By: Bridie Beamish

National/World Editor

As the internet continues to expand and embed itself into society, newer generations are facing an unprecedented level of social media exposure. With this comes the insidious implementation of a need to follow trends intended for teenagers and young women into the minds of impressionable young girls. Influencer culture has overtaken social media sites like TikTok, with women flaunting the newest, most sought-after makeup items, skin care products, and fashion pieces to promote the idea that having these items will make one “trendy” or beautiful. While that ideology poses harm in and of itself, other egregious effects come from the exposure of young girls to these products and the adoption of the belief that pre-teen girls must age themselves to fit in with society. 

Most notably, people have taken to TikTok to make jokes at the expense of these girls, calling them “Sephora girls,” due to an increase in pre-teens shopping for trendy skincare and makeup products, such as the popular skincare brand Drunk Elephant. While people’s first reaction may be to laugh at the preposterous notion that pre-teens need to buy skin care items with retinol and anti-aging products, it reveals a much more significant problem facing young girls. The culture surrounding influencers and trending products fosters the ideology that girls, even as young as ten, must always fit in and keep up with their appearances to be valued in society. Pre-teens are no longer allowed to have “awkward phases” as they discover their sense of personal style and how they would like to look. Instead, they are force-fed clothes and products that are not age-appropriate through social media. 

This culture forces young girls into yet another impossible standard they must meet to be agreeable in society, causing them to sacrifice their youth and carefree nature about their appearances at an age when they should not have these expectations placed upon them. Influencer culture causes women and now young girls to create a facade where they must put on masks of perfection and constantly scramble to keep up with ever-changing and expensive trends to belong. 

To clarify, I am by no means judging these girls or anyone else for liking these products; rather, there is a more complex culture in society that confines women to perfection and places impossible standards on them. While society has placed this notion in the minds of women starting at unbelievably young ages, social media has exacerbated the crisis when it should be diminishing. Internet users must be more careful when addressing their audiences, and social media sites must regulate the content that appears on young girls’ algorithms. More positive representation must be included on social media sites to combat the out-of-reach and consumerist standards that many influencers promote to ensure young girls do not feel the need to mature and relinquish their natural, immature selves to have value.