Forget playing with slime. For Gen Alpha, it’s all about their skincare game.
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Kids from all over the world have seemingly graduated from mixing glue to make slime and instead fancied themselves concocting retinol with glycolic acid as their latest hobby. Granted, I bet we all had a moment in our childhood where we played chemists and mixed different colored shampoos in the shower, but this time is quite different.
For what seemed to be just a silly and cute TikTok trend became the introduction for kids’ beauty standards and idea of what is cool. But well, beauty is both a blessing and a curse; who would’ve thought that a craze of product hoarding, Gen Alpha’s obsession with luxury skincare, and eventually, a deeper layer to the beauty microcosm of femininity would happen just because of a simple, “hi, get ready with me to bed”?
KATIE FANG EFFECT
You probably saw the viral video of the girl crying in her sped-up get ready with me TikTok video because she didn’t want to go to work. Relatable content, no doubt, it garnered millions of likes, and a flock of girls flew to the comment section in empathy, flooding “girl same” with crying emojis. We can’t help but conclude in endearment that that’s girlhood.
But to define girlhood as overconsumption has been bonepicked countless times. Sadly, kids exposed to this content don’t necessarily see the harm.
@katiefanggg This is so sad
♬ original sound – Katie Fang
Her array of Drunk Elephant products created the phenomenon we now know as the Sephora kids in the West. Tween girls are being reported on live TV for doing the skinfluencer’s signature bronze drops serum and moisturizer mix before layering her foundation on the store’s test products.
It’s concerning, but isn’t skincare supposed to be healing? Why are we scrutinizing kids for wanting to take care of themselves? More often than not, however, there’s a thin line between developing an interest to bond over and the possibility of setting ridiculous beauty expectations and shopping addiction at an impressionable age.
SALON MOMS
Let’s give a little leeway. It’s true; skincare has always been a part of your mom’s vanity, no matter what. It was unavoidable even, almost innately there. The number of used cotton balls because of Eskinol must have piqued your curiosity then, and it was only in due time that you could buy your own set of prettily packaged creams, or so your mom assures. You name it, facials at the local mall, manicures, and pedicure dates– it was very common to have been hyper-vigilant about your skin given the exposure from your sisters and girl cousins too about what beauty means.
However, the new set of TikTok momagers has gone rampant, with even one of them having their three-year-old do a skincare routine for a video. In true beauty and skincare influencer fashion, other kids would also narrate (at least for those who can speak already) their days in a fast-paced tone, sharing their plans for the day with their moms or their assignments at school.
It’s quite the gimmick, and it takes guts for supervising adults to let kids be perceived to such a vast extent online. Meanwhile, the pressure to have the latest skincare craze is on for the other kids watching behind the screen. It’s tough to resist when the FYP works that way and brands emulate nostalgic or candy-like scents and packaging in their cosmetics.
BEAUTY IN A BOTTLE
Where has childhood gone to? Perhaps it’s too complicated to answer with one line. The idea of growing up in this day and age extends to many related webs, and the concept of beauty is entrenched there, domineering as our first taste of envy and, likewise, performance for the big world.
While it isn’t inherently wrong for kids to care about their skin, these are kids we’re talking about, and 10 year olds being overly obsessed with trying the latest serums and creams before they even reached puberty does raise some eyebrows. Consumerism knows no age limit sadly, but we also have a part to play in letting the next generation know that it’s ok for kids to be kids and there’s no need to have all that skincare in grade school. That GRWM TikTok video can wait, bestie.
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