Children as young as 8! being conned and manipulated by the "beauty" industry

[hatetheexploitationofinnocentgirls]

And of course it is almost all girls getting told they need to put chemicals on their skin to look "pretty". Then they will be told they have to cover their faces up completely in make up to be acceptable to be seen in public.

Why are parents not protecting their daughters from this blatantly misogynistic and physically and emotionally damaging exploitation?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67993618

Kids have always been inflicted by advertising. Dts are 13 and have a ridiculous skincare regime. They are into nails and lashes and make up. They also spend all weekend shovelling shit at the stables so I can't get worked up about it.

When I was their age it was clearasil, body shop, sun in, orange foundation, Rimmel concealer, purple heather lipstick etc.

I've noticed they and none of their friends have bad skin.

Affected not inflicted!

Same, DD's skin probably needs a good cleanse after a full day at the stables and clearasil was like paint stripper. Modern products are much better and more gentle although she is using simple and the ordinary at £5 a pop. Certainly no drunk elephant coming in the door 😅

Depressing

My almost 10 yo does not do "skincare" or have any interest or knowledge of it - because she does not have a phone or tik tok access

This thread is so judgey. Advertising has been a thing for a very long time. Some parents give in more easily - that's also always been true.

But the attacks on here? Funny how even o threads about gaming time the general view is "limit or control" not, "oh you terrible parents for even considering it. But the attacks on something for girls?

I totally agree that lots of products are 100% not right for girls but let's all dial back the crazy here and consider how little Some people actually know about this stuff.

Damn skippy I’m judgy about parents that go along with this crap! It’s your job as a parent to not actively indulge stuff that harms your kid. And yes, I do have a 10 year old girl who hears about this stuff from her peers.

And you see plenty of people on here refusing to let their kids game. The “limit and control” is age appropriate use of soap/cleanser for 10 year old girls. The Drunk Elephant nonsense is the equivalent of giving pre teens Grand Theft Auto - something that’s fine for adults but completely inappropriate and actively harmful for late primary age kids.

Damn skippy I’m judgy about parents that go along with this crap! It’s your job as a parent to not actively indulge stuff that harms your kid. And yes, I do have a 10 year old girl who hears about this stuff from her peers.

And you see plenty of people on here refusing to let their kids game. The “limit and control” is age appropriate use of soap/cleanser for 10 year old girls. The Drunk Elephant nonsense is the equivalent of giving pre teens Grand Theft Auto - something that’s fine for adults but completely inappropriate and actively harmful for late primary age kids.

@shockeditellyou 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The main issue is parent allowing their pre teen children unfettered access to the internet. These beauty "influencers" are not make videos for 8 year olds, the content is being made by and arguably aimed at older teens and young women, dsd likes drunk elephant, she's in her 20's, quite different. Also parents need to step up and say no. Plenty of basic moisturisers out there which is fine for young skin.

I think that primary aged children shouldn’t be on social media and it’s not a sexism issue. Plenty of threads have commented on toxic male influencers like Andrew Tate who I hope isn’t watched by primary school aged kids. Very young kids using skin actives now is going to create adult women with skin issues in future. Fillers, plastic surgery etc is problematic now, there are going to have to be new treatments for the problems created by current children using actives on their skin. When that happens, are you going to say don’t judge your parents ?

But what is Stanley cup anyway, - I thought it was an ice hockey trophy!!!

I saw somebody with one of those yesterday. It was getting a bit dark and I thought it was a lantern!

I started experimenting with makeup when I was 13/14. Just mascara and heather shimmer. I still remember my dad’s face. I love that purple-y shade of pink and still wear it today (Mac Twig).

For skincare I used oil of ulay or pond’s cleanser, and oil of ulay beauty fluid as a moisturiser. But I often forgot.

A tale as old as time.

This isn't the beauty industry, the people behind Drunk Elephant have even come out and said the majority of their products are not suitable for kids. These brands are not aiming adverts at 8 year olds.

It's stupid,lazy parents who let their primary school aged children use tik tok and YouTube. Parents are the problem here, not the beauty industry.

As with many trends concerns social media is probably a big factor. Also the obsession with celebrities and wanting to copy or look glam doesn't help.

Why are their parents buying that fancy stuff for them?

That is overkill and social suicide.

Mine got them for starting high school, which is totally normal.

none of you experimented with your mum's make-up when you were young? Never saved your pocket money to buy an eye-shadow palette in Boots?

This isn’t about playing with makeup, though. A lot of kids are interested in makeup as a form of dressing up. This is children as young as eight using heavy-duty skincare with ingredients such as retinols that are unnecessary and damaging to their skin.

Why the fuck are parents letting their young kids on TikTok anyway? It’s absolutely toxic. My own eight year old claims lots of people in her class are on it, which then makes me the bad guy when I don’t allow it. Wish the government would just ban it as a Chinese asset, to be honest.

I think you have put your finger on the whole problem - this is seen as " something for girls" - this exploitation, this high value placed on looks, this expectation that money and time needs to be spent, this hammering down of the self esteem, this shame in natural looks, is all "something for girls".

And those girls will carry the damage for life, as you seem to be doing, with your apparently totally unself aware acknowledgement that this abuse is "something for girls"

My 9 year old DD is totally oblivious to this stuff. She’s still playing with her barbies and hair chalks…🤣 but then she has a mum who doesn’t wear make up and she has no access at all to TikTok or similar (let alone unsupervised access!)

Fortunately her friends seem to be similar as it hasn’t come home from school either. I would just say no though.

This is a parenting issue.

A friend’s 10yo daughter spent her £100 Christmas money in Sephora this week. Her choices were all massively influenced by social media.

Skincare from Boots, to clean face ok or suntan lotion. I seen ads for makeup kits for kids which is not good.
Skincare or slapping makeup, perfect skincare which is face wash, moisturiser with spf but not Drunk elephant expensive.
Daily makeup and foundation for tweens or teenagers are really bad for their skin.

It does feel really sad, doesn’t it? I absolutely LOVE make up and skin care now but I’m 35! And - importantly in my opinion - none of it is linked to my self esteem. I can happily go out without wearing make up if I don’t feel like it (but wearing it makes me happy!).

At 8 I was playing with barbies and reading books and ‘playing out’ with my mates. I am so so so glad the internet wasn’t a ‘thing’ until I was in my mid-teens, and social media didn’t really take off until I was at university (I know there was MySpace and Bebo slightly earlier but I was never really interested).

However, parents can’t just shrug their shoulders and say ‘social media!’. Who is buying an 8 year old drunk elephant fgs? It’s not pocket money prices! (Spoiler alert it’s shit anyway!).

I bet anything @hatetheexploitationofinnocentgirls is a parent of a very young girl possibly even baby /toddler . The judgement of parents with older girls when you know nothing about parenting one. I have 3 boys and one a teen so this is a non issue but have plenty of teenage nieces and yes they are all massively into skincare , hair etc , of course they have other issues but hours are spent a day on this tbf ! I think it can just a certain time in their lives . Sometimes young girls want to be like older ones . I just hate the judgement of other parents, the vast majority are doing their best and so so easy to judge when you aren’t at that stage.

A few years ago I got booted out of a Facebook beauty group as some of them were posting photos of their kids with a face full of make (including boys) and using skincare regimes on them.

When I commented saying that little Jemima doesn't need to cleanse and tone her skin followed by moisturiser and serums at only six years old they were furious.

It's the parents that are exposing their children to the beauty industry at a young age that are the problem.