Or are ALL children/ teens better looking these days?

[UnreasonabIe]

I'm 44, in my day my friends, and certainly me, weren't as good looking as every young person I come across now. Does anyone else notice this? Is this evolution? Is it looking through some kind of older person lens? Looking back at old photos of us doesn't change my mind either.
I'm going to think my daughter is the most beautiful person inside and out and wouldn't give two hoots regardless, however all her friends, boys and girls, seem the same..... I noticed it on the last day of school as all the children were coming out and commented to a fellow Mum about it who agreed.

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

I think there’s a lot more “early intervention” now in the way of braces, spot treatment, hairdressers, skin care, contact lenses, make up. Kids have these things more and earlier than they used to. They’re a lot more looks aware too thanks to social media (not a good thing IMO) and do more exercise (definitely a good thing).

So yes I agree teens and 20 somethings definitely seem to be better looking than I remember in my day.

I’m not sure this applies to younger children though? Which age did you mean?

My daughter is 8, but thinking back, this seemed to be right from the start of school.

It's possible that it's early intervention in some cases as you say, but just from my small sample of my daughter's school, their natural looks seem generally better than 40 years ago.....

I think when you are young yourself you don't notice it, it's something you only see when you are older. Like when you look back at old photos and wonder what you were worrying about.

So I'm not sure that I agree that ypung people are necessarily better looking than ever, I think it's just personal perception.

I don't agree. I think there are cute pretty kids and, let's face it, plain, ugly ones just as there has always been.

This.

I certainly see quite an assortment of kids pouring out of high school when I pick my daughter up! What I would say is there is a LOT less bad acne these days. Skin care products are so much better and more gentle these days and there are good treatments for acne.

It's just that styles have changed, and your are looking at them based on current fashions and trends.

There's a YouTube video that goes into this, and restyles Norm from Cheers's hair etc, and he looks so different and so much 'better', although his face is the same.

I'll look that up

I think you're probably noticing the packs of good looking ones while the average and below average go under the radar.

It was about people looking older, but I think it explains this too.

I think once we get older we see young people as good looking just by virtue of youth - like now I'm 50 I see good looking 50 year olds but when I was 20 I thought no 50 years olds were ever good looking- I mean, gross right? . Try telling a 20 year old that Brad Pitt or David Beckham is good looking.

But I also think that you see a lot less severe acne in tees and also fewer major uncorrected dental problems. Also I think as a society we've come to view a broader range of looks as good looking.

I think teens are far less spotty and have better teeth than I remember in the 80s.
Look at films of Beatles concerts or school photos from earlier in the 20th century. Then look at photos from workhouses. People have more protein in their diets and as other people said, a range of interventions.

Spartacusnotesther - thanks for that video, really interesting!

True, I suppose diet is a major factor.

I also thought it might be more people move around now (and have for the last couple of generations) and find partners out of their immediate area, diversifying the gene pool, whereas people from previous generations very often lived their entire lives within a couple of miles.

I've probably spent too much time wondering about this!

Agreed. Earlier intervention. Although you do still see many children in secondary who are just not good looking, really don't do themselves any favours.

When I was young I don't think there were such things as orthodontics to straighten out crooked teeth. One of my school friends had crooked teeth and she just had to put up with them. Nowadays many children with crooked teeth go to the orthodontist to have them straightened. We also have far more and better hair shampoo and treatments.

I think hair straighteners have made a huge difference! I had a mop of unruly hair whereas most children look well groomed now

I was just going to say this! GHD straighteners changed my life, my hair was always a frizzy mess and the old style metal straighteners didn't really make a difference.

I agree it's down to better nutrition. There is such a broader variety of foods available than when I grew up and existed on Findus crispy pancakes and tinned peaches. I even remember us getting a freezer for the first time and the novelty of trying a new product called pasta. Mind you, a lot of teens exist on fried chicken, fizzy drinks and too much sugar nowadays don't they so maybe it's something else altogether?

Perhaps it's knowledge-sharing about how to make yourself looking better that's made a difference? We had Jackie magazine from which to glean info about hair and make up - no internet - and that was it. Nowadays if you want to achieve a certain hairstyle or learn to apply make up in a certain way , then there are endless You Tube videos about it. So know-how has been democratised to a certain extent.

And of course there are much better hair products, affordable make up, clothes and styling equipment available. In my day we were restricted to what orangey claggy makeup was available at the counter at Boots and a new pair of shorts from Tammy Girl 😄

Also, people won't believe it, but society is more prosperous generally. In the 70s, my friends and I from thoroughly middle class homes only had one pair of school shoes, and plimsolls and a pair of ballet slippers. We wore our siblings ill fitting hand me downs. Our mothers turned down hems and let down sleeves of coats. Nowadays DC shower and have fresh uniform on every day whereas I had two school shirts and bathed twice a week. We had no central heating and it was difficult to wash and dry wool school cardigans so we didn't wash them often. We were all a bit spotty with greasy hair as I recall! Daily showers and tumble dryers have improved that a lot! We also had chilblains and I remember being cold in bed. So maybe more energy went in to keeping warm than growing?

Yes the 70s seem Dickensian compared to now.

Children are definitely better-nourished. Some eat too much nowadays of course but during my school years most kids were very skinny by todays standards.

We didn’t have a shower so I washed my hair in the bath, had hand me down clothes and the same hair do most of the time. I just used cheap bar soap on my face whereas even young teens I know have a skincare routines

Yes I agree. I'm a similar age to you op. I agree with most of the reasons others have suggested. Defiantly early intervention for one. I think we just accepted what we were naturally dealt as there weren't too many options if she didn't like your hair/ spots/ teeth and even if there were then most parents wouldn't understand or want to spend the money.
I also think the internet has a huge amount to answer for. So many gorgeous and similar looking young people in there who young people aspire to look like.
I also agree with there being more kids and teens around with a diversified gene pool. The most naturally gorgeous teen I know is half Pakistani half Swedish and she is stunningly beautiful.

I agree OP that teenagers are really good-looking nowadays. My daughter and her friends take a lot of care in their appearance (despite spending most of their time on a livery yard in horse manure). Hair, skin, make-up, clothes. My daughter knows a lot more about skin/hair care and make-up than me! It's from watching YouTube/TikTok tutorials. The trend appears to be to have very long hair, which again I find really pretty and never seemed to be the case when I was growing up.

Better nutrition and better housing probably accounts for most of it. There's a generation lag effect whereby the effects take a generation to appear. So children of the 70s whose parents grew up in the 40s (working class people then lived in severe poverty by today's standards) would still have that under nourished look. You can still see it now in inner city areas .

In my family and my partner's family you can see it mainly in people's heights.

In breeding is an interesting one, there's more people movement now perhaps, so probably an element of better genetic mixing but I doubt it's the main reason.

Definitely not evolution as that takes millions of years.

Agree with all the above.
Also better contraception means people can pick and choose who they have a child with.
One thing I will say, everyone was thinner back in the 60s and 70s. I remember the so called ‘fat kids’ were few and far between and much thinner than the fatter kids of today. Anyone who wasn’t skinny was viewed as ‘big’ when I was at school.

Sadly this is very variable and malnutrition is surprisingly common still. It is not widely recognised.