Tween: Anti Aging Doom-Loop! Skincare the New Dieting
Influencers and the skincare industry have convinced middle schoolers they need to spend hundreds on skincare
Doctors are seeing 12-year-olds worried about wrinkles, and kids with irritation from retinol
By Beth Teitell Globe Staff,Updated January 31, 2024, 1 hour ago
For tweens, skincare has become the new diet culture
WATCH:
As reporter Beth Teitell explains, there’s big money to be made from a
vulnerable population that is always being taught their appearance needs
fixing.
“It’s
INSANE,” Sephora mom Karyn Agosto howled into the phone. First her
eighth-grader succumbed, she said, then her fourth-grader — both sucked
into the skincare craze striking tweens and young teens.
It’s
a TikTok-fueled obsession that has girls with the dewy glow of youth
spending hundreds of dollars to lift, brighten, and de-wrinkle skin that
people with actual saggy faces would kill for.
Agosto
was speaking quickly now, rattling off her girls’ skincare needs: Jade
rollers. Mini cosmetic refrigerators for their bedrooms. Lip masks.
Anything from a company called Drunk Elephant.
“They care about their skin,” said Agosto, of North Andover, “but you still have to fight them to put sunscreen on.”
Caught
in the grip of marketing forces and influencers more powerful than any
mean girl, and often enticed by packaging with Barbie vibes, middle
schoolers are spending $30, $40, $60, or more for radiance serums,
cooling waters, and rescue balms.
“My
almost 13-year-old has so much skincare [merch] she could open a
satellite Sephora location in her bathroom,” said Jaimie Adler, of
Lexington.
Skincare
has become the new dieting, and there’s big money to be made from a
vulnerable population that is, as always, being taught to feel its
appearance needs fixing.
Helena Cornwell, 14, opens a drawer containing all of the Cornwells' lip balms and glosses.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
You’re
never too young to feel old. In North Attleboro, Helena Cornwell, a
high school freshman, spoke glowingly of her 8–year–old sister’s skin,
but not her own.
“She has perfect porcelain skin because she hasn’t experienced very much stress,” she said.
“You’re 14 and talking like you’re my age,” her mother, Kimberly Cornwell said.
“I do get wrinkles in my forehead,” Helena responded.
“These 10-year-olds are crazy, like literally the most feral …” a TikTok user named @_giannalove says in a Dec. 31 video that’s gotten 3.2 million likes.
At
11, Hailey DeLong, of Millis, has a nighttime routine that would humble
a Kardashian. “I start off with Glow Recipe toner,” she said, “and then
I’ll do the Byoma hydrating serum and then I do a Bubble moisturizer
and then I use Holy Hydration e.l.f. eye cream, and, I forgot, first
I’ll use facial spray.”
Helena Cornwell uses a jade roller on her face while sitting at her vanity in her North Attleboro bedroom.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Hailey
isn’t worried about looking old, she emphasized — she does it just for
fun. “It’s like playing with toys, but for older kids.”
But
there’s a darker side, too, with accusations that skincare firms market
potentially harmful products to children. The criticism has become so
intense that the founder of tween-favorite Drunk Elephant was questioned by AdAge.
“There’s
not an effort on our part to target or make money off kids or anything
like that,” Tiffany Masterson told the publication in early January.
Whatever the intentions, the girls are using the products. And doctors are seeing the results.
“They
all feel they need to exfoliate but they are destroying their skin
barrier by over-exfoliating,” said Rosy Sandhu, an internal medicine
physician and founder of the Neem Medical Spas in Greater Boston.
Additionally,
moisturizers meant for older, drier skin are clogging the kids’ pores
and triggering acne, she said. She is “living” the story in her own
house, she added, with her two skincare focused daughters.
Six
months ago she noticed that her 12-year-old had redness and irritation
under her eyes, the result, a conversation revealed, of a
retinol-infused product she had been using to get rid of what she
perceived as dark circles.
“It was a mild version of retinol, but for a 12-year-old, that can burn your skin off,” Sandhu said.
Quincy
dermatologist Victoria Kuohung, with DermCare Experts, said she’s had
girls as young as 12 come in concerned about wrinkles.
Katie Cornwell carried her skincare organizer bin out of the bathroom after washing her face in North Attleboro home. Erin Clark/Globe Staff
But
effective skincare can be very “basic,” she added. “Stay out of the
sun, use sunblock, and a moisturizer. But clearly these simple ideas are
not compelling enough. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked
about snail mucin or fish eggs.”
Potential
harms are more than skin deep, she added. “The focus and energy young
women are directing towards complicated and misplaced anti-aging
regimens takes away energy and attention from developing themselves in
other areas.”
Meanwhile,
even as teens and pre-teens absorb anti-aging messages from
influencers, some moms who had finally managed to break free of the
madness are being sucked in by their daughters — who are spending much
more than they are.
“She renewed my interest in skincare,” Kimberly Cornwell of North Attleboro said of her high school freshman.
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