To wonder what has happened?

[InfusionDIris]

I was sat on the bus today and saw a group of young girls..six of them..all must have been maybe 14/15 tops..and every last one of them was really badly fake tanned from head to toe..orange..all had really dark foundation on (again, patchy and not well applied)..big thick jet black eyebrows..and long fake nails. Every one of them was naturally very pretty and didn't need any of that to look nice. I know it's personal choice, and I respect that..but what and where and when happened that young girls feel or think they need to look this way to be attractive?

I often see teenagers and think the same - but then I remember back to my big permed crunchy hair in the 80s, blue eyeliner and pearl pink lipstick and wondered if people thought same about me They will look back at photos of themselves and cringe, it’s all part of being teenager I think

S'all social media, innit. Making girls feel they have to look like X and Y and Z.

I don't buy it myself. I think teenagers are much as they've always been. I actually think this crop are lovely looking. Bit OTT on the makeup but harmless.

It’s just fashion. We all looked terrible at various points.

I try not to pass judgment on women/girls appearance. They get enough of that from everyone else. They’re not doing anyone any harm and are just this generations goth/emo/new romantic incarnation.

Yeah I know what you mean. It’s trying to look like the Kardashians. I was a goth when I was that age tho and my Dad hated it

Don't worry about what kids look like. Worry about the content of their character. That would make you a good role model.

but what and where and when happened that young girls feel or think they need to look this way to be attractive?

Why do you think 14 year old girls are doing it ‘to be attractive’? Maybe they think they look good like that without care what creep finds them attractive - actually, if it repels men then all the better...

I agree it's just the 2019 version of my eighties self.

Blue eye shadow, blue mascara, , tons of blusher, and a barely there skirt. But I thought I looked amazing, and that's what everyone else was wearing.

People can dress how they want.

but what and where and when happened that young girls feel or think they need to look this way to be attractive?

Surely every generation looks at younger ones and thinks exactly this?

My teen years were spent dousing myself in Charlie Red and pasting baby blue eyeliner and Rimmel's Heather Shimmer lippy across my face. I'm sure my Mum looked at my generation and shook her head at the crap we wore and did. Just as my Grandma shook her head at the miniskirts and braless outfits my Mum wore as a young woman. Just as my Great Grandma shook her head at the fact my Grandma was the first woman in their village to wear trousers.

I suspect that criticism of younger generations is closely tied in with the loss of our own youth, conscious or not.

That's what 14 yr old girls looked like when I was over 15 years ago....only it was pencil thin eyebrows and nude lips.

I completely take everyone's points..but I do think it's a teeny bit different now...maybe a bit more intense? high maintenance? Less based in rebellion more based in something else, though I can't quite articulate what exactly.

It's exactly the same as other generations except the style has changed.

I don’t like the look but I am pretty sure they wouldn’t like the look I had in my teens. Hair mascara and roll on body glitter anyone?

I think that the OP has a point. Fake nails for instance, they make it harder to do practical things, whereas trousers made it easier. Making yourself artificially helpless can't be great surely? (Not that I have just witnessed a teenager trying to open a packet of crisps....)

The teenage girls I know don't go for this look at all.

DD is nearly 15. She has never used fake tan and neither have any of her friends (to be fair, most of her friends are BAME). None of them do the thing to their eyebrows and none of them wear fake nails. It would be a rare day that any of them even wear make-up.

DS1's girlfriend (18) sometimes wears eyeshadow / blusher but never fake tan, and her eyebrows are natural.

I work in a state secondary school on the edge of London. About 1% of the girls do the fake tan / eyebrow thing (1 or 2 per year group).

I have never been able to understand fashions etc. Why would people want to jump through hoops and spend lots of money to look how someone else thinks they should?

But being heavily made up has helped a teacher identify someone at school! Ds3 (12) has had a bit of low level bullying since starting secondary school. School very good and try to nip these things in the bud as early as possible. Ds has very blond eyebrows, so light that they are very hard to see, but they are there. One girl, older than ds, asked him where his eyebrows are. Ds shrugged it off. Girl kept taunting him about not having eyebrows. Form tutor asked for description of the girl, asked if she had lots of make-up on (had an idea of who it might be). Turned out girl fully plucks eyebrows and draws them on, along with masses of make-up and looks completely different to her natural self. So she was identified from her lack of eyebrows and 'fake' face, we thought that was pretty ironic considering she kept getting at ds for not having eyebrows (even though he does) when she doesn't have any natural eyebrows herself because she plucks them.

I wouldnt judge. There's some cracking (by which i mean) awful photos of me as a teen but i remember being so happy and feeling so confident wearing and made up back when i did.

If we looked back at pictures of ourselves at 14, I best of us would be sporting some awful trend, it’s no different.

I was a teen in the 90s. Foundation was either goth white or a lovely shade of orange courtesy of Max Factor pan-stik no 13. Usually accompanied by Rimmel Heather shimmer or black cherry lipstick, eyebrows plucked into oblivion (which thankfully I didn't do because my aunt told me the reason hers were so light was because she plucked them and they never grew back) all topped off with sun-in which thankfully I didn't do either as a natural dark brunette.

I'm in my thirties now and look 'normal'.
I tell my 16 year old niece, WEAR the short skirt and the belly top, because you'll never have that figure again!

My biggest gripe is the bloody eyebrows.

I see so many pretty girls with these huge black slugs on their faces that look awful.

Then I remember just how many bottles of miss selfridge electric blue mascara and eyeliners I went through in the 80's .

Did absolutely nothing for my colouring but black mascara was something my mum wore....

Thankfully I never got a perm, but did indulge in leg warmers, ra ra skirts and lots of roll on glitter....

I think every generation has its look that will be seen as cringeworthy in hindsight