Zits no longer perturb baby-faced tweens and teens. Instead, they're panicked about aging.
Take one look at TikTok and you'll discover an overwhelming number of videos showing a 10-year-old's extensive skincare regimen. Many of their routines consist of cleanser, serum, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, face oil, and retinol (an ingredient designed to combat fine lines and stimulate collagen production, and typically recommended for use in your late-20s or early-30s). Sometimes, masks and facial tools are thrown into the mix. Overall, their bathrooms often resemble a department store's makeup counter, as rows of pretty palm-sized bottles fill the space between the wall and sink.
And that's just their bedtime prep.
During the day, they rinse and repeat, using the same products they slathered the night before (sometimes they apply retinol when it's only meant for nighttime use). Then, they tack on even more products: Drunk Elephant's liquid bronzer, Glossier's cream blush, Rare Beauty's under-eye brightener, and Charlotte Tilbury’s liquid highlighter. A spritz of Victor&Rolf's Flower Bomb ties it all together. What’s interesting about these routines is that, for the most part, the best anti-aging product is nowhere to be found: SPF.
Sephora is their new safe haven. They’re like kids in a candy store, selecting watermelon-infused serums and cherry-flavored lip stains. So, how did we get here? Because when I was a pre-teen in the mid-aughts, the most I had on was a Juicy Tube lip gloss. In fact, I didn’t start regularly wearing makeup—I’m talking foundation, powder, bronzer, blush, eyeliner, and mascara—until my freshman year in high school when I made the Varsity cheerleading team and had to look presentable at pep rallies and Friday-night football games.
Times have certainly changed. Aside from having a low-key makeup routine, I also recognize that I wasn’t avidly watching YouTube tutorials or comparing myself to others on Instagram (I mean, I had MySpace but no one was uploading photos on the regular). Today, you can easily find the basics of skincare with a quick Google search or TikTok video. Social media is also a new currency system, where having a glam room, a ring light to take the perfect selfies, and the latest beauty products are all status symbols.
While it's normal for teens to play with makeup and experiment with their style, it’s alarming that many of them are doing this to ward off wrinkles. And ironically, they're speeding up the aging process by using too many active ingredients (and, in some instances, using them incorrectly), which causes skin issues in the long run. “The beauty standard is to stay young, and I do try to fit the beauty standard,” a 15-year-old told The Cut. “If I have good skin, that’s great—but so does everyone else. It’s a form we all have to fit into.”
We’ve created a culture that prioritizes youth and aggressively pushes that narrative to the people who need to hear it the least. That’s like telling someone who wears glasses that they should seriously think about wearing glasses. The marketing campaigns not only prey on people’s fears but they’ve become threatening. "Getting old is getting old," a tagline read from SpoiledChild’s anti-aging line geared towards Gen Z. While other ads aren’t as direct, they still promote an impossible standard towards teens and twenty-somethings. Kylie Jenner's namesake brand recently launched a foundation collection, saying it "blurs skin to leave you with a flawless airbrushed finish." Spoiler alert: There isn’t a product on the market capable of doing that (at least not yet).
When anti-aging skincare and filter-like finishes are shoved down people's throats, especially impressionable teenagers, it reinforces the notion that our self-worth is directly tied to our appearance. And that once we reach a certain age, we are no longer valuable. "Social media filters have created unrealistic expectations of perfect, poreless skin fueling sales of makeup to kids," board-certified dermatologist Dr. Brooke Jeffy told The New York Post. “Add to that a fear of aging modeled by influencers, parents, and friends and the desire for anti-aging skincare is born."
It’s obvious that brands drive these messages to keep consumers wanting solutions to their “problems.” The more their customers are worried about a tiny blemish, or the microscopic pores on their nose, or the peach fuzz on their cheeks, the more products they can sell. By targeting pre-teens and teens, they are not only building brand loyalty but securing decades-worth of revenue.
Kids clamoring for beauty products raises a lot of concerns, but the question I personally keep coming back to is: Where are the parents??? I’m biased in the sense that I’m a parent and can’t turn off my mom brain—and am terrified of being judged for my parenting skills. But what I know is that anytime I wanted something—whether it was an actual product or to tap into a trend—I had to get my mom’s approval first. To this day, I’ve never colored my hair because in the 7th-grade, when everyone started getting highlights and dyeing their hair, my mom told me I couldn’t. “Come back to me in a year,” I recall her telling me, “and if you still want to color your hair, I’ll think about it.” After a few months, I forgot about it. And haven’t felt the urge to change it since.
Other parents have certainly taken a different approach. "I don't want to be the mom that just shuts things down,” one mom admitted to NPR about her 10-year-old. “I want to be involved in the conversation. I want her to feel included with her group of friends." Another mom told the outlet she just wants her 12-year-old to feel her best. “We live in a world where women are judged for their appearance,” she said. “And I would really like her to know how to deal with that.”
One Sephora employee recently went viral on TikTok after recalling an experience a 10-year-old had with their mom, in which the pre-teen’s total initially came out to $900 but then dwindled down to $500 after a few items were reluctantly removed. “The problem isn’t the kid,” the influencer said, “it’s the parents, because why aren’t you guys holding your ground?!” Others have criticized kids’ behavior in stores, blaming parents for their lack of discipline.
One Sephora review read in part:
“I know that Sephora has basically become the new Claire’s for kids, and buying Drunk Elephant products that are full of actives and retinoids that are harmful to kid’s skin is the latest Gen Alpha trend, but the testers are getting destroyed. Everything from kids mixing skincare and makeup testers together to make ‘smoothies’ to opening new makeup packages and using them only to leave them on the shelf. These are expensive products being contaminated and wrecked.”
Parents might not be able to suppress their child’s interest in makeup and skincare, but they can definitely remind them there isn’t a magic formula to remain ageless. Unless, that is, they also believe there is one.
What I find interesting about this topic is that beauty is paradoxical. We have teens stressed about wrinkles, while celebrities in their 50s and 60s are celebrating their facial creases and gray hair more than ever. Last September, Pamela Anderson made headlines for going makeup-free during Paris Fashion Week. "It's all about self-acceptance," the ‘90s beauty icon told i-D magazine. "This is the chapter of my life I'm trying to embrace now. I feel relief—a weight off my shoulders."
Maybe the key to eternal youth comes to us when we don’t give a damn.