Going into 2024, it’s obvious that new trends are on their way to spread through the fashion industry, beauty industry, and society. With this said, the target of these new fads is most commonly teenagers and older, otherwise mature people. Contridictly, the population getting exposed to these trends is getting younger and younger.
It has come to the attention of many people that kids, specifically pre-teens, are behaving much older than they are. The Gambit (2023) says “Nowadays, children are less childlike than they should be, instead choosing to act above their age.”
For example, kids are starting to wear much more mature clothes, use skin and body care made for older people, wear a lot of makeup, have behaviors kids shouldn’t, and post things that were not expected a couple of years ago.
Access to the Internet
A huge factor in kids failing to act childlike is exposure to the media. This mostly stems from the access to social media used on their phones, since phones are much more popular, especially for that age group, unlike they were in the past.
The very popular app TikTok is widely used by people all over the world. While the age minimum for this app is twelve years old, many kids younger than twelve claim to be older when signing up for an account.
The content on this app has a huge range, but focusing on influencers, which shows where children are getting their ideas for the way they should act since many of these influencers are much older and produce mature content.
Styles
Another thing that people have been notarizing with the younger kids in Generation Z and Generation Alpha is their new styles. This is especially true based on the fashion, makeup, and self-care areas.
In fashion you can compare the clothing stores preteens used to shop at, for example, Emma Shluker mentions that “when I was around the age of 11, the kids my age mainly shopped at stores like Justice,” compared to the kids the same age in 2023 who “wear very expensive and mature clothes from shops like lululemon.”
With the popular clothing brands being very expensive and mature, young kids are starting to wear more scandalous outfits. Isabella Contreras, a sophomore with an eleven-year-old sister says, “There are so many times when I see my sister and her friends out wearing short shorts and crop tops.”
Besides fashion, the beauty industry has also been receiving more attention from the younger generation. This includes makeup skincare, hair necessities, and any other product that is definitely not age-appropriate for these pre-teens.
Along with stores like Lululemon, Garage, American Eagle, and more, Sephora, a popular beauty store, has caught the most eyes amongst the younger audience by using great shop fronts from berkshire shop front company to caught the eyes of their young clientele. As seen on TikTok, there have been many videos of teens and adults criticizing the little girls that are “raiding Sephoras”.
Inside of most Sephoras, kids being inside Sephora is wrong because “it is ruining the environment of the store when these kids are making a mess and using products that aren’t appropriate.” explains Sophie Sanders, a sophomore from Roxbury High School.
When Sanders mentions making a mess she specifically is referring to the Drunk Elephant “potions” that these kids where kids leave products open or pour out after “testing them”.
Many of these products are also made for older people, like retinol and collagen which is made for wrinkles and mature skin.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, new generations are starting to wear out the community of women and men. Preteens are trying to fit in with the influencers and advertising that they see on the internet when they use social media apps meant for older teens and adults. But in reality, they are too immature to participate in these trends causing others to be annoyed with these kids. Social media needs to implement stricter guidelines, meaning kids need to advertise products for kids instead of for adults.
