The influential grip media has on adults is concerning, but when it’s applied to children whose parents let them go unregulated online, it can influence them long term.
Teens and adults have demonstrated poor spending habits encouraged by social media trends, which are an ever changing cycle. Beauty products have gained popularity on different social media platforms, reaching not only teens and adults, but also younger children. These younger children gained the desire to be just like self proclaimed influencers, leading them to major beauty retailers.
According to CBC News, as of January 2024, the use of the hashtag “#SephoraKids” on TikToks combine to have 331.9 million views. Sephora kids, also known as Sephora-ten-year-olds, refers to young children who shop at major beauty retailers and make content in an attempt to be like their favorite influencer.
While it may sound cute that young children want to be like their favorite social media influencers, products these children purchase can be damaging to their skin.
“Why does this adorable 11-year-old need makeup, and the skincare routine which is more complicated than mine,” said dermatologist Dr. Brooke Jeffy on her TikTok when replying to a skincare routine video Kourtney Kardashian’s daughter, Penelope, made.
One of the products used in the video is a Drunk Elephant anti-aging product, containing ingredients such as retinol, a vitamin, which can be harmful when used on a child. Retinol can have a long term damaging effect on a child’s skin, appearing in the form of a rash.
“They see their favorite influencers go over to Sephora and buy Drunk Elephant and they’re like, ‘Oh, I should probably get that,’” sophomore August Hernandez said. “The truth is you are 10 years old and you do not have a single wrinkle on your face.”
The amount of product used and bought can also be harmful for children, considering how this has been normalized by social media trendsetters in different video formats, such as ‘GRWM’, which explains a morning/beauty routine. These videos can be targeted, and it’s visible with the Sephora kid uprising.
“I think any type of overconsumption has been extremely normalized online to where people just think it’s very normal to waste that amount of product, that amount of food, whatever it may be,” sophomore Alyssa Corbin said. “Normalizing stuff like that is very harmful for the environment because we cannot be wasting that much stuff.”
Overconsumption influencing young children has also led to peer pressure, similar to what occurs in different settings such as school. It’s normalized to want a lot of a product, one that your friends and favorite influencers online have.
“[Social media] definitely affects people’s minds because people are very visual, they copy what other people do,” Corbin said. “Like the Stanley Cups, where everyone wants a Stanley, even though it’s just like any other regular cup; it’s popularized by social media to where kids want to fit in and be just like everyone else.”
The Stanley Cup is one of many trends which has recently taken the internet by storm, leading to a long road of over-consumerism.
“I honestly think over-consumerism is a problem,” sophomore Kaia Dragomir said. “People buying things they don’t need and have no purpose of using is fueled by social media, worthless trends, and corporation abuse of capitalism.”
