by Aspen Weinberg ’25

For the past few years, many children, often aged eight to eleven years, have started to use skincare, health, and beauty products that are mainly aimed towards people decades older than them. Such products can be seen to decay the skin’s barrier against the sun’s ultra-violet rays and pollutants in the air. They have also proved to increase product sensitivities, acne, and can even cause eczema.

During today’s age of technology, people online are influencable. If a person’s favorite online content creator says to use a new product, people are more than likely to go out, get the product, and try it for themselves. Many new skincare brands, such as Drunk Elephant, have advertised their products as “clean” and “high quality”.

According to the Drunk Elephant website, “[skin] can only function at its healthiest when it’s treated with smart, nourishing, biocompatible ingredients.” Many young people have seen such advertisements from large-scale brands and have convinced themselves and their parents that they “need” these products to look good.

Despite warnings from dermatologists of the dangers of using retinol products under the age of 25, many young girls persist to seek them out and they have continued to ignore the professionals in hopes of becoming “TikTok Famous” and gathering a large audience of other girls of similar ages with like interests.

Many Sephora employees and customer witnesses have turned to TikTok to share the appalling treatment of a parent from the child. One user, @natsodrizzy, has shared her story of when she watched a young girl pressure her mother into buying nearly $500 worth of products.

TikTok users have also seen a rise in “Get Ready With Me” or “GRWM” videos posted by children with large followings. While TikTok has an age limit for posting videos, parents of these girls are bypassing them and will often try to use their children for money.

With the constant surroundings of influencers and brands telling girls what they should look like and how to achieve it, many have developed worsening self esteem issues that can last well into their teenage, and even adult years. Children need to stray away from makeup and beauty to focus on being a kid and they need to realize that not everything they see on the internet is true.