For early 2000’s kids in Wayland, when we think of childhood, we think of our favorite cartoon characters, stuffed animals that we couldn’t live without, plastic kitchen food, clothing brands like Justice, slime, rainbow loom and so much more. When we think of middle school, we think of roaming around Cochituate Field Ballpark, bike rides, the rope swing at the Wayland Town Beach and wearing our mother’s makeup. However, it seems like nowadays kids experience their childhood through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and, shockingly, Sephora.

Sephora, a store that is advertised for teenagers and adults, is currently taken over by “tweenagers,” children between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, and it’s ruining their childhood. On TikTok, some influencers have been posting about their experiences interacting with young children at Sephora. Recently, there have been stories circulating the media where kids are rude to Sephora workers, take an absurd amount of makeup or skincare testers or buy every single Drunk Elephant product available in the store.

“I was at Walgreens this weekend and there was an 8-year-old girl who was there with her dad,” sixth-grader Zoe Adwin said. “They were looking at the skincare section and [the girl] told her dad that she needed an expensive makeup product, telling him ‘I want it and I need it.'”

For one thing, we didn’t even know what skincare was when we were 8 years old. We didn’t start using skincare, or even think about skincare, until around halfway through seventh grade. The fact that kids much younger than 13 years old are using very pricey, high-end products is deeply concerning.

“The most popular brands people in my grade use are Drunk Elephant, Bubble and Glow Recipe,” sixth-grader Wendy Peltonen said.

On top of the high prices of these skincare products, the ingredients in some of these products are made to improve teenage and adult skin, not childrens’ skin. Anti-aging ingredients found in adult skincare can actually worsen young skin by irritating it over time. So, why would young girls want to get this skincare?

These days, going on ‘Sephora trips’ and buying the newest skincare line or makeup product is what’s considered “fun” and “cool” for kids. Instead of enjoying their childhood, which is what some high school kids wish they could go back to, kids nowadays are trying everything they can to seem older. They buy the products they see influencers use in hopes of gaining status.

We think a big reason behind this consumerism is how much the younger generation is being influenced by social media. Kids often look up to teenagers in their lives because they want to be exactly like them. So, kids who have access to social media, especially TikTok, get sucked into watching influencers use products that they have a paid sponsorship with. As a result, kids get influenced to buy unnecessary products very easily.

As high schoolers, we often find ourselves reminiscing about our childhoods and often get hit with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. We would do anything to go back to being careless 12 year olds. Kids need to enjoy their childhood while they can and live in the moment off of social media instead of trying to fast-forward time by buying expensive products that they really don’t need.

SEPHORA KIDS by Jillian Mele