Why are all young girl suddenly good looking?

[PodcastFunFair]

I'm 40 in the 90s I was reasonably attractive by 90s standards.
I was a size 12 blond curly hair, outfit deom topshop and put on nice make up with some Charlie perfume.
I look at my nieces all identikit long smooth hair, make up perfectly put on with false eyelashes, tiny sized, super stylish all could be models from their insta accounts as could their mates is everyone better looking these days or better tools?
Do I need a make up tutorial from one of them so I'm not such an old dog 😂

@Alayalaya were gym memberships cheap in the 1990s. I do think gym memberships have become quite affordable esp with puregym and there are lots of tutorials on youtube on how to do home workouts... It seems every other girl in London is a fitness nut. It is said Gen Z drink less and work out more! Makes a lot of sense given a pint in London can now cost £6 and a puregym membership even in expensive areas is £30 (maybe even £20 outside london) per month.

[quote onlychildhamster]@CaptainMyCaptain I think they do generally prefer the heavily made up sort. I was messing about with photofeeler and the photo with the heavy makeup (done painstakingly by a Suqqu makeup artist at Selfridges for an hour) got the highest ratings. The 'natural'' photo that I posted (which is my DH's phone wallpaper (I still wear makeup but its a 15 min simpler look) got merely 'average' ratings.

I do notice IRL that they gravitate towards the girls with the heavy makeup. Men just say in surveys that they like girls who look natural, but they often don't know what 'truly natural' looks like! I am in my 20s. Of course there are blokes who are different, and we meet so many men everyday that even 10% thought we were attractive, we would still get hit on multiple times a day and would have no shortage of romantic partners.[/quote]
Natural means attractive features (like symmetry and proportion).
The majority of women are ordinary looking, but stunners with the right make-up. Because their features are not naturally good looking or skin bad lots of foundation to cover and contouring here and and there is needed to make them look good ‘naturally’.

Some only need a bit of lipstick or eyeliner etc to highlight their naturally well proportioned features. Also some already have good skin so don’t need to cake on the foundation.

"There was awful acne, dried out or greasy hair, awful looking glasses and I remember a lot of teens stinking of BO."

I had greasy hair because I wasn't allowed to wash my hair every day. That probably doesn't happen nowadays.
As for BO, I can imagine that 1960s deodorants weren't necessarily anti-perspirants and I also guess that there was a bit of a stigma about men using any kind of beauty/hygiene products (except brylcreem maybe).

@Ste23321

What is the most important thing anyone would suggest I do to feel I don’t look messy?

Good hairstyle. Spend time at the hairdresser and then no need to style it yourself every day.

"@Alayalaya were gym memberships cheap in the 1990s"

No and more than that, my area didn't even have private gyms, but you went to your local council leisure centre and paid for aerobics or the multigym room or whatever by paying for each session.

I actually think the opposite. Young girls these days are too groomed. They all seem to have beige complexions (rather unhealthy complexions in my opinions) and straightened hair. When I was young me and my friends all looked healthy with rosy cheeks. We all looked different and appreciated our differences, rather than wanting to be clones

I saw a group of 20-something women recently, waiting to go into a fancy restaurant. They were like Kim Kardashian clones: all wearing cream/beige clothes, long dark hair, false eyelashes.

What happened to individuality?

There were plenty of clones in the 90s. That's why we all remember the Rachel cut, the hideous striped red/yellow/orange "highlights", the avalanche of products and advice for straightening hair, Charlie Red, brown makeup and all the rest of it.

Whilst in the 90’s we did do plenty of fast fashion and make up, spending 2+ hours a day on make up with contouring and false eyelashes would have come across as a bit self obsessed and no one had camera phones, I think anyone taking a selfie would have been called a poser

Yes this! I was a teenager in the 80s. While there were “tribes” who all looked the same - goths, mods, casuals etc - and there was plenty of make-up worn - we would have thought it totally bizarre to take photos of yourself posing and show them to everyone, which is basically what happens now. You would have been considered a poser, up yourself or ridiculously vain. I still can’t really get my head round it. There are people my age who now do it too, but I couldn’t get over the embarrassment of being “up myself” if I did!

"More disposable income due to part time jobs?"

There were more teenage jobs in times gone by, rather than fewer.

You were clearly not a teenager at the same time as me

Whatever age you are Mr/Ms So Individual Wake Up Sheeples you will have looked like a lot of other people at the time.

It made me laugh in the early 90s how all the so individual alternatives all looked like one another.

@Gwenhwyfar More disposable income due to student loans and maintenance grants! And a lot of students also get money from parents. My engagement ring was bought with DH's student loan money, he cut back on all expenses to buy it but still managed it.

My DH said a lot of people in his first year of university went completely crazy at the thought of having thousands in their bank account. It wasn't long before they realized they had to budget or eat ramen for the rest of the year.

There were more teenage jobs in times gone by, rather than fewer

There probably are though that has changed in the last few months. There are loads of part time jobs available and employers are more willing to employ teenagers. I think what has changed from the past is that you generally always have to be 16 for most jobs.

Eating ramen all year sounds lovely though. To sound like an old fart for the moment, when I was young it was beans on toast, or beans on pasta if you were fancy.

Funnily enough I find myself thinking the opposite - on average people are much larger, I notice so many young girls who are incredibly overweight and in general seem to dress very badly and overdo the make-up/fake lashes / lip filler etc I think style and making the best of oneself is something that normally comes with age and in general I rarely see young women who I think have mastered it

Shared knowledge on the net? There's a tutorial on You Tube for every conceivable thing nowadays.

We had to rely on Jackie magazine for beauty tips!

"There are loads of part time jobs available and employers are more willing to employ teenagers. I think what has changed from the past is that you generally always have to be 16 for most jobs."

Exactly so fewer teenagers will be working anyway.
There were loads of jobs you could do at 13 when I was a teenager, although there were restrictions on times, hours, etc.

[quote onlychildhamster]@Gwenhwyfar More disposable income due to student loans and maintenance grants! And a lot of students also get money from parents. My engagement ring was bought with DH's student loan money, he cut back on all expenses to buy it but still managed it.

My DH said a lot of people in his first year of university went completely crazy at the thought of having thousands in their bank account. It wasn't long before they realized they had to budget or eat ramen for the rest of the year.[/quote]
We're talking of teenagers so 13-19 not 18-22.

I personally think a load of em look like pantomime queens.
I’m living in Copenhagen at moment and think the teens are naturally better looking and that ‘fake’ look isn’t a thing here at all. Far more variety in ‘looks’ too.

It is not at all what I see here either ( France). My dd and her friends wear minimal makeup and seem relatively unconcerned by their image. It sounds exhausting.

And the feeling of mild concern I had for my DDs schoolmates primary school yr 6. Who had the height, faces, bodies that would be seen by many as much much older. Essentially 'old enough'. Although only 11.

I think the discomfort I have is essentially to do with how achieving a look which is skilled like a grown up. To successfully look older, and in a way that is apparently seen as great to their mums. When in the past it was a given that young people generally had styles etc that grown ups were ??!! and that's normal and the way most teens naturally are... And still looked pretty young because well they were too young to have got the hang of it etc.

What does that mean in terms of society (men), sex, harassment etc?

She looked older, etc. And the judge jury say. Yep. Totally not your fault...

I understand your qualms, @CheeseMmmm.
Long before she ever tried mascara, my DD1 was propositioned by a stranger in a car on her way home from school, and I am afraid this has been happening ever since man walked upright.

I called the police, who said to her that if anyone ever did that again she should yell, 'I'm a minor!' This is because the plea in court, if these creeps are ever caught, is, 'I had no idea she was underage'. Even if the victim was clearly nowhere near even the age of ten... The law always errs on the side of men. Perving over underage girls will go on until the law starts taking this sort of crime seriously.

Where I live (midwest US) I suspect kids have the same approach as French teens mentioned by PP. In the high school my DCs attended there were no uniforms, and makeup and other forms of embellishment were permitted - piercings, nail polish, intricate hairstyles, 'unnatural' hair colours, whatever. Teens found their own style, boys and girls alike, and there were no artificial barriers to respect in class.

I know that many UK schools forbid makeup, insist on uniforms that are basically schoolboys' clothes in a girls' cut or with a skirt, and in many other ways send out the message that there is a clear demarcation line for girls - being attractive in a conventional sense vs. being taken seriously. I think this is a problem.

Someone gave my DD1 a gift of a book called Teenage Beauty, by Bobbi Brown, basically encouraging teens to make the most of their own individual features, with photos of teen models sporting a minimally made up look. It was an encouraging book for my girls, I felt, as they moved out of childhood and into the teen years. I think it gave them hope that they could one day look and feel sophisticated. The looks in the book and the looks of the teens I see in everyday life are a far cry from the very time-consuming looks a lot of UK teens seem to favour. But taste is a funny thing.

@mathanxiety 8 years ago when I first got into makeup, people were recommending Lisa Eldridge as well as Bobbi Brown for beginners. Now i guess people would ask teens to go to Tiktok for tips. Both Lisa and Bobbi were professional makeup artists; Lisa did makeup for A listers on the catwalk so the makeup is more 'natural' with emphasis on the actresses' beautiful features.

Tiktok makeup is designed to attract attention instantly so the looks are naturally more bold. A tiktok clip is only 3 mins long at most so has to capture attention within that very limited time. Lisa's videos could even be 10 minutes long for foundation/concealer alone, 20 minutes for the full look. I have seen tiktok videos where the young teen is plastering huge splotches of blush/contour/highlighter on her face, this is very visually striking and gets many more hits.

Fakery and filters. I know several youngsters whose instagrams make them look like Kim Kardashian but in reality look like Lisa Riley crossed with a Pantomime Dame.

I don’t know if they are even aware that they don’t look like their photos? There is a very strange disconnect from reality going on in their heads.

I don’t understand it but am very grateful to be old enough to have completely avoided social media conformity pressures.

None of the features you’ve mentioned are attractive in my eyes.
I think the opposite tbh. A lot of ( if not most) young people these days looking so desperately fake from ridiculous duck lips, huge eye lashes, padded butts, etc.

I’ve a DD and I hope she continues to see those standards of beauty through the same eyes she sees them now as she grows older.

I'm sure there are lots of natural looking girls still. Maybe we tend to notice the more extreme or fake looks more.