Chloe Gerhard | Writer
January 25, 2024
A new obsession has taken hold of 10-year-old girls and it’s clearing store shelves, but it’s not the shelves of Toys Are Us. It’s Sephora. TikTok has recently showcased an uproar in response to 10-year-old girls’ obsession with skin care. As local Sephoras starts to look more like the inside of Claire’s, conversations have exploded about what the root cause of this pandemonium is.
The phenomenon started from TikTok’s “get ready with me” format videos. These videos feature influencers doing their skincare routines while explaining what they will be doing in their day or while giving a “story time.” Influencers include the most sought-after brands of skincare in these videos such as Drunk Elephant or Glow Recipe. However, these videos are just the tip of the iceberg.
Senior Lea Davis stated, “kids are on social media younger than ever, and it makes sense that young girls could see skincare being advertised to them and think it is something that they need.”
A large portion of “get ready with me” styled videos are just a front to advertise products that influencers have a sponsorship with. These content creators market these skincare products as life-changing and a necessity for good skin and full beauty potential. Though this message may be intended for an older audience, these videos end up on the TikTok “For You” pages of young, impressionable girls.
Beauty standards for women have always been high and unforgiving, however with social media this issue has expanded in many ways. The emphasis on women’s physical attributes cause many girls from a young age to compare themselves to others. Pre-social media, young girls’ only compare themselves to people in real life; not influencers with edited, perfected versions of others with undisclosed Botox.
Senior Ally Golden reflected on this recent trend, and expressed that, “children do not need to be wearing makeup on their flawless skin and doing skincare for anti-aging. Young girls are so influenced by beauty content creators that are five to 10 years older who have different skin needs than them.” She later included that, “young girls get it in their heads that they need these products without realizing what they are used for just to stay on the trend.”
Young girls look at what is popular and mimic behaviors to fit in. Skincare and maintaining a perfect and ageless appearance is massively popular on social media. Society’s obsession with agelessness is reflected heavily on most platforms. This has caused girls who aren’t even in middle school yet to start hefty skincare regimens including products like retinol.
When does this cross the line from harmless self-care to a harmful outcome of society’s unrealistic beauty standards for women? These children are now the subject of criticism and ridicule in conversations on TikTok surrounding this trend. Children are the product of their environment. The real criticism should be directed at a culture of forced conformity and our obsession with women’s appearance. What does it say about us when young girls are asking for retinol cream on their Christmas lists instead of toys?
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