For a 15-year-old girl in 2024, some of the everyday problems she posts to her 10,000-plus followers on TikTok seem similar to teenagers of any generation. The girl remains unidentified here because she is a minor, but she tries on different outfits for concerts, makes a point of going to second-grade Spanish class, and hangs out with friends without parental supervision. He recorded how excited he was to be able to eat at the restaurant. .
She also suffers from anxiety and posts about it as well. In a video from her freshman year of high school, she asks: She asked, “Why did I start getting wrinkles on my forehead?” Her caption included the hashtag “Wrinkles too soon.” This video has been viewed 5.6 million times by her.
Another user commented, “Same.” “At this rate, I’ll look like I’m 30 by the time I’m 20.”
It’s all part of a growing interest in anti-aging skin care among tweens and teens who have barely experienced puberty, let alone aging.from
A quick scroll through the comments reveals that mostly other young high school students agree with her. Some people recommend applying mascara a certain way to avoid raising your eyebrows, or training yourself not to be expressive when talking to friends.
It’s all part of a growing interest in anti-aging skin care among tweens and teens who have barely experienced puberty, let alone aging. From the “Get Ready with Me” (GRWM) video and Christmas events to Sephora employees’ reactions on TikTok, the conversation surrounding including young children in the skin care economy is exploding.
“This is not surprising, nor is it shocking. Anyone who has been paying attention to beauty culture and how it has changed over the past five to 10 years could probably have predicted this. ,” beauty reporter Jessica Defino told Yahoo News. “This is exactly how beauty culture works. This is exactly how social media consumption works.”
If you’re in your 30s now, you may remember using facial cleansers and moisturizers when you were a teenager, at best. Ten-year-olds definitely didn’t ask for niacinamide serum at the beauty counter, especially with perfect pronunciation. Retinol, a popular anti-aging drug, used to require a doctor’s prescription, but now you can buy a product containing the ingredient in cute, intentionally photogenic packaging for $8.
“We didn’t have this level of obsession in the ’80s because the product didn’t exist, or at least the product didn’t exist for the average person,” Defino explained. “There are now so many anti-aging skin care products available everywhere you go, from drugstore to ultra-premium, at a variety of price points.”
Dr. Daniel Yamini, a board-certified plastic surgeon at Visthetic Surgery Institute & MedSpa in Beverly Hills, tells Yahoo News that the general rule of thumb is to wait until you’re in your late 20s or early 30s when considering anti-aging products. He said that. . But still, he says, aging is different for everyone and depends on several factors.
“Using anti-aging products early in life can have potential downsides,” Yamini adds, stressing that many products use powerful and highly reactive ingredients. did. Young skin is more sensitive and therefore more prone to irritation, so many new anti-aging products have not been studied long enough to fully understand their long-term effects.
Yamini also emphasized the importance of consulting a skin care professional. Beauty culture and social media have relaxed who is defined as an “expert” on the subject. Content creators are now considered by some to be trusted guides, even when working with specific beauty brands.
“When I was growing up, I feel like there was a dedicated space in the media for tweens and tweens,” Defino said, citing children’s cable channels like Nickelodeon and Disney as examples; He cited publications such as Teen Vogue and Seventeen.
“Everyone of all ages is on Instagram and TikTok, and we’re all being sold the same products. marketing and are adopting these behaviors at a much younger age,” she said.
But who is at fault here? Much of the social media reaction seems to shift the blame, mostly to teens and teens themselves. Charlotte Palermino, his CEO and co-founder of beauty brand Dieux, started noticing that adults were doing his TikTok duets with young children and mocking their routines, he told Yahoo News. Told.
“Children are already well-equipped to cope with being online: dysmorphophobia, parasocial relationships, unrealistic thoughts about how life is to be lived by constantly being exposed to people’s highlight reels. “You’re facing expectations,” she says. “Are we really going to mock adults when they see content that parrots and parrots what is being praised?”
What about your parents? DeFino coined the term “Serum Mama,” a play on “Almond Mama.” This term refers to parents who are obsessed with their health and weight and transmit that anxiety to their children. In the case of Serum Mama, Defino said, it’s the parents who recommend Drunk Elephant products to their young children and encourage younger children in their 20s to try Botox and fillers.
“For me, the definition of being a serum mom is not considering your own obsessions, beauty behaviors, or how beauty culture has affected you, but just passing that on to your kids,” she said. Ta.
Despite headlines saying this is a new trend among Gen Z and Alpha, she says that’s not the case. Yes, there are more beauty products available now than ever before, but DeFino argues that it’s “old behaviors” repackaged.
“How old were you when you started copying your mom’s makeup?” How old were you when you started walking around the house in her heels? These are normal developmental things. I think so,” she said. “This behavior is not new, but the culture we have today is set up to make it a bigger problem that affects more people faster and more harmfully.”
