Anti-Ageing Treatments - for Children

 Inspired by social media, particularly TikTok, it appears children are adopting strict anti-ageing skincare regimes. It's mainly girls, and they're all shockingly young. Generation Z, younger teenagers, pre-teens and children, sometimes as young as eight, according to the British Association for Dermatologists.

The buzzword is "preventive", as the young slap on moisturisers, peels and elixirs intended (and priced) for older people. They're using the old favourite pester power. Shocked mothers received Christmas wish-lists pleading for creams and serums from brands like Drunk Elephant and others. Products sometimes cost upwards of £50 or £60.

Head of an Old Woman
Percy Bigland (1858-1926)
Photo Credit: Walker Art Gallery [CC  BY-NC]

It's no surprise that social media is heavily implicated. Influencers are cited as the cause of this anti-ageing obsession and the consumer power of children is growing...

It's all a galaxy away from my own gen X childhood "beauty regime" which, if memory serves correctly, comprised Palmolive soap and a quick wipe with a flannel... In 2023, a teenager went viral with her strict regimen, which she started at 12 years old. Among all the usual potions and exertions, she taped paper to car windows to keep out the sun.

So, first 20-year-olds are pushed into getting preventive Botox, now the industry has come for the very, very young. There's even a Dior skincare range for babies. Unsurprisingly, the Kardashians are in the mix: Kim and Kourtney's daughters ... 10 and 11 ... shared videos of their skincare routines...

In the dock you've got social media and the beauty industry... However, you've also got a society full of people increasingly unable to accept the sight of themselves unfiltered...

As shocking as it seems that children are buying into anti-ageing mass hysteria, perhaps it's the inevitable end game of our ageist culture, Where growing older (and looking it) means you're finished. Where the elderly are stigmatised and youth is the only acceptable state...

If nine-year-olds are scared of ageing that's also on us. This was their age of innocence, and we blew it for them.

(Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 2024)

Where are all the parents in this? "Pester Power? Where are the responsibilities of those people who are bringing up their children? Why aren't they just saying "You are not having that cream." Why are they not just laughing at the child who makes such a request? Why aren't they just saying NO. Twenty year olds being pushed into getting Botox? Surely they are old enough to make rational decisions for themselves?