When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles.
By the time she turned 10, she and her friends were spending hours on ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Goddard Strahan developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers.
One night, her skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on her face, and her cheeks turn red in the sun.
Photo: AP
“If I had known my life would be so affected by this, I never would have put these things on my face,” said Goddard Strahan, who recently turned 11.
Her experience has become common, experts said, as preteen girls around the country throng beauty stores to buy high-end skin care products.
Girls as young as eight are turning up at dermatologists’ offices with rashes, chemical burns and other allergic reactions to products not intended for children’s sensitive skin.
Photo: AP
“When kids use anti-aging skin care, they can actually cause premature aging, destroy the skin barrier and lead to permanent scarring,” said Brooke Jeffy, a Scottsdale, Arizona, dermatologist.
More than the physical harm, parents and child psychologists have voiced concerns about the trend’s effects on girls’ mental health. Extensive data suggest a fixation on appearance can affect self-esteem and body image and fuel anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
The skin care obsession offers a window into the role social media play in the lives of today’s youth and how it shapes the ideals and insecurities of girls in particular. Girls are experiencing record high levels of sadness and hopelessness.
Whether social media exposure causes or simply correlates with mental health problems is up for debate, but to older teens and young adults, it is clear: Extended time on social media has been bad for them, period.
Young girls’ fascination with makeup and cosmetics is not new. Neither are kids who hold themselves to idealized beauty standards.
What is different is the magnitude, said Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens, a nonprofit that studies how digital media affects child development.
“Girls are being bombarded with idealized images of beauty that establish a beauty standard that could be very hard — if not impossible — to attain,” Perry said.
The obsession with skin care is about more than the pursuit of perfect skin, 14-year-old Mia Hall said.
It is about belonging to a community that has the lifestyle and look you want, said Hall, a New Yorker from the Bronx.
Skin care was not on her radar until she started eighth grade last year. At school and on social media, girls bonded over their skin care routines.
“I felt like it was the only way I could fit in,” she said.
Hall started following beauty influencers on TikTok. Some influencers are paid by brands to promote their products, but they do not always mention that.
She started saving her US$20 weekly allowance for trips to Sephora. Her daily routine included a face wash, facial mist, hydrating serum, pore-tightening toner, moisturizer and sunscreen.
The level of detail and information girls are getting from beauty tutorials sends a troubling message as they are going through puberty and seeking their identities, said Charlotte Markey, a body image expert and Rutgers University psychology professor.
“The message to young girls is that ‘You are a never-ending project to get started on now,’” Markey said.
The beauty industry has been cashing in. Last year, consumers younger than 14 drove 49 percent of drug store skin sales, according to a NielsonIQ report that found households with teens and tweens were outspending the average US household on skin care.
In the first half of this year, one-third of “prestige” beauty sales, at stores such as Sephora, were driven by households with tweens and teens, market research firm Circana said.
The industry has acknowledged that certain products are not suitable for children, but has done little to stop kids from buying them.
The Web site of cosmetics brand Drunk Elephant states that children 12 and younger should not use their anti-aging serums, lotions and scrubs. That guidance is on the site’s FAQ page; there are no such warnings on the products themselves.
Ingredients such as retinol and chemical exfoliants such as hydroxy acids are inherently harsh. For aging skin, they are used to stimulate collagen and cell production.
Young skin can react with redness, peeling and burning that can lead to infections, acne and hypersensitivity if used incorrectly, dermatologists said.
Hall’s mother, Sandra Gordon, noticed dark patches on her face in spring and became alarmed. She threw all her daughter’s products into the trash.
Hall was not happy, but as she starts high school, she said she feels her mother was right.
She is using just a face wash and moisturizer and said that her complexion has improved.
In Sacramento, California, Goddard Strahan missed signs the products were hurting her skin: She developed a rash and felt a stinging sensation.
She said she figured she was not using enough of the products, so she layered on more.
That is when her cheeks erupted in blistering pain.
When her mother, Anna Goddard, read the ingredients in each product, she was shocked to find retinol in products that appeared to be marketed to children — including one with a cat’s face on the packaging.
Now, what worries her mother most is the psychological consequences. Kids’ comments at school have caused lingering anxiety and self-consciousness.
Goddard said she hopes to see more protections.
“I didn’t know there were harmful ingredients being put in skin care that is marketed to kids,” she said. “There has to be some type of warning.”
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
WARNING SHOT: The US president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that a trade deal with China was “possible” — a key target in the US leader’s tariffs policy. The US in 2020 had already agreed to “a great trade deal with China” and a new deal was “possible,” Trump said. Trump said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit the US, without giving a timeline for his trip. Trump also said that he was talking to China about TikTok, as the US seeks to broker a sale of the popular app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動). Trump last week said that he had
STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE: The group is proposing a consortium of investors, with Tesla as the largest backer, and possibly a minority investment by Hon Hai Precision Nissan Motor Co shares jumped after the Financial Times reported that a high-level Japanese group has drawn up plans to seek investment from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc to aid the struggling automaker. The group believes the electric vehicle (EV) maker is interested in acquiring Nissan’s plants in the US, the newspaper reported, citing people it did not identify. The proposal envisions a consortium of investors, with Tesla as the largest backer, but also includes the possibility of a minority investment by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) to prevent a full takeover by the Apple supplier, the report said. The group is
RSS