By Kelsey Gabalis ‘27
When you think of your childhood, what do you see? Swinging gleefully on the swings or riding a bike down the street, playing in the sprinklers on hot summer days or having sleepovers with your friends. Or maybe if you are growing up in this generation with cell phones and social media that promote the latest trends in things such as makeup and skincare.
Trying to grow up too fast
There is no question as to the fact that children seem to be growing up faster, even if in a physical sense kids are still kids. In an emotional sense, however, they increasingly seem like they are not allowed to be kids anymore, forced to emotionally mature before the time that they are ready. It seems now that children go from toddlers to full grown adults in a heartbeat, Sephora is the new Claires and buying thousands of dollars of skin care and makeup is becoming normalized for these young children. The “epidemic” of “Sephora kids” is not only about the money that they are spending, but also the rudeness that they are showing not only to other shoppers, but to store associates. They destroy products in stores and express disrespectful demeanor to those around them. This “mean girl behavior” is normalized by the online culture that these children have been consuming since the point that they could sit up on their own.
Who is at fault in this situation?
The children themselves are hardly to blame for the way that they have been raised, so a lot of the blame must fall on the parents shoulders, letting television and iPads raise their kids. Media has become the “modern parent” and children exposed to it are starting to model behavior and identities off of those that they see online. Brands are also largely at fault, as brands not meant for children, like Drunk Elephant, make products that are targeted at children.
How is this affecting kids
The effect that chronic social media use and unnecessary use of makeup and skin care have on these children and tweens is everything but good. The unneeded anti-aging products and harmful ingredients in adult skin care are only breaking down their skin barrier and causing more harm than good to their underaged skin. Social media’s obsession with appearances is also negatively affecting children starting at a very young age. A report from the CDC in 2021 found that 3 in 5 teens in the U.S. felt persistently sad or helpless. A 21% increase from a decade before. It is clear that there are no winners in this situation, the accelerated rate that children are being expected to mature by the media and consumer culture poses sizable threats to children’s well-being and the preservation of the magic of childhood innocence.
