Is it normal for ten year old girls to be wearing makeup?

[catscurledupbythefire]

DS is in year 5 and all the girls seem very interested in makeup. They subscribe to videos on YouTube about how to put it on and all have their own as birthday and Christmas presents.

I have younger girls. AIBU to be a bit taken aback/worried, and to hope it's just DSs school?

salmotrutta I grew up in the 70's and all the girls I knew started wearing makeup at 12/13, so there must have been variations even then. We were also heavily into underage drinking so I guess most people looked a lot older, at least when we wanted to.
I think the difference was that wearing makeup started with puberty though, not before. I don't think there were pamper parties or mother daughter make up sessions or anything like that.

salmotrutta I grew up in the 70's and all the girls I knew started wearing makeup at 12/13, so there must have been variations even then. We were also heavily into underage drinking so I guess most people looked a lot older, at least when we wanted to.
I think the difference was that wearing makeup started with puberty though, not before. I don't think there were pamper parties or mother daughter make up sessions or anything like that.

DDs both at a Roman Catholic school. Haven't ever seen or heard of any of their fellow pupils wearing slap in or out of school, other than last year's disco.

I remember going to sleepovers with my friend Emma-Claire (oh the glamour of two names in the 1970s Midlands!). From about 8 - 12, we would make ourselves up in varying degrees of garishness, and practice things like mascara, but I don't ever remember being allowed out of the house in makeup until I was mid-teens at least.

Since then I've always had an amount of makeup that has been 'acceptable', an amount that's 'work' and an amount that's 'party'. I have only ever recently had an amount that's 'zero' that I'm OK with. I do think you get more comfortable with what you actually look like as you get older.

noeffingidea - possibly the fact that I grew up in small rural Scottish towns.

If you wore make-up at a young age you were seen as "common" or "cheap". In fact make up on adult women was seen as cheap and common in rural Scotland in the 60s/70s.

That was actually a thing. I remember my Dad referring to women with "muck" on their faces and my mum (who was a very good looking woman) never wore more than a trace of lipstick.
Make-up was actually seen as "cheap" in rural Scotland back in the early days.

I think I inherited "issues" about make-up...

I remember experimenting with makeup at home from 9 and wearing nail varnish. I wore lipgloss from age 11. Then I started wearing mascara and concealer from age 14.

My Mum handled it perfectly as she left me to experiment and bought me a subscription to magazine which came with makeup each week and the magazine included a tutorial on how to use it. That meant so much to me, I would get so excited when it was delivered and I thought (still do) she was the best Mum everrrrrrrrr.

At the same time, she would tell me honestly if I wore something that looked awful/too much. I enjoy makeup and I think it can give you power as when you are feeling tired, unwell or vulnerable you can hide it from the world and I feel I can project a more assertive image when I have makeup on. On the whole I think makeup is positive and I will be happy to show my DD how to apply it correctly when she shows an interest.

Multivac, I don't really wear makeup myself.

I do wear foundation and mascara but anything else looks really silly on me. I have really small features and I don't suit lipstick, blusher or eyeshadow.

I can understand teenagers being interested in makeup. I was, but I never really had any money as a teenager and so the only makeup I had was the odd Natural Collection mascara! Whereas DSs friends seem to have makeup like mine - Chanel and Clarins sort of brands?

My dsd is 11 and wears make up pretty much every day including some weird thing she does to her eyebrows that make them look like massive slugs. She started high school last September and it seems to be the in thing to do. She's been interested in make up for a while anyway, possibly more so as her mum is a beautician, but has only started wearing it properly in the last few months.
I find it very depressing to be honest!

DD is 10 and is very much into makeup. I wear makeup daily so she's seen me doing this. Rather than let makeup become something to rebel over, I've allowed her to wear it when not in school and have instead focused on "less is more". Now she seems happy enough that she applies it very very subtly (I won't allow contouring or anything that extreme) and it's not caused a fight. She feels free to express herself and I'm not worried about it being too much. At her age I was definitely not into it but I have to accept we live in different times and she is her own person.

It does seem a bit young tbh, my DD got into makeup when she started secondary school and always quite discrete for school. They soon learn that it doesn't look nice when caked on. I do remember her coming home from school and telling me about a girl with thick orange foundation getting the piss taken out of her by the other girls.

and if I'm honest I think it's pretty sad that 10 year olds are "putting on lip balm" etc

Since when did lip balm become make up?! Lip gloss/lip stick is make up. Lip balm is a useful product for dry lips. DD has a pot of clear Vaseline with her everywhere because she gets sore lips. Would be rather mean to say "you're too young" and let her suffer

Depends on where you live ime.

It is not surprising but I agree with those who feel its is sad. Though when you look at the number of women who will not even go to the end of their garden without caked on full make-up, and the numbers you see caking themselves on public transport, you understand where they get the idea from.

I think I had play make-up fairly young (anyone remember the tinker bell stuff) but I didn't even consider proper make-up until about 15. I didn't know about foundation or concealer until then, but in hindsight wish I had realised earlier that I could cover up my terrible teenage skin. My self-esteem would have been so much better. If DD ends up having my skin issues as I teen, I will be one showing her how to use it.

My daughter is 9 and half and has asked for her toenails to be painted before our holiday and that's it. Which I'm fine with. If she wanted to play with a bit of make up I wouldn't mind but she's not fussed and shes quite a girly girl but she still believes in father Christmas and fairies amd has a lovely innocent naivety about her which is very sweet. Thinks boys are smelly and just pick their noses. Think some of her friends are much more sophisticated which is sad.

I don't like to see little girls, and that is what they are at 11, with makeup on. Some fun nail polish fine, a bit of eyeshadow for a school disco also fine, but full faces of makeup for the purpose of selfies I think is encouraging a really damaging way of viewing themselves.

Often these makeup youtubers will have some chat at the beginning of their videos saying they felt insecure about x y z and makeup solved the problem, it is supposed to make them relatable I suppose but actually it is telling little girls that they should also feel insecure about themselves and that makeup will solve the problem.

But then again I've never worn it, and have always been a 'tomboy'. I just think the makeup trends now for contouring, jafar eyebrows and pumped up lips just makes people look like transvestites or drag queens displaying a souped up pornified version of femininity. Not something I would want my dd to get into.

Also these youtubers, and not just makeup ones the kids opening and trying out toys and such, encourage the sort of mindless consumerism that I really think is best avoided.

Definitely normal but not what I would aspire to for DD. At that age I would prefer her to be focusing on things that will promote her quality of life and self-esteem on a longer term basis - sports, schoolwork, friendships, hobbies. I have no problem with them doing their hair, wearing nice clothes, a bit of lip gloss here and there, but a full face of make up can wait.