To be clear, I’ve never actually been inside a Sephora or Ulta Beauty store in my life. All my makeup comes from Walmart or Amazon because I’m frugal (*cough* cheap *cough*). However, on a recent trip to the mall, as I was walking around I saw a small part of what everyone has been talking about when it comes to Gen-Alpha kids and that was a group of 9–10-year-olds each carrying their little bags of Sephora makeup. Though I wasn’t part of any harassment by the children, that still disturbed me. Why do literal children need makeup? The first time I ever used makeup was for an Elsa costume I wore when I was about 7 years old and even then, that was only a bit of very light-colored purple eyeshadow.
The first reason I think this is a thing is because of a little thing called gentle parenting or, in other words, “You’re-too-addicted-to-your-screen-to-raise-your-children-because-you’re-a-lazy-millenial-who-thinks-you’re-doing-good.” This has sadly become a trend amongst millennial parents who, in rebellion against the strict ways of their childhood, have taken a more permissive route to parenting, preferring to coddle their children and let them do whatever they want so they don’t actually have to do anything. Due to this permissive parenting style, the children become total brats, seeing as they can push as many boundaries as they want (because there are none) and get away with it. An example of this comes from a story that my best friend told me about how the three-year-old who she was babysitting started trying to choke her and the child faced no repercussions whatsoever from the parents (if you’re also thinking that this kid could be from the movie Rosmary’s Baby, welcome to the club).
Because of this trend of “gentle parenting” Gen-Alpha are even more chronically online than any other generation, having had a screen shoved in their face pretty much immediately after they were out of the womb, absorbing all of the crap the internet has to offer from Cocomelon (which is straight from hell), to slime videos, to thirst traps, to makeup tutorials/Get-ready-with-me and the glorified effects of over consumerism. This means that from an early age, they are exposed to overly glamorous and photo-shopped faces that – while admittedly beautiful – are a fantasy that confuse the children (Why don’t I look like that? Why don’t I have a small nose or perfect jawline?) and teach them that if they want to ever be valued in society, they must meet the unattainable criteria that the internet sets up for them. Additionally, because it’s mostly young women that they’re seeing do these looks and promoting the use of retinol serums and damaging skin care products, these children are taught to fear aging so much so that we’re now seeing 6–9-year-olds posting videos of themselves spending hundreds of dollars to by Drunk Elephant products to prevent themselves from aging.
And where does this money come from?
It comes from the “gentle” parents who are so indulgent to their children’s every whim that they will happily give them hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars to spend buying these products, even going so far to allow them to destroy the Sephora stores’ testers and bully the workers and other customers because, “Oh, isn’t she cute?” These parents seem to resent the fact that they were made to work for what they wanted as kids and believe that their children shouldn’t have to do that. Not only does this lead to the kids being wasteful, destructive, egotistical, and selfish from a young age, but it doesn’t teach them that things inherently have value, and you have to give something of equal value to get those things. It teaches the kids that their parents are basically made of money and that breeds ungratefulness and entitlement.
But what do these millennials care? They’re making some profit off of this as well as they use the shock value of their children’s Get-Ready-With-Me videos to gain followers and monetization. Having grown up with the internet, Instagram-addicted millennials know how to use their children and clickbait-y titles to get views and thus, get money from sponsorships if the channel grows big enough. Despite what some people think, most family vlog channels or kids’ channels (like Ryan’s Toy Review which was really big when I was a kid) are not actually run by the kids. They’re run by the parents – particularly by the grasping mothers – who usually take the money and leave their kids with close to nothing because they know they can get away with it. Therefore, if they can film their kids acting like brats or making fun of people with common sense, they may eventually grow famous on the internet and can brag about how great they are to all their followers. This is easily one of the most insidious reasons why the trend of overly glamorized Gen-Alphas are blowing up on the internet.
The second reason is because society has lost the ability to draw the line between what is appropriate and not appropriate for children. We’ve become so bombarded with messages about sexual liberation and needing to look sexy that as long as the kids following those messages look like adults, we turn a blind eye. The parents seem to think, “Well, my kids have unfortunately, but probably seen worse in the shows they watch. What’s wrong with a bit of makeup and some adult dresses?” That’s why 10, 12, 13-year-olds are allowed to post thirst traps and other raunchy content on sites like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube without being called out for it by the adults watching. They so look like adults because of how they dress and how much makeup is pancaked onto their faces that we almost can’t tell how old they are.
This is incredibly disturbing to me as someone who has always looked older for her age, even without wearing makeup (I was being mistaken as being a senior in high school or already being in college as a 14-year-old). Getting rid of the awkward, but necessary transition from childhood to womanhood as girls are being forced to grow up faster than their minds can realistically handle is a horrible thing. I remember being the age of most of these girls. At 9-11, I was still playing with Barbies and would only wear very light-colored eye shadow or lipstick on special occasions. By 12-13, I was a gawky, somewhat tubby child on a growth spurt, trying poorly to be a wannabe emo because I just discovered dark eyeshadow (I have since calmed down with that and lean more into a punk meets gothic cottage-core vibe). Around 14-15 was when I started trying to use concealer and foundation, something I still suck at using. However, as weird as those periods were, they were all necessary for allowing me to mature at a natural rate, something these girls sadly aren’t getting. The glorification of looking older while also desperately wanting to retain your youth is a dangerous path to be on, especially nowadays where things that were originally illegal and taboo are gradually being allowed and destigmatized.
The third reason why I think this is happening is because our culture over prizes looking young. I already touched on this earlier, but I think more can be said about it. Thanks to the rise of technological advancements in things like face filters and photoshop and the abundance of cosmetic products designed to hide natural flaws, we have forgotten what an actual face looks like. We overly value looking young, even if it means wearing fifty different serums, creams, etc. to the point where even the smallest wrinkles are signs that you’re getting old and are ugly. Women are constantly bullied and harassed online by other women (some of them being these Sephora kids) for showing what they actually look like without the makeup and filters. They’re told they look ugly, which creates a dependency on makeup to fit in.
This leads to the last reason that I’ve also touched on which is the monetary incentive for companies to continue pushing this unattainable beauty standard onto children. They know that if they catch them young enough, they will be able to create lifelong customers. If women constantly need makeup, surgery, and filters to fit in, the cosmetic industry and even the tech industry will continue to benefit from it. They make money off of our insecurities and it’s sadly spreading to our kids. The only solution to this is to get your kids off of the Ipad or phone and teach them early that while makeup by itself is okay, you don’t need it to prove your worth to others.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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