Don't Call It Girlhood
I talked to NBC News about Gen Alpha's obsession with skincare products.
I talked to NBC News this week about “Gen Alpha’s controversial obsession with skincare.”
The obsession is real: As reported by Business of Fashion, “US households with 6- to 12-year-olds spent 27 percent more on skincare in 2023 versus a year earlier” and “beauty spending among teens increased 23 percent year-over-year” as well.
Supporters are quick to say skincare is “fun” and adults should “let the girls slather.” Personally, I find this position more misogynistic than calling girls’ beauty behaviors into question. As I told NBC, beauty standards are a public health issue. To dismiss the potential physical and psychological consequences of cosmetics under the guise of “girlhood” is to do girls a disservice.
Because what is girlhood? To defend girlhood we must first define it; as in, how is it different from childhood? Kids mimic the behavior of the adults around them. That’s a normal and healthy part of childhood for children of all genders. Girlhood differs (mostly) in its social conditioning — what behaviors to mimic, and why. Manipulating your own physical appearance to meet an often unattainable, often inhuman ideal is not an interest inherent to tween and teen girls! It’s one that’s indoctrinated. (Perhaps this is partly why the same demographic is experiencing record rates of loneliness, anxiety, depression. They aren’t learning to understand themselves as human beings, but to perform themselves as girls.)
There’s so much more to write on this topic. Until then, you can watch the NBC News video above, or check out these other articles I’m featured in: “‘Sephora kids’ and the booming business of beauty products for children” by Mia Taylor for the BBC, “Who’s to blame for tweens and teens’ obsession with anti-aging skin care products?” by Katie Mather for Yahoo! News, and “TikTok is criticizing young girls who shop at Sephora. They're missing the point” by Elena Cavender for Mashable.
This just reminds me of learning to diet at such a young age. Is that healthy? No. So why is anti-aging at such a young age (or at all) healthy? It's the same thing, essentially. It's teaching kids to hate themselves as they are, and reach for an impossible ideal. Simply calling it skincare is deceiving, because it's really about chasing youth. How sad that young people are already chasing something as if its disappeared, when the reality is that skincare companies and the entire anti-aging complex is literally stealing their childhoods. Thank you for writing and speaking about this, Jess. <3
To say that this is frightening is putting it mildly. These are children. The only thing they need is to wash their face and use sunscreen. So we should blame TikTok? I see the mothers are right there next to these children, smiling and laughing as these young girls begin at the age of six to ... what... start with an obsession of body image? How about full makeup by seven and stilettos by nine? No - they're not being given the chance to understand and love themselves. They're creating themselves into some kind of image and it's frightening. Self care starts with loving ourselves. How does this work when children are the target? Jess, as you noted, this is the same demographic that is experiencing record rates of loneliness, anxiety and depression. And do we even know what harm this may be doing to their skin? Is the skin care industry now ramping up for a new line that will target the harmful results?