To think pre-teen girls don't need expensive skincare - "Cosmeticorexia" BBC piece.

It is different, but we had our own influences and influencers before social media, selling things to children. It's also naïve to think this is all terribly new or that we need to have a massive moral panic about it. Also social media and the internet in itself has been around for 30 years. There definitely needed to be far more regulation and it was so slow coming, but this is happening now and most people aren't letting their kids have unfettered access to social media.

Hmm, partly it's because there are better skincare products around and they learned how to take care of their skin when spots arrived (usually at pre-teen age).

I actually remember going to a skincare party with my mum and getting some then fairly expensive products out of it, when I was about 14! This was 1989. So yes, we didn't have Sephora but there were still creams and potions around. It actually did help, more that it made me take a little more care of my skin I think than anything as it smelled so nice.

Pre-teens don't need skincare full stop. They need to wash their faces and possibly use sunscreen if they are out and about in the sun a lot and when they are on holiday with family. Older girls may need something for acne (but I rarely see teens with acne these days so there are clearly effective treatments).

I'm so glad a couple of people mentioned the fact that pores do not open or close. It's a myth that's been around for years and my mother still believes to the point of sulking when I disagree with her.

My daughter is 12 and she uses a moisturizer with SPF and then cleanses her face with a gentle facewash at night to remove the lashings of black eyeliner. She's very much into the 90s alternative/grunge look so that's all the make up/cosmetics she is interested in. She uses hydrocolloid patches for spots. She'd rather be playing her guitar or drawing or playing with our dog than just about everything else. She's not allowed tiktok although she does have an Instagram account which is just pics of the dog or her guitar or Stranger Things memes

The very depressing thing in the original article is that Ellie May who is the focus of the piece is the main income for her family at 13. And has been for a few years. No parent should be relying on their child to be the breadwinner. That is exploitation by her parents, as well as the brands who partner with her and they in turn exploit a new round of pre teen girls to buy more shit. Round and round it goes

Yes there’s always room for improvement and we shouldn’t be complacent. However, SOME parents will ignore any rules and warnings . School mum made her kid(9) a TikTok account, used her own birthday and details to bypass the age rules. After a while they flagged the account as underage (or maybe someone reported it) , and once again she used her face and ID to prove it wasn’t . Then she moans that her daughter saw this and was exposed to that or some random messaged her, which of course, it’s TikTok’s fault.

I take it you are a grown adult and not a child, after all we were talking about little children using skincare.

We don't need regulations, we need parents to parent. It is parents that allow their children to use SM.stop handing children phones and tablets and take responsibility for raising your children.

Don't disagree with that- but again it's largely a systemic not individual parent issue. My kids get no SM but my goodness do I feel like King Canute holding back the tide on a daily basis. More accountability by cosmetics and SM companies needed.

People thinking this is just like the old days of them experimenting with make up for a disco or reading a magazine like J17 once a week are massively missing the point.
Social media is pushing this constantly 24/7 in kids faces and that’s setting up young girls for a lifetime of feeling their normal human face isn’t good enough, which is a terrible state of affairs. Boys are force fed with loads of SM shite about needing to have muscles and be millionaires and alphas so they don’t get away from this unscathed either. SM is like drinking or smoking. Not for kids.

When my eldest was. 9 her skin changed a lot got greasy and she got lots of spots we started a simple face wash and moisturiser nip fab pre teen range because of the changes. she still does that now at 12 with added weekly mask to help spot flare ups she started her periods at 10 . She’s never been on social media platforms and we’ve only allowed products we have checked out, she’s checked ingredients etc she can tell me a lot now about things she should and shouldn’t use on her skin after doing her own research. My daughters school allows very subtle make up but she doesn’t use any and if on weekends she uses alittle she knows how to remove correctly before bed I’ve talked to her about the importance of looking after her skin I wish I had when younger.

It is quite common unfortunately and a lot depends on their friendship group and what they’re allowed to access online.

I have 15 and 11 year old girls, my 15 year old has in the past had issues with wanting expensive skincare and putting all sorts on her skin, but it’s calmed down now, combination of me resisting and her having sensitive skin and realising she is better off with more natural products. She tends to just do face wash/scrub and moisturiser most days, sometimes a serum or face oil, occasional face mask. Never harsh products though.

My youngest so far isn’t interested, she uses a simple face wash and fragrance free moisturiser (she gets spots so these get worse if she doesn’t moisturise)

I have overheard conversations with my 11 year old’s friends talking about their “skincare routine” though, which I just think is sad.

Marketing misogyny at work. Let’s make a whole new generation believe they’re physically flawed and prey on that to build ourselves a huge untapped customer base.
Wheres the common sense?
Kids don’t need actives.
Caroline Hirons: ‘pores aren’t doors’: they don’t open and close.
By all means, start good habits: gentle cleanse, moisturiser where needed, spot care and SPF.
Every time we see a school mum, her teen is scrolling social media, showing off her ‘hauls’ from Sephora and Space NK, repeating ‘buying it’, ‘this drops next week’ etc. You don’t have to do what the internet tells you.

Surely most children are only getting pocket money, so who is paying for all these expensive and completely unnecessary products?

Prombles,
exactly OP, and possibly as posters have already pointed out,
destroying what they have in the process!
mad!

my mums only tip for staying beautiful was to sleep on our backs
so wrinkles couldn’t form and don’t frown or smile or they will 😳

Water - the drinking of bottled water, a school project of one daughter,
(which resulted in a bin for squashed plastic bottles then recycled for
useful stuff apparently)
in relation to spotty skin, seemed to be an obvious correlation, as in,
it is unusual nowadays to see spotty kids, maybe one or two with acne
which was deemed different to exercising personal hygiene of the daily
shower/hairwash routine.

Makeup is not allowed, including mascara.
The mixed school has a Friday class of Sociology/Society type subjects
covering teen concerns, savings, parents! societal expectations, Skincare!
a discussion group rather than a tutorial, a great benefit of a mixed class
as boys have skin too.
Most of them said they prefer girls without make up but with ‘nice skin’
the girls said, likewise!

Healthy skin, glowing not covered, so attractive as anyone who has spent
time in Scandanavian countries will attest, clean clear skin, young ladies
and older, its so attractive.

At the moment with influencers, social media of various forms, the Korean face becoming dominant, are we seeing a form of mass hysteria here, the badge of
which is the made up face of pre teen girls, peer pressure, parental collusion?

Sunshine is good/important too, vitamin D, the difference in the solidity of skin
of country girls out with ponies, walking, outward bounding, (and boys of course)
who we see passing by here and their contemporaries who seem dedicated to their online presence, bedrooms, friends bedrooms, the stayathomes.

Genetics too have to be taken into consideration, as some posters upthread have
pointed out, they have been soap and water, basic skincare devotees now have
good skin and do not look their age, good genes and a pragmatic approach to
skincare. Fantastic.

gosh!

gosh
so angry
and
unpleasant

as for myself, I am indulging in only 2 of these decried activities atm,
peacably.
wearing a cucumber face mask as a form of antidote
because I am home alone atm
bothering no one

Maybe because there is a lot of harmful content on social media , not just this particular issue. I don’t disagree with your suggestion, and some companies have started to put age restrictions on some of the products . However , even if it becomes mainstream, that only tackles this particular issue.

Unfettered access to the internet/SM isn’t good for children, particularly such young children.

Little girls from toddlers love lipsticks, its genetically bred into us.

Jesus wept.

This is not how genes work. This is sexist drivel which doesn't understand nature v nurture and doesn't understand that toddlers including boys like to copy the adults around them but they usually grow out of it.

It then comes down to whether parents impose gender stereotypes on their kids or tell them no this is not appropriate because you are a child and I am an adult.

Genuinely that sentence is one of THE worst lines of ignorant sexist drivel I've seen on MN which is an achievement.

My DD is nearly 10 and I don’t recognise this at all - she’s still very much a kid, as are her friends. I have just bought her some skincare products as she has some hormonal spots, cleanser and topical cream and spf

Warmlight and others - much will depend in where you live, ie the quality and softness of the water used.
Welsh girls were famed for their lovely skin, as Yorkshire girls and possibly other areas I know nothing of as yet in soft water areas.

However, hard water areas, lime rich particularly can play havoc with tender sensitive skin whether applied or imbibed.
It’s all very well saying drink more water and take a multivitamin if said water is awful.

Ive written of this many times in the past, how we moved away after two years in a village south of Grantham because of the harsh often brackish water, played havoc with our skins, stomach aches, even with an array of filter jugs, although our dentist informed us teeth are stronger in a hard water area. Is this true?
We spoke to many locals, neighbours about the water, some were dismissive, some said you will get used to it, what, hair like straw, red blotchy patches on our faces, itchy arms, skin scaling off ?! Some were resigned to the awfulness and couldn’t move, most didn’t know any different, one said camping in France was a revelation as the water ‘was silken’ and hadn’t realised water wuality often depends in geography, stone, granite, limestone, whatever.
So after two years we moved to a soft water area, bliss. Soft skin, clear faces,
no more scratching, restored hair, massive difference. We are all pale skinned.

Chemicals are chemicals and chemicals are an addition in many water supplies.
Young skin and chemicals however are a choice which should be well informed.

Laying down the foundations of good skin care begin young.

We are a long way from fabulous pink Camay and Ponds vanishing cream,
Vitapoint and Max Factor Creme Puff, now we have a wonderful array, spoilt
for choice, all skin tones catered for, thank goodness for Iman and others.

Please !!! can little girls have a childhood first.