Beauty Playground: Gen Alpha, Sephora, and The Bigger Issues
By: Aisha Zahrany Putri Noor
Edited by: Fiorina Siamir
TikTok has been driven mad by Gen Alpha and their new obsession with Sephora. These ‘Sephora 10-year olds’ or ‘Sephora kids’ are dominating this social media platform, with its hashtag Sephora Kids reaching 522.9 million views… but it’s not for a good cause.
If you open this hashtag, you will see either actual footage of young girls raiding Sephora or videos of adults complaining about young girls raiding Sephora. Like any other discourse coming from TikTok, the ‘Sephora 10-year olds’ discourse is met with different views. What started as people criticizing young children’s behaviour in public spaces sparked an entire debate on trends, consumerism, and even beauty standards.
The most significant criticism for these ‘Sephora 10-year olds’ is regarding their attitude. Many TikTok users talk about their sour encounters with 10-year-olds in Sephora. Most of these stories describe how these children treat the workers and other customers terribly or “wrecking” Sephora and irresponsibly creating a lot of mess in the store.
But it does not stop there. Many people think this Sephora 10-year olds phenomenon is much deeper than that. These ‘Sephora kids’ do not just visit Sephora; they actually buy and use beauty products. This makes many people believe that Gen Alpha is growing up too quickly. More than that, many dermatologists have discussed the danger of harsh skincare ingredients on young children’s skin. They believe that this trend is harmful to these children.
While all of these points are valid, it is, however, very shallow of us to put all the blame on these children. Some people think adults should not call out these kids as it is not their fault. After all, we are talking about children and children’s nature is to imitate. Who are they imitating? The adults.
It is unfair to tell these children that they are growing too quickly just because they show interest in skincare and makeup at such a young age. The reason why these children even find out about beauty products is most likely because they see their parents or their older siblings using them. And this behaviour is not exclusive to Gen Alpha. It is common for children across generations to want to be like the adults around them and to think that mimicking them will make them ‘cool.’ It does not mean they are growing up too quickly. It is normal behaviour for children around that age.
Of course, imitation is not a justification for these children’s rude behaviour, and it is not to say that all adults around them are rude. The problem is that the adults around these children seem to be enabling their rude behaviour. Videos of these ‘Sephora 10-year olds’ often show these children roaming around Sephora completely unaccompanied, and even if they do, their parents never seem to do anything to intervene when the children are causing problems. Furthermore, some of these videos are even taken by the parents themselves. Considering this, it is not surprising that these children show such bad behaviour.
But the parents are not the only ones to blame in this situation. It is important to note that Gen Alpha was born in the digital era, and many have had social media accounts since they are very young. TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms that Gen Alpha uses. This fact makes it clear that the issue here is not just kids being kids and imitating the grown-ups.
These videos are highly accessible for Gen Alpha, who are dominating TikTok. Considering their tendency to imitate, it is not surprising that they will also succumb to this trend, buying hundreds of beauty products they do not even need and showing them online. Ultimately, these children are just trying to copy what they see online.
Of course, this is not to say that it is not dangerous. It is harmful for these children to participate in such consumerist and wasteful behavior, and the problem is much deeper than it seems. But it is clear that the root of the problem here is not that these children are simply awful. Parents need to realize that these children are influenced by them and the media that they are consuming. Parents need to also realize that these children still have the tendency to blindly follow what they see, even if it is harmful for them.
There is nothing wrong with children wanting to look pretty and start caring for themselves. Some may even argue that children getting into skincare and makeup is just a way for them to express their creativity. Perhaps, that is the case for most of these ‘Sephora 10-year olds.’ Maybe going to Sephora and applying beauty products is their new type of ‘toy.’
So, in that sense, these ‘Sephora 10 year-olds’ are just kids being kids, imitating the grown-ups and doing things that they think are trendy and cool. But for adults, it is becoming clear that this phenomenon is much more complex than that.
TikTok is a place of many discourses, but some of the biggest ones to this date are discourses on consumerism and beauty standards. These two are connected, as seen in the many videos of influencers doing clothing, makeup, or skin care hauls. These videos of people showing loads of beauty and fashion products are very popular. Many TikTok users have criticized these videos for perpetuating consumerism and unrealistic beauty standards.