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 😂

My DD almost 17 has totally rejected the fake tan, long straight hair, false everything, heavy make up, high maintenance uniform beauty treatments, revealingly clothing look.

Instead she wears absolutely no make whatsoever, has dark natural long un straightened, uncoloured or styled hair which she wears in a ponytail, baggy casual clothing (often mens tops/hoodies). I wish she would sometimes make more of an effort with her appearance but she won’t hear of it. She is tall and seems to have rejected what she calls ‘the chav’ look in favour of being herself. Her best friend has long ginger hair and she has also rejected the popular look.

Whilst the majority of girls might look more polished than we did or dd does (I was 17 in the early 80’s) the look now must be very costly, be very time consuming/high maintenance and they all look almost exactly the same with absolutely no individuality its hard to tell one from another. A FB friend recently posted some pictures at Christmas of a family get together and her DD looked almost exactly the same as her cousins and one of her male cousins girlfriends who all looked almost exactly the same.

OP are you seeing them in real life (your nieces’ friends, not your nieces obvs)? If you’re just seeing them on insta then you’re not really seeing them. Nobody looks like themselves on insta, especially the young generation and actually I think that might be really damaging for them. But hey ho. Everyone is a contouring master now and they all look the same.

Make up and filters can make a 90 year old walnut look 21 and gorgeous.
Take a look at them again when they first wake up on a morning.

Have you noticed on news reports, they’ll use a photo the journalist has lifted from the perpetrator’s Facebook or Instagram page, then further down will be the mug shot. They’re sometimes like completely different people!
It makes me sad that some people will have no idea what they actually looked like when they look back on their younger years in photos.

It’s even sadder when I see baby, toddler and Children’s photos filtered and edited.

Gosh I would have said the opposite.when I was a teen late 90s/early noughties not many girls were over a size 10, now all the young girls where I live look quite large. It's an affluent south east village but the trend here is for quite baggy high waisted jogging bottoms, crop tops, not much makeup and very long groomed hair.

I think its women in their twenties most swept along by the heavy makeup trend. The teens I know seem to be rejecting it along with alcohol, hair straighteners, heeled shoes, and any smart clothes.

Sorry very long ungroomed hair

They are more done up if makes sense & their seems to be less awkward phases but I don't think they are actually better looking. Also it's not everyone & social media promotes a narrow homogeneous look

Can I just say I’m really enjoying that this is a proper discussion rather than a bunfight?

My DD almost 17 has totally rejected the fake tan, long straight hair, false everything, heavy make up, high maintenance uniform beauty treatments, revealingly clothing look. Instead she wears absolutely no make whatsoever, has dark natural long un straightened, uncoloured or styled hair which she wears in a ponytail, baggy casual clothing (often mens tops/hoodies)

She is bang on trend. Tbh I much prefer seeing girls with the confidence to say they don't need makeup and are happy in comfortable clothes, I'd pick that over the heavily made up insta clone look every day.

My grandmother told me when I was 13 that heavy makeup was for ugly girls with bad skin or for older women trying to cover ageing, I've never really worn foundation since!

I remember adults saying we were more grown up/groomed than they had been at our age. My mother told me there was nothing wrong with what we were wearing, it was just that in her day, these clothes would have been worn by a 21 year old rather than a 15 year old.

Filters play a massive part of photos on social
media too.

I know what you mean. I was a teen in the 00's and even now it's a different bloody world for teens 😅😅 I think there's a lot of pressure now too.

Also, beauty treatments. I can never remember anyone really regularly getting beauty treatments in the 90's or earlier 00's! It seems getting your brows, lashes, nails, lips etc etc is now readily available and more affordable maybe!

As someone who suffered from acne on and off from age 12 to my early 30s, their flawless skin is the first thing I notice. I haven't seen a teenage girl with spots in a long time.

Everything’s better now, I can remember AHA launching and it being a huge step forward in skincare. Hair straighteners were a huge development.

We had no silicone hair serums, bog standard cleanse tone moisturise skincare and orange make up.

We did our best with what we had.

It's about the capitalist dream

Beauty can be bought through make up, eye lashes, hair extensions, filllers, Botox, teeth veneers or whitening, laser treatment and other beauty treatments

It can all be bought

It's also about fashion and if your natural look is in fashion, in the late 90s/ early noughties it was fashionable to be tiny with a tiny bum (lollipop heads, it was called), in tiny shrunken cask's, small thin eye brows...

I am 6ft with a big bum, and bushy eye brows . My time has come! But.... I am 50, and being old will never be in fashion

Cardi's, not casks

Identikit is about right - as others have said it's the rise of reality shows so they are all aiming for the same look, and with Instagram/YouTube they can achieve it easier.

There's not much individuality these days either - remember when we had the new romantic look, the mod look, the grunge/rock look, the goths, there seemed a lot more variety. Nowadays you couldn't pick your own family out of a line up.

I think most of them look ridiculous. Massive false eyelashes, big pouty lips, tons and tons of makeup. The majority of young girls are also overweight.

I am not the slightest bit envious and am glad I am not young now

@CheeseMmmm

But I mean I'm nearly 50.

My mum thought the looks girls attempted in the 80s were... Not flattering!

So anyone on the thread over about 25, I mean. Inevitably how teen girls look is going to be ???? It's a given!

In fact, that so many girls appearance gets thumbs up from mums is a sign things aren't quite right in itself... Probably?

Well, to be fair, 80s styles were pretty objectively awful. It's known as the decade that style forgot!

But I do agree that every generation looks back on the younger one and says how awful it is, how bad the fashions etc. It's just the way of the world. Personally I don't think young girls today look any worse than we did with our army combat trousers, blue mascara, hair weaves and culturally appropriated bindhis, or beachwear as streetwear. It wasn't just my lot who used to wear sarongs to the high street, was it....?

Forgot to say also that so many have those awful slug eyebrows and are also almost always covered in tattoos. So many young girls with tattoos on their legs which look awful

Also, beauty treatments. I can never remember anyone really regularly getting beauty treatments in the 90's or earlier 00's! It seems getting your brows, lashes, nails, lips etc etc is now readily available and more affordable maybe!

I don't think they are. I think spending priorities have changed. Big stuff (houses, cars) cost relatively more to buy outright, plus instant gratification (Amazon prime) & social media means everyone wants everything everyone else has and wants it now. I think a lot of people have given up on saving for things and it frees up income to be spent on relatively frivolous/luxurious things like beauty treatments.

We went to a large sporting event where 50% of people dress up, the rest going practically dressed for the weather. Sadly many of the young girls had hidden their natural attractiveness - they were absolutely plastered in makeup, overdone fake eyelashes, may were hanging out of dresses. It was a shame they weren't using the products to enhance themselves.

Not sure that false look is actually good-looking...

@DartmoorChef

As you say yourself they all look alike, and it's all make up, filters and fake. As for the current trend in slug like eyebrows I don't even begin to understand how anyone thinks it looks good.

There's also way too much pressure from social media for girls to look perfect as well which is not healthy in any way.

This!

It isn’t just the girls who look the same though.

I recently greeted my 17 year old DS, by waving enthusiastically to him when I saw him coming towards me with a group of friends. It wasn’t him.

Okay, my eyesight isn’t brilliant but his younger siblings also thought it was him. They all look exactly the same.

16-19 year old boys locally, they seem to roam around in packs locally wearing the same outfit combinations of stupidly expensive but very basic looking clothing, in either navy, white or grey. All wearing Air Force ones and with hair that is really heavy on the fringe (which makes it easier to mix them up as you can’t see much face)

Back in the 90’s, I don’t remember the young men wearing identical clothing. Maybe I just don’t remember properly though!

I can't relate to the OP at all. Perhaps she lives in an affluent area.

I live near a secondary school and a university so see lots of girls and young women every day.
Of course many are lovely. But many are very overweight and wear overstretched skirts or leggings. Most are not very tall. No-one would confuse them with models.

This is not a wealthy town. The girls from the better-off parts of town and the fee-paying school are generally taller and slimmer.