SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) â When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles.
By the time she turned 10, Scarlett and her friends were watching influencers tout products for achieving todayâs beauty aesthetic: a dewy, âglowy,â flawless complexion. Scarlett developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers.
One night, Scarlettâs 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 Scarlettâs face, and her cheeks turn red in the sun.
âI didnât want to get wrinkles and look old,â says Scarlett, who recently turned 11. âIf I had known my life would be so affected by this, I never would have put these things on my face.â
Scarlettâs experience has become common, experts say, as preteen girls around the country throng beauty stores to buy high-end skin care products, a trend captured in viral videos with the hashtag #SephoraKids. Girls as young as 8 are turning up at dermatologistsâ offices with rashes, chemical burns and other allergic reactions to products not intended for childrenâs sensitive skin.
âWhen kids use anti-aging skin care, they can actually cause premature aging, destroy the skin barrier and lead to permanent scarring,â says Dr. Brooke Jeffy, a Scottsdale, Arizona, dermatologist who has posted her own social media videos rebutting influencersâ advice.
More than the physical harm, parents and child psychologists worry about the trendâs effects on girlsâ mental health â for years to come. Extensive data suggests 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 in the lives of todayâs youth and how it shapes the ideals and insecurities of girls in particular. Girls are experiencing . Whether social media exposure causes or simply correlates with mental health problems is up for debate. But to older teens and young adults, itâs clear: has been bad for them, period.
Young girlsâ fascination with makeup and cosmetics is not new. Neither are kids who hold themselves to idealized beauty standards. Whatâs different now is the magnitude, says Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens, a nonprofit that studies how digital media impacts child development. In an era of filtered images and artificial intelligence, some of the beautiful faces they encounter arenât even real.
âGirls are being bombarded with idealized images of beauty that establish a beauty standard that could be very hard â if not impossible â to attain,â Perry says.
Saving allowances for Sephora hauls
The obsession with skin care is about more than the pursuit of perfect skin, explains 14-year-old Mia Hall.
Itâs about feeling accepted and belonging to a community that has the lifestyle and look you want, says Mia, a New Yorker from the Bronx.
Skin care was not on Miaâs radar until she started eighth grade last fall. It was a topic of conversation among girls her age â at school and on social media. Girls bonded over their skin care routines.
âEveryone was doing it. I felt like it was the only way I could fit in,â says Mia. She started following beauty influencers like Katie Fang and Gianna Christine, who have millions of young followers on TikTok. Some influencers are paid by brands to promote their products, but they donât always mention that.
Mia got hooked on âGet Ready With Meâ videos, where influencers film themselves getting ready â for school, for a night out with friends, packing for a trip. The hashtag #GRWM has over 150 billion views on TikTok.
âItâs like a trance. You canât stop watching it,â Mia says. âSo when they tell me, âGo buy this productâ or, âI use this and itâs amazing,â it feels very personal. Getting what they have makes me feel connected to them.â
Mia started saving her $20 weekly allowance for trips with friends to Sephora. Her daily routine included a face wash, a facial mist, a hydrating serum, a pore-tightening toner, a moisturizer and sunscreen. Most were luxury brands like Glow Recipe, Drunk Elephant or Caudalie, whose moisturizers can run $70.
âI get really jealous and insecure a lot when I see other girls my age who look very pretty or have an amazing life,â she says.
The level of detail and information girls are getting from beauty tutorials sends a troubling message at a vulnerable age, as girls are going through puberty and searching for their identities, says Charlotte Markey, a body image expert and Rutgers University psychologist.
âThe message to young girls is that, 'You are a never-ending project to get started on now.' And essentially: âYou are not OK the way you areâ,ââ says Markey, author of âThe Body Image Book for Girls.â
Products promoting youth, purchased by kids
The beauty industry has been cashing in on the trend. Last year, consumers under age 14 drove 49% of drug store skin sales, according to a NielsonIQ report that found households with teens and tweens were outspending the average American household on skin care. And in the first half of 2024, a third of âprestigeâ beauty sales, at stores like Sephora, were driven by households with tweens and teens, according to market research firm Circana.
The cosmetics industry has acknowledged certain products arenât suitable for children but has done little to stop kids from buying them. Drunk Elephantâs website, for example, recommends kids 12 and under should not use their anti-aging serums, lotions and scrubs âdue to their very active nature.â That guidance is on the siteâs FAQ page; there are no such warnings on the products themselves.
Sephora declined to comment for this story.
Ingredients like retinol and chemical exfoliants like hydroxy acids are inherently harsh. For aging skin, they are used to stimulate collagen and cell production. Young or sensitive skin can react with redness, peeling and burning that can lead to infections, acne and hypersensitivity if used incorrectly, dermatologists say.
Dermatologists agree a childâs face typically needs only three items, all found on drugstore shelves: a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer and sunscreen.
A California bill aimed at banning the sale of anti-aging skin care products to children under age 13 failed this spring, but Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee says he plans to continue pursuing industry accountability. Lee and other critics say popular brands use colorful packaging and product names like âBaby facialâ to attract younger buyers in the same way that e-cigarette companies and alcohol brands created fruity flavors that appeal to underage users.
Lee points to Europe as setting the right example. The European Union enacted legislation last year that limits the concentration of retinol in all over-the-counter products. And one of Swedenâs leading pharmacy chains, Apotek Hjartat, said in March it would stop selling anti-aging skin care products to customers under 15 without parental consent. âThis is a way to protect childrenâs skin health, finances and mental well-being,â the company said.
One mother âgot rid of them allâ
Around the country, concerned mothers are visiting dermatologists with their young daughters, carrying bags filled with their childâs skin care products to ask: Are these OK?
âOften the mothers are saying exactly what I am but need their child to hear it from an expert,â says Dr. Dendy Engelman, a Manhattan dermatologist. âTheyâre like, âMaybe sheâll listen to you because she certainly doesnât listen to me.ââ
Miaâs mother, Sandra Gordon, took a different approach. Last spring, she noticed dark patches on Miaâs face and became alarmed. Gordon, a nurse, threw all her daughterâs products into the trash.
âThere were Sephora bags on top of bags. Some things were opened, some not opened, some were full. I got rid of them all,â she says.
Mia wasnât happy. But as she starts high school, she now feels her mother was right. She has switched to a simple routine, using just a face wash and moisturizer, and says her complexion has improved.
In Sacramento, California, Scarlett missed early signs the products were hurting her skin: She developed a rash and felt a stinging sensation, within days of trying out viral skin care products. Scarlett figured she wasnât using enough, so she layered on more. Thatâs when her cheeks erupted in blistering pain.
âIt was late at night. She came running into my room crying. All of her cheeks had been burned,â recalls Anna Goddard, Scarlettâs mother, who hadnât realized the extent of Scarlettâs skin care obsession.
When Goddard read the ingredients in each product, she was shocked to find retinol in products that appeared to be marketed to children â including a facial sheet mask with a catâs face on the packaging.
What worries her mother most is the psychological consequences. Kidsâ comments at school have caused lingering anxiety and self-consciousness.
Goddard hopes to see more protections. âI didnât know there were harmful ingredients being put in skin care that is marketed to kids,â she says. âThere has to be some type of warning.â
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Jocelyn Gecker, The Associated Press
