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?

Yes, definitely this.

She asks me what products to use and in what order, and I research and get her products that will be suitable for her young skin. Nothing too strong, but it’s great she’s interested in establishing a good routine that will see her through her life.

see this is the one thing I really don’t agree with. I have never had much of a skincare routine. I think the more simple the better and I haven’t ever encouraged it in my kids. All three of them have got through puberty with barely a blemish. The boys just use water and my DD has some micellar water and some moisturiser so she can remove the tiny bit of makeup she wears. I really didn’t want her to get into using all sorts of products.

It is clear to see in the Secondary School I teach in, we are in an area of very high deprivation. Very few students have acne but in the the groups set by ability the high achievers are almost all athletic looking, well groomed, good teeth, tall etc. The majority of the lower ability sets are over/under weight generally much smaller in stature, pale looking.

The children with interested parents who have helped them throughout Primary and into Secondary are more likely to fulfil the child's other needs, give them sporting opportunities, a balanced diet etc which means they are more likely to be in higher sets.

However, I would be interested to know how many of our smaller stature students were born premie etc and whether the those earliest months impact them as they grow older. Or whether it is purely down to deprivation or the SEND perhaps with sensory issues that mean grooming isn't as good, food aversion mean they are smaller. Nature vs nurture I suppose.

Gosh that’s so hateful 😮

Especially in the primary age, I think it’s about money, availability of cheap clothing, showers and modern washers / dryers and the expectations these have led to.

In the 70s, you would wear an ill fitting hand me down, and no-one would bat an eyelid. (in my socio economic primary area, which covered both working and middle class, if you care to use those terms). The sense of poor fit made you look poor and a bit ragged. But was common enough to not raise any concerns. Even bought things were bought “to grow into”. So you often a little out of fashion as well as an unkempt look. Today, Primark delivers bang on trend clothes very cheaply, in the right size.

Clothes were dirtier - we didn’t wash as often, we couldn’t afford and it was a hassle - no tumble dryer! But it was the same for everyone. No-one would think, “poor wee thing” and call social services at a stain on a shirt. It would be normal to sponge wash it, then after a proper wash wait for a sun bleaching day. There weren’t the spare clothes so it went back on. But we were all the same, so it didn’t look dirty or neglectful.

Totally agree with a pp about hair products. Mine was like straw - it was normal in the 70s to just have cheap shampoo. Today, even poorer families can get a branded conditioner on the market or at B&M. There also seemed to be a conspiracy in the 70s to cut it the worst possible way too though 🤣

Today we have more and cheaper clothes and grooming options, and more expectation that we’ll use them.

They have more access to better makeup and skincare than even 15 years ago. We had dream matte mousse and lip gloss only! It’s the same as it’s always been regarding looks though - some very conventionally good looking youngsters, vast majority are plain to average, a few very unattractive.

😂i agree with this

@Singleandproud my ex boyfriend was a Y6 teacher in a school in a deprived predominantly white area (race noted so I show the ethnicity wasn’t the obvious factor) and he said the first time he took his school football team to a school just a mile away (not in a deprived area) it was absolutely startling to compare the teams. He said the height looked like they’d brought Y4 to play Y6, and though there was a variations in body types, the other boys looked healthier generally.
Heartbreaking, at 10 years already such a difference.
Even before the babies were born, impact of low maternal nutrition, smoking when pregnant… this was in 2010 and he said it felt so Dickensian to still see such an obvious physical difference.

I assume if your daughter is 'good looking' as you say, she's not going to be hanging out with ugly friends.

When I was at school all the good looking teens were practically all in one social group. I was very average/plain looking as a teen, and so were all my friends.

I was a teen in the 80s and there was lots of bad skin, terrible hair and yellow and/or crooked teeth.

The teens I know seem to know how to look after their skin and hair products are a world apart from what we had. My kids are like all their friend in that they have perfect, white, straight teeth with no fillings. Most of them may have gone through a couple of years with hideous braces, but it’s so worth it.

My nieces range from 17 to 22, they’re all massively into fitness and healthy eating. I really can’t say I was at their age.

Hard to say. There are more overweight teens, but as previous posters have said, crooked teeth get NHS braces, short sighted people can get contacts. There’s many more hair products and beauty devices. Not to mention filters. The base level of acceptable has definitely risen. No kid would were holy or stained clothes these days, for example.

*holey

I did think there was less acne about than when i was young. Is it a diet or healthcare thing?

Yep. Pretty girls tend to gravitate towards other pretty girls.

I don't know, at junior school age and up now I notice a lot more fat kids now.

I remember "the fat kid" (there was only one) in my class in year 4. He was thin by today's standards!!

We live in quite a new estate area, where there is enough (and a bit extra) money around. It’s fairly conspicuous that people here have a four bed detached, 2 newish cars and a hot tub, but no one has second homes or big investment portfolios. Most of them grew up significantly poorer than they now are and were often the first in their families to go to university, get a professional job and rise to the ‘new middle class’. There are people with less money, and they tend to have smaller houses, but still have the new cars and the hot tub (and presumably more debt) I think the idea that you give your children more than you had has become very prevalent here, because it’s what happened to to them. So parents are investing significant time, money and energy in children here, and they have it to spare. The kids aren’t left to fend for themselves with a pudding basin haircut, an awful brown jumper and Nhs specs. It’s not that this demographic care more about their children and it shows (although children do have more power in families nowadays, and rightly so) It’s that they have resources to pour into their children and it shows. And not just money, but time, validation and energy too.

If I had gone to my mother and complained about my skin or my clothes, she’d have laughed at me and told to either wait until I grew up, or expected me to figure it out, get a job and buy my own wardrobe or products. I was on my own, with very few options or resources. Mum would have just thought it was teenage self absorbed vanity, and was far too busy trying to keep the show on the road generally to pander to it. So long as I was clothed, she barely noticed. If my kid was wanting skincare advice or wanted new clothes, we’d figure it out together, and I’d take her where she needed to go. We’d make a day of it, have a facial and get advice. Go out for lunch and buy whatever gloop she liked best (or pay half). It takes a modern attitude of ‘what the child wants is important’, AND the ability and willingness to spend time and money on something they consider important even if you as a parent don’t.

I think there is less awkwardness eg less acne, bad hair etc but youth is beautiful
in itself which I don't think you notice until you are older.

one thing I find strange though is people in their 20s look a lot older than I remember people looking like when I was that age, I'm not sure if it's less puppy fat, more grooming. If you look at some of the men on love island I would think they were 10 years older.

Yeah this

And also I remember people saying this to me when I was younger. It’s just looking at youth through a mid life lens.

I live near a primary school & still see plenty of very average looking kids. The good looking ones are unusual & stand out.

I agree about the homogenous thing & dislike that, it's boring!

They're certainly a lot more "groomed" these days.
-They wear more / heavier make up (because that look is fashionable) and professional advice on how to apply it to best effect is freely available on YouTube.
-Good hair: straighteners, tongs etc are quite normal for everyday use, better hair products available.
-Nail technology - no one has to suffer bitten nails any more.
-Better dental care (most kids have a stint in braces at 13-15 round here, so by the time they finish their GCSEs, lovely teeth are the norm).

It also depends where you live. I live in an relatively aspirational area of London and most of my kids' friends have parents with disposable income, but I bet if you travelled to some more deprived areas of the country there would be plenty of "ungroomed" teens who look pretty much as they've always done.

I live in a nice part of London & most of the posh kids are identifiable because they are so scruffy eg joggers & unbrushed hair

Showers weren't common when I was in my teens - and even our first shower was one where you attached the hose to the bath taps!! Hair washing certainly was a weekly thing for most of us so seeing teens with greasy hair "stuck" to their heads was not unusual. Also spots!! Yes there were cleansers and spot treatments but I don't think they were as good as the ones we use now.

@Singleandproud

That’s a really interesting question.

I am told by friends who teach in dedicated special needs schools that provision has had to increase at least in part due to more premature babies surviving.

A study on what’s causing what in mainstream would be very worthwhile.

Showers weren't common when I was in my teens - and even our first shower was one where you attached the hose to the bath taps!! Hair washing certainly was a weekly thing for most of us so seeing teens with greasy hair "stuck" to their heads was not unusual. Also spots!! Yes there were cleansers and spot treatments but I don't think they were as good as the ones we use now.

We didn't have a shower at home in the 1980s/90s. I look at pics of my teenage self and am quite shocked and horrified by my long greasy hair. I don't remember my mum ever encouraging me to wash it more frequently but there's a picture of me at a wedding and it looks awful!!