The 10 year-old Sephora Pandemic
design: Ella Welch
And why everyone needs to stop hating on them.
by MIA ROSENZWEIG ★ JANUARY 17, 2024
Anyone who is on TikTok has probably heard of 10 year olds taking over Sephora. Videos have gone viral about employees and shopper’s horrible experiences with young girls at Sephora. The biggest complaints are that they’re destroying displays and being disrespectful to workers and shoppers. @Hankyute on TikTok shares her experience where a group of young girls were crowding the drunk elephant display. The creator attempted to get a closer look at the product and asked to get by. The group of girls proceeded to insult her appearance by saying “I understand why you’re trying to get those, I hope my face doesn’t look like yours when I’m your age.“ Videos like this have given young girls at Sephora a horrible reputation.
Another concern is: Why are parents allowing their children to spend an absurd amount on beauty products? Products at Sephora are typically high end, at least $40. @Natsodrizzy on TikTok is a cashier at Sephora and made a video that shared her experience of a young girl yelling at her mother because she couldn’t spend $1,000 at Sephora. This little girl probably just wanted to copy the routine of all her favorite influencers, which is completely normal. Unfortunately, it’s simply more expensive to be an “It-girl” now compared to 10 years ago. In 2014 everyone was buying $5 baby lips flavored chapsticks and $10 vanilla scented Bath&Body works perfume. Now everyone is spending $24 on summer fridays and $200 on J’adore Dior perfume. The issue is that Modern “It-Girls” market themselves to be more “exclusive” so that the products in their routine aren't accessible to everyone. A perfect example is the Kardashians dissolving their BBL’s after BBL’s became popular. As soon as something becomes accessible to the mass public, the trend quickly changes.
People are also arguing that luxury beauty products are unnecessary and sometimes harmful for young children, such as the Drunk Elephant bronze drops and the Glow Recipe toner. These were the trendiest products of 2023, so naturally everyone wants to buy them. The main concern people have is that the toner and bronze drops contain retinol, which is harmful to undeveloped skin. Now don’t get me wrong, when I was their age I was all over every single trend. I was definitely a Justice and Claire’s girly. In 2014 you could spot me with an eos lip balm and a vanilla Bath&Body Works perfume. The key difference between Gen Z and Gen Alpha is that the products we were using were way more affordable and more age appropriate.
The reason these young girls are in Sephora is because there is nowhere else to go! There has been a loss of this “third space” for them, which is a place to socialize that is separate from school and work. We can blame this dilemma on the fall of Claire’s, Justice, and the Disney/Nickelodeon Empire. Ten years ago there was Nick kids, the normal Nick channel and Nick at Nite for pre-teens. This gave our generation so many role models that were our age.The rapid decline in pre-teen media results in kids consuming content targeted to teenagers and adults. The modern media that pre-teens primarily consume is TikTok. The most popular creators are usually 18 or older, therefore their content isn't catered towards a younger audience. This can explain why kids want to act older and why they're buying every trendy makeup product they see. So of course they're going to Sephora! It's one of the only places where they can test and buy all the products their favorite influencers use. We cannot blame Gen Alpha for pursuing their interests. Gen Z should understand more than anyone how it feels to have older generations critiquing your every move.
At the end of the day kids are doing what kids have always done, following trends! We shouldn’t blame an entire generation for the “Sephora problem”. A few viral videos do not define an entire generation. Young girls and boys are at an age where they’re curious and want to experiment! As adults we should guide them so that they can be confident appropriately. It is such a difficult age to navigate and they shouldn’t be hated on.