Welcome to the beauty jungle of 2025, where girls as young as ten are using anti-aging serums like they so badly need them. The U.S. sees the crisis and wants to intervene, with a California bill being drafted to keep these products out of the hands of teens and tweens. It’s a telling sign of the times—skincare has become less about care and more about outrunning this clock that’s yet to start ticking. The fear of aging has unfortunately trickled down to the barely adolescent, so it’s time we remind them of a simple truth: a young face needs little to stay that way.
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The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Alex Lee, seeks to prevent retailers from selling products containing vitamin A, glycolic acid, retinol, and vitamin C to anyone under 18. “We have to stop the beauty industry from exploiting our youth,” Assemblymember Lee stated. “It’s time we take action, and my bill is a common sense measure to protect kids from unnecessary and potentially harmful anti-aging products.”
The ‘Sephora Kids’ Syndrome
These are the ‘Sephora Kids,’ also known as the baby-faced tweens convinced that their beauty depends on TikTok’s must-buy serum of the week.
Their vanities are filled with products meant for women twice their age, convinced if they don’t start now, they’ll regret it later on. To be fair, though, we’ve heard dermatologists preach that ‘the best time to start anti-aging is before you need it.’ But isn’t this the most extreme version yet?
It’s both a trend and a warning sign. One TikTok user put it best: this might be this generation’s version of diet culture. Where millennials feared their carbs and obsessed over thigh gaps, Gen Alpha fixates on skincare ingredients and aging. Data backs this, revealing that one in two young girls aged ten to 17 now expects to worry more about their looks as they age. As the adults in the room, owe it to them to right the wrongs.
The Rule of Three
So, what do kids really need? Dove answered that in its 10 vs 10 campaign launched last year, where an online film asked the question: When did 10 stop looking like 10? This was a callout to the flood of anti-aging content pushing ten-year-olds into grown-up skincare.
In reality, they only need three things.
“A young person needs nothing more than a clean face, sunscreen, and light moisturizer,” revealed Dr. Marisa Garshik, a certified dermatologist. If they truly insist on a routine, teach them this is all they need.
But in a monkey see, monkey do world, exposure breeds habit. Daughters, nieces, and little sisters are perennially on the internet, absorbing, imitating, and believing what they see adults do. And if we don’t step in, they’ll keep borrowing from routines meant for women twice their age.
What else is there to do? Teach them that anti-aging isnt for the young because their skin is already at its best. “Anti-aging products are designed to prevent the appearance of getting older, and are not appropriate for young skin,” Dr. Garshik added. More than anything, nudge them to shift the focus from how their skin looks to everything it does for them. Appreciation over obsession, and confidence over comparison. “Focusing on the functionality of our bodies and appreciating that is a key strategy to building body confidence,” professor and body image expert Philippa Diedrich advised.
At the end of the day, the most important lesson we can give them isn’t in a bottle; it’s in knowing they don’t need one just yet.
Featured Image: MEGA ARCHIVES
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