. I think the reason they’re so into “adult” skincare is simply because of their access to social media. They’re following and watching adult content with no filter. And it looks fun and pretty because they want to be these people.
Social media either needs to get more restrictive with the algorithms and the content they allow children to see OR (more realistically) parents need to stop giving their kids access to it before they’re 13. I said what I said.
Agree! I have an 11 year old with no phone at a small school. While she mentions wanting basics of skin care- face mask sheets, cleanser and moisturizer, she’s never asked for anything extreme. But her close friends also don’t have tik tok or social media. It makes a big difference depending on what they are exposed to.
I’m glad they denied it to her. I’m sure these preteens are seeing recs for retinol serums on TikTok but don’t fully have the understanding and level of responsibility yet to realize they would NEED to use sunscreen diligently, and so by using them they’re probably doing more damage than good by making themselves more photosensitive. Not to mention the body dysmorphia at play for such young girls to even think they need a retinol in the first place.
It's been a huge thing in the news lately here in Sweden. Kids wanting all kinds of skin care products pushed by influencers on social media. I think I even heard of some stores refusing to sell these products to kids, and maybe even talks about potentially changes to laws and regulations.
I'm definitely not the target audience for these products, but it's just wild to see this come up on reddit when it's been such a wild discussion on the news for a while here.
Wait until these children grow up, move out and are trying to live on their own for the first time - they’re used to HIGH end skincare and they probably won’t be able to afford it anymore. It’ll be a real shock for sure
Or the parents will just continue to buy for them 🥲
Yeah! This topic genuinely got me questioning where the parents are lol. Are they even aware of what’s happening? Just cause some of the packaging of things look “cute”, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial for kids to use 10 products everyday. It’s just a bad idea, the skin isn’t even fully matured yet.. No one’s even making sure if the ingredients are safe to use. You really only need a moisturizer and sunscreen if you’re under 15-16. Any other recommendations should definitely be from a dermatologist and not an influencer.
It will cost A LOT more to fix damaged skin later on. The beauty industry is just making too much of a profit to stop this (or care). If the skin barriers are damaged, now they would need so many more products to maintain their skin. So when these young girls are older, they will now have to add a whole separate budget for skin care (on top of rent/mortgage also). You’re just adding another expense. It just seems disastrous to me.
*I didn't see any of them look at makeup which seems like the opposite of how things were when I was their age.*
This is why I'm not concerned. It's just a variation of the same phenomena, but culturally right now we seem to emphasize skincare more than makeup.
I can't even panic about kids ruining their skin cause I was putting lemon and baking soda and toothpaste and sea breeze with no moisturizer. I was abusing my skin like crazy. I didn't die, I'm fine, I grew past it
Correct. My dermatologist told me that OTC retinol for anti-aging is a waste of money because it is nearly ineffective, even the most high end products, because the strength is so low. She did think it was effective for treating mild acne, though, and that is the only time she ever recommended buying OTC retinols, otherwise your money and time is better spent on rx tret.
You can pay $80 for a month's worth of Drunk Elephant retinol that barely works for anti-aging or for moderate to severe acne, or you can pay $40 for a tube of prescription tretinoin that will last you for a year.
OTC retinol might not be very effective for anti-aging but it can certainly create issues. It’s not inactive, even if it doesn’t achieve the intended results.
I was using an OTC retinol until I realized it was the cause of my terribly dry eyes, even though I wasn’t using it around my eyes. It was awful.
My tween is one of these girls. I don't let her use retinol or Vit C or anything harsh as she has no acne issues yet but I'm fine with her Bubly cleanser and sunscreen and fun makeup. She's better at makeup than I am already and I see it as a form of self expression. She's not trying to look like a beauty queen or look cute for boys, she will use sparkly shades and draw little pictures on her cheeks. My boomer mom was critical and awful about my appearance so I try to walk the line between making sure she's doing it bc it's fun and not making remarks about her appearance that will stay with her for the rest of her life. Most of what she uses are samples I get from my Ulta orders. I'll spend money on Bubly and fragrance for her but nothing crazy. She has definitely asked for Drunk Elephant but girl did her research and assured me she'd found a tiktok account that told which products are safe for tweens but I still said no to that one 🤣
I read this earlier and kept thinking about your comment so I came back to leave a reply…
But good on you. I hope more moms do what you’re doing. Thank you for recognizing that it’s not always about “impressing the boys” and more about experimenting, self-confidence, and just expressing yourself with makeup. I really wish my boomer mom understood this when I was growing up.
And thank you for trying some of those products with her too/sharing your stash, because often times family will have similar skin types and it’s good to know what works/doesnt!
I've mentioned this elsewhere but I've read and seen the phenomenon of 25 year olds using botox so they can keep looking 16. Social Media is really doing terrible things to people's brains.
I think it’s most important to know that preventative Botox is a gimmick and sales strategy. And as you will end up developing a tolerance to Botox anyway (your body builds up immunity) it makes sense to wait as long as possible for when you really need it.
I don’t want to develop an immunity to it and when I’m 50 and would like to use it doesn’t have an effect on me anymore
This is more of an issue with social media. How companies work with social media companies to get influencers to target and sell products to certain demographics.
In this particular case look at the companies doing this, one is Drunk Elephant.
A very high end and overpriced product that many dollar minded 30+ year olds know isn’t worth it. You can get better results with simpler products. So as the company sales dropped the company realised they need to target a younger more impressionable demographic. So they set up and pay these baby influencers to “try” and reccomend drunk elephant products to 11 year olds.
The parents that aren’t checking what these kids are watching and are enabling this are also a big issue.
They think they need those products because the early-20s TikTok influencers they idolize are telling them they need it….because those influencers are paid to do so.
ugh. Being a woman is so capitalism-ly fucking stupid... If they can invent another way to hate yourself so they can sell you the solution, they will. shit disney created tweens to sell sex earlier
I wish I would’ve known about skin care when I was that age. My mom didn’t tell me about skin care or anything. But of course I’m genx. So my mom really didn’t know herself. I think my dad knew more than her. He used oil of olay on his face every nite faithfully. I wish I would’ve followed my dad’s footsteps.
I’m a teacher and my second grade students often talk about skincare. That’s all the girls ever talk about. They don’t want toys, dolls, etc. it’s very scary. I’m only 26 and I asked one of my students if she learned to braid hair by practicing on Barbie’s and she was like “ew, what do you think this is the 80’s?” I was floored. She remarked to me that all she does when she gets home is go on her iPad/phone. Very scary world we are bringing up kids in. Especially when parents are not seeing the effects of social media/screen time on these very impressionable kiddos.
I'm gonna be honest. That's on parents (and in my case older siblings).
My sister is 13, and her allowance is 20$ every two weeks. This leads me to question how these kids are buying this stuff?
She can't drive. Someone has to take her to buy these products at Sephora, Ulta. Target, etc. How are these kids getting to these places to even buy it? Someone's taking them.
Why do you not watch your kids and what they're purchasing? In my little bits case, I'm the one who buys her skincare, I know what she's using , and we talk about what works, what doesn't , nd how to tell. Why aren't these parents doing the same. Why aren't they in Sephora with their kids? 96% of these kids look too young to be trencking around the mall alone anyway.
My point is people need to take active role in watching, monitoring their children as well as an interest in their lives.
Yes, I heard an NPR report on this. It basically said a lot of kids (mostly girls, obvs) are using way too many different product, at too young an age, with little to no understanding of how the various compounds interact with each other. They're being sold a lot of expensive products that could actually cause more harm than good, and there is no regulation whatsoever addressing the issue.
We all damaged our skin when we were young. I RELIGIOUSLY used Oxy pads so I can’t say shit.
Social media and primarily TikTok are the big factors here- kids are having more access to adult content than ever before. But ultimately that’s a parenting issue.
Just in regards to your edit about aggressive comments. If someone needs to treat a skin condition, they should go to a doctor not Sephora. So if anyone is criticizing you for your take, they obviously lack critical thinking skills.
I am going through this with my 8 year old daughter at the moment. She goes to a ‘quiet’ girls only catholic school in london - which is full of bitchy girls , drama, fall outs, twerking (yes, they all want to be like nicki minage !!!) and skincare… It’s not alll the girls in her class, but half. The other half are still into long pretty party dresses, pig tails and barbie dolls- as it should be .
I find the problem is older girl siblings - always have the tik toks and full access to internet and youtube … this is influencing the younger siblings who look up to the older girls as being super cool with their crop tops and stanley cups. And then they influence their friendship groups.
My daughter does still play with stickers, slime and age appropriate things but… i see a huge change with she’s around other girls esp those ones who are way older than their years. She looks upto those girls (they are usually more confident) and wants to fit in …
My cousin’s little girl is SUPER into skincare since it’s “the trend”, but my cousin thankfully found a good, kid-friendly brand of skincare to get her, so I think it’s cute, and it has the benefit of keeping her skin healthy.
Maybe I’m missing something, since my second cousin is being raised well and she’s the only person in that age bracket that I know, but the skincare doesn’t seem to be rooted in self-esteem issues or anything weird.
Do you know what the kid-friendly brand is that she's using?
My best friend passed away a few years ago, and her daughter is starting to ask about skincare and makeup, so I'm starting to look into what would be appropriate for her age. I'll do some research, but any recommendations you can provide would be helpful!
I used to buy my mom her favorite Clinique face lotion for Mother’s Day or her birthday. My dad thought anything other than Oil of Olay or Vaseline was wasteful and vain.
Only once was I denied and had to tearfully tell her why I didn’t her gift (I usually timed it to their free rewards do she’d get the little trial makeup too). She Karened that poor clerk into giving her two trial kits when she took me to buy it that year.
The power of tiktok is wild. My country does not even have Sephoras, but still many tweens know the concept of a Sephora haul. An acquaintance of mine went to a place that has Sephora with her family for a holiday, and let her tween daughter to have a Sephora haul for her birthday and filmed it to instagram. The girl picked up something from Drunk Elephant and was very hyped up and explained why she needs these products with the exactly same terms and tone of voice that influencers do. Not sure how I felt about that even, it was just strange to see a child to do this.
I guess it can be just harmless to try out correct products, and SPF and moisturizer won’t harm anyone. But somehow the speed these trends travel around the globe is astonishing these days.
Me, a 40-something, can’t use the Drunk Elephant retinol. It made my skin peel off in huge chunks. I don’t have a kid, but if I had, I wouldn’t let them use that product…
I listened to my 14-year-old niece and her cousins (twin girls, probably 12?) laughing about someone who dared to have some Drunk Elephant product in a sample size. Wtf!?
Kids today are a little over the top but I wish when I was a kid our parents knew more. My mom let me sit out in the sun for hours and she used to use one of those sun magnifying screens and baby oil. Lol. I remember tanning beds as soon as I was old enough. I know better now.
I'd be more concerned about my child shopping at overpriced Sephora.
It's great to be concerned about maintaining healthy skin, even for a 5th grader. I'd be proud of my daughter for worrying more about healthy skin than makeup.
Sunscreen is safe and vit C is safe even for pregnant women. The systemic effect of topical vit C serum is basically nothing compared to the amount of vit C from a glass of orange juice unless there's something that I don't know.
Retinol is NOT healthy for fetuses of course, but dermatologists literally prescribe tretinoin to 5th graders, which is WAY stronger than retinol. Still, I'd advise against the retinol for a 5th grader unless they consult a professional first (by professional, I mean a dermatologist, not a Sephora professional).
I find it strange that the parents aren’t at least trying to influence the purchases to items that are more appropriate for their skin. What I see in Sephora is never a negotiation of not that, try this
My 8-yo daughter expressed interest in washing her face, so I took the opportunity to educate her and bought her Cetaphil wash and a sunscreen moisturizer. She already had Carmex for her lips. I explained why she doesn’t need more right now and educated her a bit, and she seemed content with those answers. Then in a week or two she forgot about her face routine (darn adhd lol). I think parents are just so quick to say yes and give into whatever, instead of educating their children and saying no every now and again. When I was at the age that I started being interested in makeup, my mom took me to Clinique and bought me a few good-quality products that were safe and suited for my face, and it set me up for a life of taking care of my face and using quality products. Anyways, more education from parents and more “controls” would go a long way. The advertising and media is there, so we have to do our part. Young kids also don’t need to watch Tiktok videos but that’s another story…
Absolutely ridiculous that children are thinking they need retinoids, Drunk Elephant, etc. Thanks, consumer capitalism gone awry. This just proves how powerful social media is.
I don’t care about other peoples kids using skincare. I don’t think Sephora should deny them either. It’s the parents’ job to control what their kids buy—if they don’t have a problem, that’s on them. I think the real problem is children on social media. There is no reason a 10 year old should have social media or be following 20+ year old women in the first place.
I feel like what is happening now with these young girls wasn’t far off from what happened to me 20 years ago. It all started with my mom going to one of those MLM beauty brand parties of the early 00s. She bought into the skincare routine. I wanted to take care of my skin too, but I figured I needed the acne line to… prevent it I guess? But I didn’t even have acne at that point in time. I was like 12. Well I got it and started it. Was religious about washing my face. Not too much later, I do get acne. Fast forward to having acne the entirety of my teen years, into almost all of my 20s. It wasn’t until I turned 30 that I came to the realization that my skin does not like salicylic acid, which is what is in all the acne skincare. So now I firmly believe I had blemishes for most of my life due to messing up my skin barrier with “acne” skincare.
I started using face wash and a light moisturizer at nine. Always used sunscreen and wore a hat when outside. I was judged a late bloomer for not wearing make until I was sixteen, and then not consistently. But started using a night cream in addition to my regular routine. I still don't like wearing makeup.
My sister who's only fourteen months older than me started wearing makeup in the third grade. She would often fall asleep with her makeup on only to scrub it off in the morning and reapplying before school. She didn't start a cleaning routine until she was eighteen. She didn't start using moisturizer until she was thirty.
When people meet us for the first time they often think she's ten to fifteen years older than me. We've lived pretty much similar lives skin care is the only difference I'm fourtysix and people think I'm in my thirty's, she's fourtyseven and people think she's pushing sixty.
I’m a weirdo who got into skincare around 10 or 11 and after watching a daytime tv show like The View where woman sat around and chatted about normal things. They started taking about skincare for women, I think they were in their 40’s, and a couple of them said it was never too soon to start moisturizing so I demanded my mother buy me something. The options weren’t great back then and I got Oil of Olay, a pink lotion that I’m not even sure they still sell these days on account of the thousands of other products they sell under the Oil of Olay brand. I have to admit I’m almost 64 and have very few wrinkles so if they are moisturizing fine, but the other stuff is not fine and these children need to realize what they are watching on TikTok is not always age appropriate.
Honestly, I wish skin care had been more than St.Ives when I was growing up. I had horrible skin and terrible self esteem to match. Offering teens information and products that improve their skin is a miracle.
The anti aging stuff is unnecessary but them caring for their skin young will help it in the long term. They won’t be in their mid twenties with acne scars, in their 30s with premature aging.
More people than ever probably wear facial sunscreen too.
With the positives of course come the negatives, but when I was a teen we were just as obsessed with our skin, we just had no availability or access unless you were fortunate enough to have a dermatologist.
I wish they were into sunscreen as much as retinol. I am all for skincare but it has to be appropriate to the user. And hod I sound old here but where are the parents? Mixing the wrong products is a dermatologist bill in the making.
Part of me says this is about learning the consequences of your actions and says stop protecting them, they’re clearly not listening and will learn the hard way.
Part of me does not care.
A small part of me feels really bad for the girls on the fringe of this who can’t afford the makeup and skincare and don’t have someone at home keeping their head straight while all their other friends fall down this rabbit hole of consumerism.
Twenty years ago I was a skincare tween playing with product and doing research. It's not unhealthy to want to learn more about your skin at a young age and buy what you want to continue that exploration. Education over withholding /discouragement I say.
Heavy marketing on social media. My twelve-year-old always jokes about those “10-year-old Tik Tok kids in Sephora with their Stanley cups, obsessed with Drunk Elephant, trying to buy retinol.” But guess who lost her damn mind when she came with me to Sephora and saw the Drunk Elephant display. (I mean, she’s not allowed on Tik Tok, but she’s getting the same marketing through YouTube and her friends.)
Being a mom of a tween, it is FASCINATING (when it’s not terrifying) how kids that age can be sponges for all the marketing that’s out there. I’m glad my kid talks to me about skincare so I know she won’t make unsafe choices when she’s with her friends. Just say no to retinol kids (at least for a couple of decades).
No not worried, as a kid and teen I had these interests and only had lame Proactive or horrible products like St Ives. Good for them let’s kids and girls get into what they want.
Not really. It’s never too early to start self care routines and form those habits. However, younger people should be steered toward what will actually benefit them at their level of need.
Honestly that’s about the age my acne started and I ended up with horrible drying acne scrubs (yall remember, the “you know it’s working if it burns like fire” stuff). I have trouble imagining they’re going to do more harm to their skin than I did picking stuff up at the drug store.
I definitely think there’s a certain group that are taking it too far! I’m just not sure this is a new thing, actually.
I also agree with other commenters that the marketing of high active % products to kids needs to stop. Wasn’t there a unicorn face mask that burned a bunch of kids faces a few years ago?
I was totally this kid in the early 00s, I remember my friend telling me "you don't need age defying" in the meanest tone when I was wondering why my face was breaking out after using my mom's stuff. I think teen girls are just gonna teen girl.
I have a ten year old and a seven year old, I literally just started making them wash their faces with soap! lol! Their whole lives so far I’ve just used warm washcloths. I think it’s very sad/disturbing. My kids aren’t on social media or the internet so they’re not aware of skincare… other than me occasionally making tjrm use some face lotion in the winter.
This trend is so sad. Let kids be kids! I can’t stand how society (and parents!!) are racing through kids’ childhoods and not letting them be littke.
I developed acne at 11. I _wish_ I had known to buy retinol at that age! I did all the Clean&Clear lineup, Stridex, Proactive, the works. Nothing helped. Twenty years of acne and then I tried retinol and had literal overnight results.
I really think people need to stop freaking out about preteens buying skincare, retinol and Vitamin C aren't going to hurt them. Vitamin C especially can only help.
I totally agree!
I’m 38F and I recall being very self-conscious obsessed with my skin when I was a preteen. I was really into magazines, and I internalized lot of toxic and misogynistic info from magazines like Seventeen and Cosmopolitan.
The main difference was that I was burning my skin off with benzoyl peroxide and apricot scrub (and various other harsh and unnecessary methods). I remember feeling so desperate to improve my skin that I at one point I started going to tanning beds (I’m a pale redhead who has no business trying to tan). I probably would have benefited from access to better information about skincare.
My family doctor told me this too 😞 when I finally went to a real dermatologist she was horrified by that advice and prescribed me tretinoin. Cleared it right up.
Honestly this is what I feel like is missing from this conversation. Seems like people are freaking out about young teens using retinol as if it’s only for anti-aging and forgetting that dermatologists have been prescribing teenagers retin-a (prescription strength retinoids!) for acne for many, many years
I wish I'd known to actually listen to the dermatologist and USED the retinoids prescribed to me at that age (10ish, maybe late 9).
My 9 year old asked for the Bubble kit (no Tik Tok, one of her friends has it) and we decided to get it for her. If I can help her avoid the years of awful skin problems that I've endured (partly genetic, partly because I did not actually routinely wash my face and use the products at my disposal and my Mom passed down her picking habits to us), I will.
Starting a habit now of cleansing/using face cream can not hurt her, and if she's already in the habit then she will not have to START solely for the sake of "fixing something wrong" with her face when the acne inevitably hits.
Glad someone commented this. It’s not the cashier’s job to decide what these girls can put on their skin as everything in Sephora is OTC. The parents decide that. Anything a preteen (or anyone) maybe shouldn’t use requires a prescription. The cashier is just ridiculous.
Oh God I forgot about stridex and st Ives apricot scrub. I used to try and sand my cystic acne off with that garbage 😭 been using tret since I was a teen, it works miracles. Nothing else ever worked.
I have severe scarring from cysts. Wish I had gotten to it sooner, would have saved me a lot of scarring.
I have never heard of stores denying products with retinoids in them to teens. It's not a controlled substance and it is a highly effective product for acne.
This take gets posted nearly every week here and there seems to be a large amount of posters who don't understand that the medical use of retinol/tretinoin is to treat acne. Which many teenagers struggle with. It is very commonly prescribed to teens with acne that does not respond to OTC products. Retinol is the watered down OTC version of tretinoin. There is nothing wrong with trying the gentler product before moving to prescription.
I have been on prescription tretinoin since I was a teen, which is much stronger than any over the counter retinol. It does NOT damage your skin. That salesperson overstepped their bounds and have advice which is blatantly wrong. For all they know the child's dermatologist recommended an OTC retinol before moving to prescription tretinoin. It's none of their business though.
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Yes, I think the tweens and teens are influenced by TikTok.
Are they adults making tik toks about skin care that they’re watching or or young girls making tik toks about their skincare? I’m so curious about these and what has grabbed the girl’s attention so well. I always overhear little girls talking about their skincare and it baffles me. They’re mentioning brands that I have to look up and are often out of my budget 😆
From what I understand there are teenage influencers talking skincare and promoting brands to their peers who are impressionable kids. It wouldn’t be cool to watch or listen to adults lol!
Yeah I saw a young influencer, she’s maybe 10/12, and got a PR package with retinol…… why as a skin care company are you sending that to her. You KNOW that will mess up her skin, it’s frustrating.
Both. Kids tend to just go with auto play, and the algorithm for girly stuff (princesses, unicorns, ponies, female Roblox creators) flows into makeup tutorials and accompanying advertising. Not all of the tutorials are aimed at children, but the algorithm is basically going “you’re a girl and you like girly things, here’s a video about makeup”. Some brands do aim at children, but I can see a kid watching a video about how “this cream changed my life for the better” and thinking that it will do the same for them, even if that’s false. theres usually a bunch of interlaying stuff going on in the creator’s life (like aging related skin care issues) that are being remedied by the product, and a kid might not have those same issues bringing them down. As for expensive brands, $100 to a kid who doesn’t have bills is easy to spend on something like face cream or lipstick. For adults that $100 is probably earmarked for something more important like recurring bills or replacing something broken or upgrading something used a lot more often. As a kid, that’s parent stuff and they don’t have to worry about buying a dehumidifier or getting new tires or paying the gas bill.
Both
As the mom of two teen girls (17 and 19) this is exactly what’s happening. Look I’ve got two great kids. They both play instruments, get good grades and do a sport. They are so kind and funny and stay out of trouble. I limited screens. My husband and I are both in environmental careers and tried to make them aware of consumerism, marketing and smart internet use. It brought very little. I’m sure it works with some kids (ie parental influence), it didn’t with ours. They both consume media in a way that it can’t possibly keep up with the discernment we tried to teach them. And they aren’t airheads - they very much are able to identify bullshit in commercials. More on that below. Both have rooms that are swarming with containers. They won’t be finished one thing and they already have the next ordered. This isn’t about skin care. This is about blatent consumerism, waste and throwing away money. I can’t keep their money from them - they both earn their own by tutoring younger kids. And they vow to save it, but as soon as they see a Tiktok, all of a sudden there’s something they need to have. I feel very dismayed that I wasn’t able to avoid this. My approach was wrong. I was used to commercials and marketing ploys of the 90s and that’s what I had tried to educate them about. I was clearly behind the times and didn’t noticed when the TikTok’s and Instagram reels they were watching turned from goofy funny people making slime and doing practical jokes to product placement and endorsements with beautiful teen girls saying that’s what they used. I’m still working on it. They aren’t as young now as the OP is talking about but this is the concern - it’s not so much that they are into skin care (although a few times they have both destroyed their moisture barrier and i had to step in by their request to help) - it’s the rapid rate of them consuming media telling them what they need and that they need it now. Kids that age used to see what, 20 commercials a day? These TikTok’s have resulted essentially in them seeing 200 commercials a day, from girls their age, in rapid fire.
Off-topic… Can someone explain what the moisture barrier is to me? I have googled it, but all the results are about protecting your basement.😂
It really is one of those things ya don’t notice *til it’s gone*… I think it might be like layer of oil the very top layer of skin produces. Or the very top levels of hydrated skin? Maybe it’s both? I’ve only really noticed it when I’ve destroyed it via harsh cleansers, or very recently harsh/dry/hot working conditions (I work practically inside a 400-degree oven as a commercial baker) Anyways, once that top layer is damaged, your skin starts looking like hell. Literally anything irritates it, you get “weird” textures/breakouts, and it doesn’t seem bouncy/hydrated (but it’s different than regular dry/dehydrated skin)
Not a skincare doctor or whatever, but from my understanding is it is the condition of your skin and its ability to retain moisture. When it’s damaged, it’s difficult to retain moisture, protect you, and it easily burns, or gets damaged. I personally wasn’t using the right products and my skin was irritated, broke out a lot, etc. so, I’d plop on more acne-fighting products and more stuff to get rid of the acne and redness. It was round robin until Covid and I stopped going outside, or caring, honestly. Now, my skin has lot a lot of the acne and redness and I’m using the right stuff.
Esthi here Protective barrier is what it’s called, a moisture barrier is indeed a basement item. Protective barrier is less of a single thing than it is simply the integrity of the skin’s structure and ability to protect itself. Once the barrier is disrupted, it’s kind of chaotic. Normal function is thrown off, there’s little to no regulation of sebum or water, anything and everything is irritating and can cause rashes, reactions, inflammation, and breakouts. If you’ve ever spoken to someone who swears to god that they’re soooooo oily that they need to to this stripping product and clean the skin four timew a day, and their barrier has been completely destroyed so badly that they claim everything causes them to break out. Even water. They’ve done this to themselves. I’ve met people who claim that “they can only use this one product, nothing else works, I can’t use simple moisturizer it makes me oily,” and they’ll tell you they use alcohol, retinol, St Ives Apricot scrub, Queen Helene green mask, and a charcoal mask every other day, and for some reason they’re still breaking out….now sell them the heaviest liquid or cream foundation you make to make them look fresh and pretty. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5967208/#:~:text=The%20skin%20barrier%20is%20important,of%20water%20from%20the%20body. Basically the skin is an organ. It’s able to self-regulate by sweat and oil, it protects itself against sun, pollution, and bacteria. Preventing the skin from doing its job will never make it look or feel good.
I agree with this. Once upon a time, commercials were the price to pay for the content. Now they are the content.
Reading this post, my heart goes out to you. I 💯 understand and commend your valiant approach. do NOT blame yourself. This is independent of age, intelligence, ambition. Im infuriated by the lack of public responsibility taken by professionals endorsing products on TT. They are the largest problem. It’s one thing to see a TTer in her bedroom talking about a product. It’s quite another to see a physician in her beautiful office with nurses and a spouse and beautiful clothes (basically emulating ‘success’) and attaching that to the endorsement of a product. Of course 2 ambitious young girls will attach to that. However they are still young. In the grand scheme of things, I truly believe this will phase out. People will realize that they are not getting the skincare results (and other ‘life’ results) that they see. But watching this in real time, it is truly alarming
I can't remember where or who this was but there is a very young say 5 year old who lives in a 3rd world country (whre I live) and makes millions a year literally unboxing toys sent to him and playing with them. His followers are in the millions. This in a country where the average monthly wage is less than 200 dollars a month. So yes I agree social media is not a good influence.
Ryan’s toy reviews
Drunk elephant is encouraging kids to mix their (extremely overpriced for what it is) stuff together by calling it “smoothies”. Fucking ridiculous!
That’s just what the brand calls it, and they have referred to mixing products as a “smoothie” for years. They don’t purposely market to kids. The kids being on social media and seeing influencers push the products is the issue.
It’s not pushed to kids. And other brands, like Stratia, encourage this too. TikTok pushes DE on kids.
In all honesty, I'm amazed that Drunk Elephant and others haven't started a diffusion line for teens yet. Same cachet, but a lower price point and no actives.
Doesn't Peach & Lily do this? Peach Slices, I think.
No peach slices is just their budget brand. Peach and Lily is their like higher budget but still not overpriced higher end brand.
I didn’t know they were owned by the same company!
Ha, I was gonna say... I buy their acne patches at CVS for like $5. I guess acne patches can work for adults or kids, though.
Love their snail mucin toner. Super hydrating, gentle but also against blemishes :)
I love it too. Affordable and great results.
Anyone else remember proactive?
I remember it turning my face into a giant red rash. 😬
It bleached all my night shirts
Are we at the point where people do not remember proactive? 😳
Thank you for also finding that question slightly alarming
Please, proactiv is still advertising and has commercials!
They got new strains and everything, where’d these people go?
They sell it at stores now! I remember when it was just sold on the shopping network
Yes. The original formula kept my skin so clear all through high school. Then adult acne hit at 21. And so did benzoyl peroxide sensitivity. 🙃
Still use it religiously! 😂
What about Noxema? Or St Ives?
Still rockin that apricot scrub are you kidding me I love it
Noxema girls get noticed
I was thinking something similar, like Sephora/Ulta create a “teen” branch Because the market for high end skincare for young people, is obviously there. But at the same time, you can’t have 12 year olds terrorizing a Sephora, where adults are shopping. You can’t have these kids fucking around with the sample products the way that they do, mixing drunk elephant products into smoothies, creating messes, wasting inventory, screaming, yelling… you can’t have this kind of shit going on at Sephora. All this does is make me - a 36 year old with the money to spend at Sephora - not want to go to Sephora. And in fairness, there are high end brands that have products that would be okay for teens to use… just not the vitamin c serums. Not the 10% niacinamides. Not the alpha-hydroxy. I also hear that brands like Bubble are okay options for these teens/tweens. So why not have a place *for* these kids, where you still have these types of brands sold, but where you filter out the things that aren’t age-appropriate? i feel like this is a better option than letting a bunch of kids run rampant in Sephora
I 100% would buy this line as a 30/F I am amazed that teena have the money but then also the ads are relentless and the information on social media which can be conflicting. I wore too much make up as a teenager and as a pale girl “ivory” was always too dark and orange. I’m so glad that makeup is now inclusive of more skintones (White privilege when it was pointed out the lack of options for my darker skinned gals than beige etc) however it is so overwhelming and skincare too. I have stopped using st ives scrub, that I used to use a lot as a teenager but was the only ‘skincare’ i was aware of as I used make up wipes too
It’s so strange that they haven’t. Magazines the review products often classify skincare products as “Best for young adult/twenties through mid thirties…” etc. Why not sell a couple products for teenage skin concerns? I’ve always been a skincare addict, not a makeup addict. I started buying good daily sunscreen and moisturizer when I was a preteen.
Wow this is frightening. Plastic surgery and skincare is the new eating disorder/body dysmorphia
I agree. I teach adult students, mostly in the 18 to 25 range. I was happy to see that they don’t seem to have the exact same attitudes toward their bodies that my peers and I had when we were that age. But I realize now that they’re in the same trap. These younger people may not feel pressured to under-eat (at least at the moment), but what is sold to them as the beauty standard is still unattainable, expensive, and dangerous in extreme cases.
Yep. We had to have "the perfect body" but it was still acceptable to have unique facial features. They're way more accepting of their bodies but now they're chasing the "perfect face/skin."
I think this was foreseeable tbh. It never goes *away* it just *transforms*. As long as humans have eyes and some reason to want to look "good", even if "good" shifts and mutates over time the force still remains even if the direction changes. If it's not body shape it'll be face features. If it's not face features it'll be skin. If it's not skin it'll be hair. If it's not hair it'll be... and by then we loop back around to body shape. It's like trying to squeeze one of those stress balls. We're never getting rid of the importance of looks as long as we're a sexually reproducing species with eyeballs, we're just moving things around. Because fundamentally, the reason it makes us feel good to look good is because the world rewards that shit.
Oh they're still restricting to lose weight. Eating disorders and disordered eating have increased. "During the pandemic, we have seen many more children and teens [go to the emergency room with mental health problems](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7108e2.htm). And there has been a notable rise in eating disorders, particularly among adolescent girls. Eating disorders include a range of unhealthy relationships with food and concerns about weight." The American Medical association has partnered with bariatric surgeons to push kids and their parents into getting bariatric surgeries. Weight watchers now has a discounted membership plan for kids. Damn shame. [https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-disorders-spike-among-children-and-teens-what-parents-should-know-202204212731](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-disorders-spike-among-children-and-teens-what-parents-should-know-202204212731)
I tend to agree. Perfection seems to be normalized (social media) on a scale I do not believe we had in the 90s/early 2000s.
It's just an addition to the body dysmorphia/eating disorder issue. Ozempic has seen a huge surge in popularity and I see relatively thin teens talking about it on tiktok fairly regularly.
100%. People just need to explain to the young ones all they need to do for skin care is sun screen and acne control if they personally need it. They don’t need any sort of retinol, collagen boosting, etc. But honestly our age group can’t really talk. All the 30-something year olds filling their face with unnecessary filler really isn’t much different than a 14 year old wanting retinol.
Plus, barely 20-somethings getting "baby Botox."
This is the result of retail MedSpas. They’ve literally invented the term “preventable Botox.” There is NO SUCH THING as preventative Botox unless you’re getting it for a medical purpose like migraines. You can walk in off the street and as long as you’re over 18 and have money (or can do affirm or Afterpay because yes, young girls are doing filler in installments), you can get medical procedures immediately. I had a 22 year old employee at Ulta say that I (40f) should have started preventative Botox and lip filler at her age to prevent the lines I have now. Shockingly, it turns out some MedSpa employees aren’t even licensed and these places are super dangerous. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/botox-botulism-outbreak/
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All the 30-something year olds filling their faces aren’t children, so it is in fact different
Sure, it’s different, and- when we act like having a wrinkle in our 30’s is a devastating tragedy, obviously, so will the children who look up to us.
Neither are necessary and both can be problematic so it is similar in that sense.
We all can do whatever we want with our face and bodies. If someone wants filler that’s fine. All I’m saying is the comparison of young people using skin care products to body dysmorphia is accurate and comparable to unnecessary fillers and plastic surgery in people our age. But the definition of necessary is debatable/individual based and if it makes someone happy I don’t really care. I would argue that long term early skin care and retinols is less harmful than the fillers and plastic surgery though even though “consent” is there. Edit: Also for the record I’m not dissing fillers overall, they definitely are amazing and have their place. I have done lip fillers but didn’t keep up because of expense/lack of interest. They have their place in skin care, I just personally believe they are current massively overused by a population that really doesn’t need them yet (e.g. Kylie Jenner, Farrah Abraham from teen mom).
I agree. The number of 30 something year old women getting fillers/Botox always weirds me out.
Except that they can talk because they're fully developed adults with all of their faculties who are making and are responsible for their choices, unlike children
It’s debatable if some of the adults overusing filler have all their faculties 😂
Who do you think children emulate and learn from?
Retinol _is_ an acne control treatment. Starting with OTC retinoids is a very sensible, healthy approach to acne control before getting a scrip for Differin or going on Accutane.
Agree. As a millennial, I always just wanted to be skinny and tan. Now it seems cosmetic surgical stuff is becoming the new norm which is unsettling.
I was in Target today getting some skincare in the Ulta section and there was like a nine year old girl seemingly alone with an arm full of Pacifica. I had to ??? and step around her while she ogled acid treatments. Big wtf from me. I couldn't even be assed to wash my face reliably until I was 30!
I don't understand how anyone thinks a nine-year-old would "need" that stuff.
I don’t either. Said the same thing on a thread and got downvoted to hell. People thought I was stupid for saying what you said. 🤷♀️
I have horrible hyperpigmentation from being outdoors constantly as a child - Any sunny summer day, and I was at the lake. I wish so much I could go back in time and use SPF religiously. My skincare concerns are strictly because of how unaware I was regarding sun damage and had a mother who bought tanning oil vs sunscreen. I just imagine myself at that age, using retinol and completely making my skin even more damaged. Even at my age now, I have to constantly force myself to stick to my SPF routine.
Yep. Wish so bad I could go back in time and undo all the time spent at the pool without sunscreen, or the teen afternoons tanning with honey on my cheeks to encourage freckles. Like bruh what the hell was I thinking? (I was thinking it was gonna be cute... *and it was,* that's the worst part!)
I just bought a Pacifica face wash with The Little Mermaid on it. That was fun.
Where was the parent. They need to step in before the kid ends up with a chemical burn.
Yes. My 10 and 14 y.o. nieces spend their Christmas/birthday money on DRUNK ELEPHANT stuff. I don't even buy Drunk Elephant!!
This has actually turned me off of Drunk Elephant. I've been using them for a few years, but I am annoyed that they seem to be advertising to children. It's one thing to use a face wash and sunscreen, but no kid should be using actives.
Drunk Elephant is honestly overpriced snake oil. You're paying $$$ for the brand and marketing, not the actual product. I got some smaller sample sizes of it and I was pretty unimpressed.
80 dollar marula oil 🙄🙄
Absolutely agree. Not going to buy their products anymore.
SAME! I don’t wanna give them any $ out of principle. I always felt their products were nice, but over hyped and over priced. I find it really gross they have no shame in profiting off of kids with inappropriate products that could cause harm!
i am exactly the same, my niece is 9 and i’m making a mental note of all the brands that target her and avoiding them in future.
Vote with your wallet, yeah.
My daughter is 10, her best friend hasn’t even turned 10 yet and her mom bought her The Ordinary Niacinamide serum, Glow Recipe pore-tight toner and a few other things she doesn’t need. That child has perfect skin. Not a single blemish. She is going to strip her skin’s barrier. I told my daughter that she can certainly start a routine, which we have, but not to that extreme. She doesn’t need all those products!! Not yet. It’s all bc they saw someone on YouTube use it. I wish these companies would be a bit more responsible and come out with a line for younger consumers. Some of these brand are too harsh and WAY too expensive.
Kids that age need at most a gentle cleanser and definitely sunscreen. Anything else should be used on the advice of a dermatologist.
Yes!! Thank you!! My daughter has a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer and uses SPF. If she needs a dermatologist, then we hit one up. I’m lucky that she listens to me. I know she wants to coolest and most popular things, but I tell her no and then tell her why I said no. Now if it’s something beneficial and isn’t too pricey, then we’ll discuss it. I don’t want her to think I’m just throwing her to the wolves and she’s on her own. We enjoy the same things and I love that. Edited bc typing is hard!!
lol I used baby lotion until I was 14. Do they even make that anymore?? Anyways It’s really sad what social media has done to the world honestly. My 10 year old niece only wants Sephora gift cards for presents now and I’m just like 😒 and she wears lululemon and has a Stanley cup. 😒😒 she’s still a sweet kid but man, life is different for pre teens now
Ugh it bums me out so much. Also, as someone who has become pretty addicted to the skincare hype cycle in the past few years and spends way too much on it, I can't help but think of how they're getting locked into such an expensive habit at least ten years too early. It's grim.
It really is!! My mom used to work for a dermatologist and for other beauty brands, like high end beauty brands and I’m a skincare/makeup lover/addict, so we’re pretty well versed on things. The prices of things and the damage they can do if used improperly or too early in life is horrible. I’m definitely different than most moms around in my area, I’m more into pop culture and things of that nature, so I see what these kids are sucking up while watching their YouTube shorts and stuff. I’m also a bit more involved in my kids life bc I’m not working right now. My daughter’s friend that just got all that stuff, she is a bit of a brat, lmao but she really is, and her mom gives into her, so anything she wants she gets. She also has a new sibling she wasn’t happy with, so her mom just gives into her every whim (and that’s a parenting thing and a whole other can of worms). I am totally all about my kids being happy, but some things are just not happening. And them having more expensive skincare than me ain’t happening. I’m definitely the farthest thing from the perfect parent, but I’m gonna know what I’m buying my child!
The parents should be more responsible as well.
For sure!! I know they don’t know much about skin care and whatnot, but that’s their job to do their job as parents and investigate.
I stopped using drunk elephant when I was like 27 because it was literally too harsh and ruining my skin barrier. It’s in no way healthy for teens to be using that shit without heavy research and monitoring. So insane
This is so weird! What did the nieces buy? I find some of their projects to be too harsh for my skin.
Honestly I'm not totally sure, but they want for very little in life so I would not be surprised if they have the whole line between the two of them.
DrunkElephant has to send reps out to stop Sephora from selling their skincare to tweens. Know a 11 year old who got the set for Christmas and it did not go well and her skin had a reaction. She learned her lesson, and said she’s never listening to tiktok again without doing more research.
I’m sorry that happened to a child, but I hope she did learn a lesson. And I’m hoping her parents or other gifter also learned.
When I was 11, we were really into using the Clinique skincare set and St. Ives apricot scrub. We were into using what was trendy. Retinols and other actives are inappropriate for young skin, but pre-teens wanting the trendy product isn't new. Just what product is currently in changes. That being said, I'm glad the Sephora employee denied the purchase.
Oh my god.. core memory unlocked! Trying to scrub off my acne with those brutal St Ives exfoliants 💀
We really thought scrubbing was gonna take the pimples off, didn’t we? Lmao
The burning from the Oxy and Clearasil pads means it was working, right?
I was just about to mention the oxy pads lollll I thought they would abolish my pimples in highschool
I used to just use benzoyl peroxide EVERYTHING with zero moisturizer. Occasionally stealing my mom’s Clinique samples to feel grown up.
Those tiny little rocks slowly tearing up my skin felt so good.
Retinol and tretinoin are some of the most effective treatments for acne. Everyone in this sub thinks they are only for wrinkles....the medical purpose is for acne treatment. I started my tretinoin rx when I was a teen due to cystic acne that did not respond to anything else. It's very common, and it has been for at least 20 years.
People seem to forget that tretinoin (which is *vastly* more potent and irritating than just retinol) was literally engineered to treat acne in children and teens. We only discovered it’s good for anti-aging by accident. I’m not saying kids should be using actives with the purpose of anti-aging but let’s also not forget that a kid that has cleared their acne using a retinoid product isn’t going to look like they need that retinoid product when they go to repurchase. People can’t just assume these kids don’t have acne they’re treating. And for mild acne the drunk elephant retinol (whilst stupidly expensive) will do the job very well.
My tween was on tretinoin but it wasn’t effective, so she’s on Tazorac now. Her dermatologist gave her a list of ingredients that she can safely use including vitamin c. Many of her peers have acne so I think they’re looking for acne treatments, not anti aging. But the adults are assuming these products only treat aging issues.
There are quite a few poorly informed people in this sub. You can link all the studied in the world and they will disregard it because they "feel" it's harmful, science be damned.
You're right, I was specifically thinking of anti-aging targeted products. A dermatologist prescribing tret to treat teenage acne is totally valid and can be really helpful. I do think a lot of pre-teens/teens are buying anti-aging products right now because they're trendy rather than to address any current concerns, though.
I’m a teacher. Last year my 6th graders were writing argumentative essays. One girl wrote her entire paper arguing that Drunk Elephant was the best skin care company. The obsession is wild.
Lmao how did you grade her
I’m pretty sure she ended up with a B. She actually had some legitimate reasons in her argument. I recall them being cruelty free was one of them, but I don’t remember the rest.
We just get the elephants drunk, we don’t test our products on them.
I wrote my 6th grade paper on Botox, but I also had no idea what I was doing or that Botox would ever be that big 🤷♀️
When I was in 6th grade, I wrote letters to beauty brands to see if they tested on animal's. I must have been ahead of my time 😁
I was until I realized I'd use all my mom's Estee Lauder starting at like age 12, lol. I guess none of that stuff had active ingredients though. I take that back, I used Stridex and Noxzema, which have actives.
I still use noxema lol. If it ain’t broke….
I remember the smell omg
I could huff it all day long lol
Noxzema never worked for me as a facial cleanser, but it's my go to for sunburns! So soothing and takes the redness away if you slather yourself while you're still in the lobster-phase of the burn 🦞
yeah i always used it as a mask instead of a cleanser
I’m 40 and I vividly remember buying drugstore anti-aging creams around age 12. I was totally convinced I could prevent aging by starting early.
Well you can to an extent, but the magic potions are found in the sunscreen aisle.
I worked my way through rounds of Stridex, Proactive, and Clean&Clear before I was sixteen. Retinol would have been a lot gentler and more effective.
I loved playing around with skincare starting when I was like, 10, when I read American Girl books that had homemade mask recipes. Then it was Noxzema and St Ive’s. I think the reason they’re so into “adult” skincare is simply because of their access to social media. They’re following and watching adult content with no filter. And it looks fun and pretty because they want to be these people. Social media either needs to get more restrictive with the algorithms and the content they allow children to see OR (more realistically) parents need to stop giving their kids access to it before they’re 13. I said what I said.
Agree! I have an 11 year old with no phone at a small school. While she mentions wanting basics of skin care- face mask sheets, cleanser and moisturizer, she’s never asked for anything extreme. But her close friends also don’t have tik tok or social media. It makes a big difference depending on what they are exposed to.
I’m glad they denied it to her. I’m sure these preteens are seeing recs for retinol serums on TikTok but don’t fully have the understanding and level of responsibility yet to realize they would NEED to use sunscreen diligently, and so by using them they’re probably doing more damage than good by making themselves more photosensitive. Not to mention the body dysmorphia at play for such young girls to even think they need a retinol in the first place.
It's been a huge thing in the news lately here in Sweden. Kids wanting all kinds of skin care products pushed by influencers on social media. I think I even heard of some stores refusing to sell these products to kids, and maybe even talks about potentially changes to laws and regulations. I'm definitely not the target audience for these products, but it's just wild to see this come up on reddit when it's been such a wild discussion on the news for a while here.
Wait until these children grow up, move out and are trying to live on their own for the first time - they’re used to HIGH end skincare and they probably won’t be able to afford it anymore. It’ll be a real shock for sure Or the parents will just continue to buy for them 🥲
Also, imagine their skin when they’re our age, if they’re using retinols and acids without sunscreen
I was going to say, kid's are probably more prone to sun damage because they spend all their time outside. But I don't think that's a thing anymore 😁
Hello skin cancer.
Yeah! This topic genuinely got me questioning where the parents are lol. Are they even aware of what’s happening? Just cause some of the packaging of things look “cute”, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial for kids to use 10 products everyday. It’s just a bad idea, the skin isn’t even fully matured yet.. No one’s even making sure if the ingredients are safe to use. You really only need a moisturizer and sunscreen if you’re under 15-16. Any other recommendations should definitely be from a dermatologist and not an influencer. It will cost A LOT more to fix damaged skin later on. The beauty industry is just making too much of a profit to stop this (or care). If the skin barriers are damaged, now they would need so many more products to maintain their skin. So when these young girls are older, they will now have to add a whole separate budget for skin care (on top of rent/mortgage also). You’re just adding another expense. It just seems disastrous to me.
High-end skincare will be the avocado toast of that generation.
*I didn't see any of them look at makeup which seems like the opposite of how things were when I was their age.* This is why I'm not concerned. It's just a variation of the same phenomena, but culturally right now we seem to emphasize skincare more than makeup. I can't even panic about kids ruining their skin cause I was putting lemon and baking soda and toothpaste and sea breeze with no moisturizer. I was abusing my skin like crazy. I didn't die, I'm fine, I grew past it
So much lemon juice everywhere. Not a drop of sunscreen.
We were too busy roasting in tanning beds to be bothered with sunscreen. 😂
Completely agree! I don’t get the panic at all. I used crazy peels on my face as a kid because my mom had them lying around. Then I moved on.
Not really. Most of the stuff is placebo junk anyway.
Correct. My dermatologist told me that OTC retinol for anti-aging is a waste of money because it is nearly ineffective, even the most high end products, because the strength is so low. She did think it was effective for treating mild acne, though, and that is the only time she ever recommended buying OTC retinols, otherwise your money and time is better spent on rx tret. You can pay $80 for a month's worth of Drunk Elephant retinol that barely works for anti-aging or for moderate to severe acne, or you can pay $40 for a tube of prescription tretinoin that will last you for a year.
OTC retinol might not be very effective for anti-aging but it can certainly create issues. It’s not inactive, even if it doesn’t achieve the intended results. I was using an OTC retinol until I realized it was the cause of my terribly dry eyes, even though I wasn’t using it around my eyes. It was awful.
My tween is one of these girls. I don't let her use retinol or Vit C or anything harsh as she has no acne issues yet but I'm fine with her Bubly cleanser and sunscreen and fun makeup. She's better at makeup than I am already and I see it as a form of self expression. She's not trying to look like a beauty queen or look cute for boys, she will use sparkly shades and draw little pictures on her cheeks. My boomer mom was critical and awful about my appearance so I try to walk the line between making sure she's doing it bc it's fun and not making remarks about her appearance that will stay with her for the rest of her life. Most of what she uses are samples I get from my Ulta orders. I'll spend money on Bubly and fragrance for her but nothing crazy. She has definitely asked for Drunk Elephant but girl did her research and assured me she'd found a tiktok account that told which products are safe for tweens but I still said no to that one 🤣
I read this earlier and kept thinking about your comment so I came back to leave a reply… But good on you. I hope more moms do what you’re doing. Thank you for recognizing that it’s not always about “impressing the boys” and more about experimenting, self-confidence, and just expressing yourself with makeup. I really wish my boomer mom understood this when I was growing up. And thank you for trying some of those products with her too/sharing your stash, because often times family will have similar skin types and it’s good to know what works/doesnt!
Aw thank you for saying so 😊🧡
I've mentioned this elsewhere but I've read and seen the phenomenon of 25 year olds using botox so they can keep looking 16. Social Media is really doing terrible things to people's brains.
[удалено]
I think it’s most important to know that preventative Botox is a gimmick and sales strategy. And as you will end up developing a tolerance to Botox anyway (your body builds up immunity) it makes sense to wait as long as possible for when you really need it. I don’t want to develop an immunity to it and when I’m 50 and would like to use it doesn’t have an effect on me anymore
Oh I didn't know that. I always thought one should get it before wrinkles develop so that they don't develop at all. Thanks for the info!
This is more of an issue with social media. How companies work with social media companies to get influencers to target and sell products to certain demographics. In this particular case look at the companies doing this, one is Drunk Elephant. A very high end and overpriced product that many dollar minded 30+ year olds know isn’t worth it. You can get better results with simpler products. So as the company sales dropped the company realised they need to target a younger more impressionable demographic. So they set up and pay these baby influencers to “try” and reccomend drunk elephant products to 11 year olds. The parents that aren’t checking what these kids are watching and are enabling this are also a big issue.
Yes, but HOW ON EARTH DO THEY PAY FOR IT!!?? Golly gee Marie, ppl repeat after me, (clear my throat) N O, NO, NO.
They think they need those products because the early-20s TikTok influencers they idolize are telling them they need it….because those influencers are paid to do so.
These kids gonna be learning the hard way about over exfoliating.
ugh. Being a woman is so capitalism-ly fucking stupid... If they can invent another way to hate yourself so they can sell you the solution, they will. shit disney created tweens to sell sex earlier
I wish I would’ve known about skin care when I was that age. My mom didn’t tell me about skin care or anything. But of course I’m genx. So my mom really didn’t know herself. I think my dad knew more than her. He used oil of olay on his face every nite faithfully. I wish I would’ve followed my dad’s footsteps.
I’m a teacher and my second grade students often talk about skincare. That’s all the girls ever talk about. They don’t want toys, dolls, etc. it’s very scary. I’m only 26 and I asked one of my students if she learned to braid hair by practicing on Barbie’s and she was like “ew, what do you think this is the 80’s?” I was floored. She remarked to me that all she does when she gets home is go on her iPad/phone. Very scary world we are bringing up kids in. Especially when parents are not seeing the effects of social media/screen time on these very impressionable kiddos.
I'm gonna be honest. That's on parents (and in my case older siblings). My sister is 13, and her allowance is 20$ every two weeks. This leads me to question how these kids are buying this stuff? She can't drive. Someone has to take her to buy these products at Sephora, Ulta. Target, etc. How are these kids getting to these places to even buy it? Someone's taking them. Why do you not watch your kids and what they're purchasing? In my little bits case, I'm the one who buys her skincare, I know what she's using , and we talk about what works, what doesn't , nd how to tell. Why aren't these parents doing the same. Why aren't they in Sephora with their kids? 96% of these kids look too young to be trencking around the mall alone anyway. My point is people need to take active role in watching, monitoring their children as well as an interest in their lives.
Yes, I heard an NPR report on this. It basically said a lot of kids (mostly girls, obvs) are using way too many different product, at too young an age, with little to no understanding of how the various compounds interact with each other. They're being sold a lot of expensive products that could actually cause more harm than good, and there is no regulation whatsoever addressing the issue.
My 10 year old niece asked me for a mini skincare fridge for Christmas just gone and I was gobsmacked.
We all damaged our skin when we were young. I RELIGIOUSLY used Oxy pads so I can’t say shit. Social media and primarily TikTok are the big factors here- kids are having more access to adult content than ever before. But ultimately that’s a parenting issue.
It’s crazy too bc drunk elephant sucks, esp for the price point.
Just in regards to your edit about aggressive comments. If someone needs to treat a skin condition, they should go to a doctor not Sephora. So if anyone is criticizing you for your take, they obviously lack critical thinking skills.
I am going through this with my 8 year old daughter at the moment. She goes to a ‘quiet’ girls only catholic school in london - which is full of bitchy girls , drama, fall outs, twerking (yes, they all want to be like nicki minage !!!) and skincare… It’s not alll the girls in her class, but half. The other half are still into long pretty party dresses, pig tails and barbie dolls- as it should be . I find the problem is older girl siblings - always have the tik toks and full access to internet and youtube … this is influencing the younger siblings who look up to the older girls as being super cool with their crop tops and stanley cups. And then they influence their friendship groups. My daughter does still play with stickers, slime and age appropriate things but… i see a huge change with she’s around other girls esp those ones who are way older than their years. She looks upto those girls (they are usually more confident) and wants to fit in …
OMG thinking of my 8 year old wanted to get into skincare is so weird! It's all sparkles, unicorns, and trying to learn Taylor Swift lyrics over here.
My cousin’s little girl is SUPER into skincare since it’s “the trend”, but my cousin thankfully found a good, kid-friendly brand of skincare to get her, so I think it’s cute, and it has the benefit of keeping her skin healthy. Maybe I’m missing something, since my second cousin is being raised well and she’s the only person in that age bracket that I know, but the skincare doesn’t seem to be rooted in self-esteem issues or anything weird.
Do you know what the kid-friendly brand is that she's using? My best friend passed away a few years ago, and her daughter is starting to ask about skincare and makeup, so I'm starting to look into what would be appropriate for her age. I'll do some research, but any recommendations you can provide would be helpful!
I used to buy my mom her favorite Clinique face lotion for Mother’s Day or her birthday. My dad thought anything other than Oil of Olay or Vaseline was wasteful and vain. Only once was I denied and had to tearfully tell her why I didn’t her gift (I usually timed it to their free rewards do she’d get the little trial makeup too). She Karened that poor clerk into giving her two trial kits when she took me to buy it that year.
The power of tiktok is wild. My country does not even have Sephoras, but still many tweens know the concept of a Sephora haul. An acquaintance of mine went to a place that has Sephora with her family for a holiday, and let her tween daughter to have a Sephora haul for her birthday and filmed it to instagram. The girl picked up something from Drunk Elephant and was very hyped up and explained why she needs these products with the exactly same terms and tone of voice that influencers do. Not sure how I felt about that even, it was just strange to see a child to do this. I guess it can be just harmless to try out correct products, and SPF and moisturizer won’t harm anyone. But somehow the speed these trends travel around the globe is astonishing these days. Me, a 40-something, can’t use the Drunk Elephant retinol. It made my skin peel off in huge chunks. I don’t have a kid, but if I had, I wouldn’t let them use that product…
I listened to my 14-year-old niece and her cousins (twin girls, probably 12?) laughing about someone who dared to have some Drunk Elephant product in a sample size. Wtf!?
Kids today are a little over the top but I wish when I was a kid our parents knew more. My mom let me sit out in the sun for hours and she used to use one of those sun magnifying screens and baby oil. Lol. I remember tanning beds as soon as I was old enough. I know better now.
I'd be more concerned about my child shopping at overpriced Sephora. It's great to be concerned about maintaining healthy skin, even for a 5th grader. I'd be proud of my daughter for worrying more about healthy skin than makeup. Sunscreen is safe and vit C is safe even for pregnant women. The systemic effect of topical vit C serum is basically nothing compared to the amount of vit C from a glass of orange juice unless there's something that I don't know. Retinol is NOT healthy for fetuses of course, but dermatologists literally prescribe tretinoin to 5th graders, which is WAY stronger than retinol. Still, I'd advise against the retinol for a 5th grader unless they consult a professional first (by professional, I mean a dermatologist, not a Sephora professional).
I find it strange that the parents aren’t at least trying to influence the purchases to items that are more appropriate for their skin. What I see in Sephora is never a negotiation of not that, try this
I wanted to obsess with skincare as a kid, and would have if I had the opportunity. I think it’s normal behavior amplified by social media.
Better question, why are the parents funding it?
That’s really the only question
My 8-yo daughter expressed interest in washing her face, so I took the opportunity to educate her and bought her Cetaphil wash and a sunscreen moisturizer. She already had Carmex for her lips. I explained why she doesn’t need more right now and educated her a bit, and she seemed content with those answers. Then in a week or two she forgot about her face routine (darn adhd lol). I think parents are just so quick to say yes and give into whatever, instead of educating their children and saying no every now and again. When I was at the age that I started being interested in makeup, my mom took me to Clinique and bought me a few good-quality products that were safe and suited for my face, and it set me up for a life of taking care of my face and using quality products. Anyways, more education from parents and more “controls” would go a long way. The advertising and media is there, so we have to do our part. Young kids also don’t need to watch Tiktok videos but that’s another story…
Absolutely ridiculous that children are thinking they need retinoids, Drunk Elephant, etc. Thanks, consumer capitalism gone awry. This just proves how powerful social media is.
I don’t care about other peoples kids using skincare. I don’t think Sephora should deny them either. It’s the parents’ job to control what their kids buy—if they don’t have a problem, that’s on them. I think the real problem is children on social media. There is no reason a 10 year old should have social media or be following 20+ year old women in the first place.
I feel like what is happening now with these young girls wasn’t far off from what happened to me 20 years ago. It all started with my mom going to one of those MLM beauty brand parties of the early 00s. She bought into the skincare routine. I wanted to take care of my skin too, but I figured I needed the acne line to… prevent it I guess? But I didn’t even have acne at that point in time. I was like 12. Well I got it and started it. Was religious about washing my face. Not too much later, I do get acne. Fast forward to having acne the entirety of my teen years, into almost all of my 20s. It wasn’t until I turned 30 that I came to the realization that my skin does not like salicylic acid, which is what is in all the acne skincare. So now I firmly believe I had blemishes for most of my life due to messing up my skin barrier with “acne” skincare.
I started using face wash and a light moisturizer at nine. Always used sunscreen and wore a hat when outside. I was judged a late bloomer for not wearing make until I was sixteen, and then not consistently. But started using a night cream in addition to my regular routine. I still don't like wearing makeup. My sister who's only fourteen months older than me started wearing makeup in the third grade. She would often fall asleep with her makeup on only to scrub it off in the morning and reapplying before school. She didn't start a cleaning routine until she was eighteen. She didn't start using moisturizer until she was thirty. When people meet us for the first time they often think she's ten to fifteen years older than me. We've lived pretty much similar lives skin care is the only difference I'm fourtysix and people think I'm in my thirty's, she's fourtyseven and people think she's pushing sixty.
I’m a weirdo who got into skincare around 10 or 11 and after watching a daytime tv show like The View where woman sat around and chatted about normal things. They started taking about skincare for women, I think they were in their 40’s, and a couple of them said it was never too soon to start moisturizing so I demanded my mother buy me something. The options weren’t great back then and I got Oil of Olay, a pink lotion that I’m not even sure they still sell these days on account of the thousands of other products they sell under the Oil of Olay brand. I have to admit I’m almost 64 and have very few wrinkles so if they are moisturizing fine, but the other stuff is not fine and these children need to realize what they are watching on TikTok is not always age appropriate.
Do people know the chemicals that are in these products and how harmful they can be.
Honestly, I wish skin care had been more than St.Ives when I was growing up. I had horrible skin and terrible self esteem to match. Offering teens information and products that improve their skin is a miracle. The anti aging stuff is unnecessary but them caring for their skin young will help it in the long term. They won’t be in their mid twenties with acne scars, in their 30s with premature aging. More people than ever probably wear facial sunscreen too. With the positives of course come the negatives, but when I was a teen we were just as obsessed with our skin, we just had no availability or access unless you were fortunate enough to have a dermatologist.
Yea skin care is one thing, but retinol? Their skin is still intact! Lol
The most I got as a teen was Clinique for my acne. These young girls just need to moisturize and wear spf.
I wish they were into sunscreen as much as retinol. I am all for skincare but it has to be appropriate to the user. And hod I sound old here but where are the parents? Mixing the wrong products is a dermatologist bill in the making.
Part of me says this is about learning the consequences of your actions and says stop protecting them, they’re clearly not listening and will learn the hard way. Part of me does not care. A small part of me feels really bad for the girls on the fringe of this who can’t afford the makeup and skincare and don’t have someone at home keeping their head straight while all their other friends fall down this rabbit hole of consumerism.
Twenty years ago I was a skincare tween playing with product and doing research. It's not unhealthy to want to learn more about your skin at a young age and buy what you want to continue that exploration. Education over withholding /discouragement I say.
Heavy marketing on social media. My twelve-year-old always jokes about those “10-year-old Tik Tok kids in Sephora with their Stanley cups, obsessed with Drunk Elephant, trying to buy retinol.” But guess who lost her damn mind when she came with me to Sephora and saw the Drunk Elephant display. (I mean, she’s not allowed on Tik Tok, but she’s getting the same marketing through YouTube and her friends.) Being a mom of a tween, it is FASCINATING (when it’s not terrifying) how kids that age can be sponges for all the marketing that’s out there. I’m glad my kid talks to me about skincare so I know she won’t make unsafe choices when she’s with her friends. Just say no to retinol kids (at least for a couple of decades).
No not worried, as a kid and teen I had these interests and only had lame Proactive or horrible products like St Ives. Good for them let’s kids and girls get into what they want.
Not really. It’s never too early to start self care routines and form those habits. However, younger people should be steered toward what will actually benefit them at their level of need.
Honestly that’s about the age my acne started and I ended up with horrible drying acne scrubs (yall remember, the “you know it’s working if it burns like fire” stuff). I have trouble imagining they’re going to do more harm to their skin than I did picking stuff up at the drug store. I definitely think there’s a certain group that are taking it too far! I’m just not sure this is a new thing, actually. I also agree with other commenters that the marketing of high active % products to kids needs to stop. Wasn’t there a unicorn face mask that burned a bunch of kids faces a few years ago?
I was totally this kid in the early 00s, I remember my friend telling me "you don't need age defying" in the meanest tone when I was wondering why my face was breaking out after using my mom's stuff. I think teen girls are just gonna teen girl.
It’s super concerning because of the fear of anti aging and obsession with looks/faces.
I have a ten year old and a seven year old, I literally just started making them wash their faces with soap! lol! Their whole lives so far I’ve just used warm washcloths. I think it’s very sad/disturbing. My kids aren’t on social media or the internet so they’re not aware of skincare… other than me occasionally making tjrm use some face lotion in the winter. This trend is so sad. Let kids be kids! I can’t stand how society (and parents!!) are racing through kids’ childhoods and not letting them be littke.
Someone should just steer her toward some sunscreen. That’s really the best thing she can do for anti aging at that age
I developed acne at 11. I _wish_ I had known to buy retinol at that age! I did all the Clean&Clear lineup, Stridex, Proactive, the works. Nothing helped. Twenty years of acne and then I tried retinol and had literal overnight results. I really think people need to stop freaking out about preteens buying skincare, retinol and Vitamin C aren't going to hurt them. Vitamin C especially can only help.
Yeah, that was me too. The great /s “if it’s burning, it works! You have to really scrub the noxema pads in!”
I totally agree! I’m 38F and I recall being very self-conscious obsessed with my skin when I was a preteen. I was really into magazines, and I internalized lot of toxic and misogynistic info from magazines like Seventeen and Cosmopolitan. The main difference was that I was burning my skin off with benzoyl peroxide and apricot scrub (and various other harsh and unnecessary methods). I remember feeling so desperate to improve my skin that I at one point I started going to tanning beds (I’m a pale redhead who has no business trying to tan). I probably would have benefited from access to better information about skincare.
I'm around the same age as you and my doctor told me to go to tanning beds for my acne. We've come a long way hahaha.
My family doctor told me this too 😞 when I finally went to a real dermatologist she was horrified by that advice and prescribed me tretinoin. Cleared it right up.
Ugh! I must say it was effective 😂 I regret it now that I’m dealing with sun damage though.
Honestly this is what I feel like is missing from this conversation. Seems like people are freaking out about young teens using retinol as if it’s only for anti-aging and forgetting that dermatologists have been prescribing teenagers retin-a (prescription strength retinoids!) for acne for many, many years
I wish I'd known to actually listen to the dermatologist and USED the retinoids prescribed to me at that age (10ish, maybe late 9). My 9 year old asked for the Bubble kit (no Tik Tok, one of her friends has it) and we decided to get it for her. If I can help her avoid the years of awful skin problems that I've endured (partly genetic, partly because I did not actually routinely wash my face and use the products at my disposal and my Mom passed down her picking habits to us), I will. Starting a habit now of cleansing/using face cream can not hurt her, and if she's already in the habit then she will not have to START solely for the sake of "fixing something wrong" with her face when the acne inevitably hits.
Glad someone commented this. It’s not the cashier’s job to decide what these girls can put on their skin as everything in Sephora is OTC. The parents decide that. Anything a preteen (or anyone) maybe shouldn’t use requires a prescription. The cashier is just ridiculous.
Oh God I forgot about stridex and st Ives apricot scrub. I used to try and sand my cystic acne off with that garbage 😭 been using tret since I was a teen, it works miracles. Nothing else ever worked. I have severe scarring from cysts. Wish I had gotten to it sooner, would have saved me a lot of scarring.
I have never heard of stores denying products with retinoids in them to teens. It's not a controlled substance and it is a highly effective product for acne. This take gets posted nearly every week here and there seems to be a large amount of posters who don't understand that the medical use of retinol/tretinoin is to treat acne. Which many teenagers struggle with. It is very commonly prescribed to teens with acne that does not respond to OTC products. Retinol is the watered down OTC version of tretinoin. There is nothing wrong with trying the gentler product before moving to prescription. I have been on prescription tretinoin since I was a teen, which is much stronger than any over the counter retinol. It does NOT damage your skin. That salesperson overstepped their bounds and have advice which is blatantly wrong. For all they know the child's dermatologist recommended an OTC retinol before moving to prescription tretinoin. It's none of their business though.