I just watched a makeup video on Instagram with a pre-teen girl with porcelain, pore-less, perfect skin applying 10 beauty products to achieve “flawless skin.”
There was baking and contouring and lots of Shape Tape involved, and she also exclusively used premium products, namely MAC, Fenty, Laura Mercier and Tarte.
Now, when I was that girl’s age, I had one Corn Silk Pressed Powder from Thrifty’s, and for me that was luxurious. My mom wouldn’t even let me wear mascara (“too mature”).
The girl in the video looked to be about 12, and she was in full-beat glam with false lashes. I think she did an excellent job. I can appreciate it from an artistic and technical standpoint, because I know how hard it is to do what she did and how long it takes…but part of me also felt awkward because of her age, like she was too young to be looking like someone about to hit the club on a Thursday night.
When it comes to makeup, what is it like for girls that age now? I don’t know many middle schoolers and don’t have friends with children that age, and I’m curious. I get that it’s much more socially acceptable now for young teens and even preteens to wear what used to be called “grownup” makeup, but is it just me, or does it seem like the minimum age when it’s appropriate to wear “adult” makeup is getting younger and younger?
No…? Do I just sound uptight and old?
I can’t lie, though. I kinda miss kids looking like kids. Childhood is so short as it is.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
My little 12 yr old cousin loves the Instagram makeup and will occasionally do it, but for the most part she wears “just mascara” because she “just doesn’t have time in the morning”. She is pretty good (better than me at that age) but needs to work on blending a little more. She’s also very into highlighter. I’m not too sure about other kids though as she is my only reference point and things are a little different in Maine!
It is funny, but when I think of what makeup would be like if I was younger, I am thinking about the age around 30. I can’t imagine a 12 year old with a full face of makeup, but then again I am of a different time.
I was wondering what some of you think of Tarte eyeshadows. I have never used any of that line, and was in Ulta the other day and saw a mini palette that was interesting. Don’t know how it would work on a mature eye. Any advice would be appreciated.
I use Tarte eyeshadows and am north of 40. I’ve generally been happy with them, but I always use primer as my skin is oily. The only palette of theirs I bought and hated was the Rainforest of the Sea II – some of the colors blended poorly or were patchy.
Thank you. I think I will stick with what I know. I am way north of 50.
Hi Jane,
I’ve tried a number of them and generally find them easy to use. They’re similar to Bobbi eyeshadows because they’re not super duper pigmented, but still easy to blend. Right before and after I had Connor I wore the In Bloom palette a TON because it was the only one I could handle. That one’s my fave.
Most kids are way overscheduled (dance, drama, soccer, tutoring, homework), and that school bus comes early. The 6th grade girls in my son’s school (ages 11-13) don’t have time for intense makeup, and it would all come off during recess or gym anyway. So they tend to look like regular kids. I saw one girl wearing lipstick in class pictures, and she stood out! They’re all into their hair at this age. Knots, braids, extensions, pastel clip-ins or mini-weaves, accessories, sometimes dye is involved. Some girls are into their nails, too, but they’re as likely to be chipped as not. And they like playing with lip gloss and eyeshadow – but playing and experimenting more than anything. I live in a big midwestern city with a big mix of cultures and income levels in our schools, and this is what I’ve observed!
I have mixed feelings on the subject. I didn’t like being young. If I could have skipped that part of my life altogether, I would have.
Today’s kids have to face technology in a way we never did, and possibly still don’t.
I feel like it’s not just makeup that young kids are involved in now. I even see that kids’ fashion has evolved… when I was 8, I was wearing neon stirrup pants. Children’s clothing now looks to be just like adults’ clothing, but in miniature.
I know people love to deny this, but YouTube’s audience is composed mainly of children and teens. Young people have access to things that we didn’t at their age. So it follows that they would have interest in makeup/clothes/etc. earlier than older generations, because if someone is interested in that, it’s right at their fingertips.
Hi Karen! As a girl in her late teens who only a few years ago was a twelve-year-old girl I can say that like you I was limited in my exploration in the makeup realm until rather recently. I had one mascara and a lot of sparkly lip gloss and scented Chapstick, but I was content to be that way because those little bits of makeup made me feel pretty… plus I was blissfully unaware of the vast wonder of the world of makeup until now, haha!
Just commenting as a kindred spirit who gets where you’re coming from and shares that thought 🙂
Hi Katie,
It was so simple then, right? I mean… Concealer wasn’t even a thought in my mind!
Also, I find it quite cool that you’re in your late teens and read MBB. I always thought the gals/guys here are 30s and up, so it’s nice to hear from someone with a different perspective.
I have a 13 year old girl and we live in CA. Most of the girls don’t wear any makeup to school since they have to participate in PE and also it’s not as socially acceptable. I see occasional lipstick in middle school but it stands out. When they go out, I see a little more makeup but not anything like Instagram. Most of the makeup seems to be mascara and/or fake eyelashes. They just had a 8th grade dance and my daughter wore lipgloss and the rest of her friends wore mascara, lipgloss or light lipstick and some powder. Eyeliner and fake eyelashes were somewhat popular but I’d still say that ~50% of the kids didn’t wear it. I’m another fan of kids looking like kids.
I think a lot of it depends on where you live though. Norcal is known for very little makeup (adults and kids) compared to say Dallas.
I have a 13 yr old who wasn’t really into makeup until her last dance recital. She has to wear it for performances but other than that she won’t come near the stuff despite my arsenal of acrylic makeup organizers lining my vanity LOL. So I really went all out on her face beat, because I never get to do this with her since she doesn’t like it. She had so many compliments on her lashes and brows that she came to me and asked me to get her some of her own, she made it clear though just the basics mom so I got her some Anastasia clear brow gel,since she already has brows that I would kill for, too faced They’re real mascara, and I let her pick her own lipglass at the MAC counter which I think was Bittersweet Me. I don’t think I’d be too keen on her doing the contouring and cut crease just yet but am just glad she decided to come to me for makeup advice, I feel like the cool mom haha!
You are totally the cool mom!
I was the first in my class to wear it. My parents got me concealer, foundation and blush because I wanted to conceal my acne for pictures. If my skin hadn’t been so crappy I may not have gotten into make up, I almost wish I hadn’t. I spent so much $$, so much trial and error because I never had anyone to help me with application and colors, and I obsessed why I couldn’t look pretty like this person or why couldnt I get my make up to look like this girl. I’d be upset because I slaved over my makeup and my friend, who had no interest at the time and barely wore any would get compliments and I never would. I still don’t, lol. But now that I’m older, I just don’t care. I see young girls and I think they’re wearing waay too much for their age and what they’re doing. I’m also seeing teeny girls with those long, pointy manicures and it makes me cringe.
The middle school girls around here are not really into makeup. Even in HS, it’s pretty basic. I’ve never seen a smokey eye or bold lipstick – and only one gal had instagram eyebrows which I thought she pulled off well. Friends who are not into makeup were less convinced.
My much bigger issue with younger girls is the clothing. The length of their shorts is literally obscene. My 17 year old neighbor (our families are close friends) told me that we weren’t in the 1950s anymore (HAHA!). I told him that his friends shouldn’t have to get Brazilians before putting their shorts on in the morning. I’m so glad I have boys. Girls would hate me because I wouldn’t let them out of the house looking like that. I DEFINITELY sound like an old fogey. 🙂
PS I forgot to mention that I had the exact same polka dot dress.
Did you get yours at Contempo Casuals?!
No, we didn’t have that here. I’m not sure what store it came from – I got it from a friend (we all sort of had the merry-go-round of clothes). Dresses with a skort bottom were my jam back in the day because I could still run around and not have to worry about them flying up, etc. 🙂
I am so glad I have a teenage boy too. I don’t know how I would handle raising a girl in today’s world!
I don’t know either. I get more and more terrified every day for her.
Karen – you look EXACTLY the same now as you did in those pics! Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!
Hi Divina,
I wish I had that baby skin! But thank you for the compliment. 🙂
As the mom of a 17 year old, I’ve seen this on Instagram and rarely in real life.
Hi Karen ,
Most girls are wearing lip balm . But I do see lots of winged eyeliner on all ages . My granddaughter dances on stage so she can handle eyeliner .
I began wearing eyeliner , white lips and dyed black hair from middle school ! ( 60’s ) My dad hated it so I could actually morph on the way to school . Including changing my shoes to hiking up my skirt .
My kids were 80’s so the hair was very high not much different than my 60’s hair .
But Karen , even boys are wearing makeup ? now .
Picture that .
I feel like that every time I look at any young woman with beautiful skin who has covered it all with full coverage foundation and maximum contour. Their faces look frozen and soooo fake. It’s a shame. But I guess beauty standards change over time. I think it will be good to have a more natural look come back.
As a teenage boy mom, I am freaked out about how much young teenage girls today look like they are in the 20’s and about to go clubbing.
On one hand, I’m envious of these girls. They have so many more options than I did as a teenager in the 80’s. When I was 13, I was allowed to wear nail polish–but not to school because I went to Catholic School and the nuns didn’t allow it. I was also allowed to wear clear lip gloss or a Bonne Bell Lipsmacker. And for these small allowances I was simply Over The Moon. I looked like the young teenage girl I was.
The summer before I started high school–I think I must have been 14, my mother took me to a department store beauty counter–Elizabeth Arden–I think either at Famous-Barr or Stix, Baer and Fuller–I am really dating myself now. And she let me get a lipstick and blush! The salesclerk suggested Mauve Dreams for both and I adored the shade. Still try to look for variations because I think Arden discontinued the color. It was So Thrilling! I still remember the makeup smell.
But today, they girls, I think generally, are wearing just about everything from 11 or 12 on it seems. While I would have liked a little more freedom, I think I appreciated it more when I got to be an older teen and could use whatever items I wanted–as long as I didn’t leave the house looking like a streetwalker.
This post is making me wistful and also glad I’m raising a boy.
It is jarring to see these young girls on YouTube doing makeup tutorials and looking like they’re in their mid-20s by the time they’re finished. (I’m also jealous that they can apply makeup better at their age than I can!) I used to play around with makeup when I was a pre-teen and experiment with smokey eyes at home, but I was never allowed to leave the house looking like that. So I still got to enjoy the artistic element of it at home, but then looked like a regular kid when I was out and about in public.
As the mom of a teen girl who is a bit more tomboy than most, I am thankful that she is just beginning to discover and play with makeup for personal use at 15. She’s also a dance kid and knows all about stage makeup, contour(her friends even contour their abs!) and false eyelash application, way more than I ever did at her age or even now. While I am envious what today’s kids have, gorgeous young skin and gravity, sun not even considered as an enemy, cameraphones to snap selfies of the fun, there is a trade off. You know how we talk about how we are glad we didn’t grow up during the cell phone age where all our mistakes could be put on the internet? Same applies here. It’s not uncommon for kids as young as 10, 11 to be already honing their instagram images- particularly in the dance world, they have to think about branding themselves! It’s a lot of pressure to grow up too fast and the instagram world is all about marketing to everyone, including kids, to grab their brand loyalty before anyone else does. When we were kids, if our brows went ungroomed, no one cared much. Now, it’s something they might get teased about at school. My kid is sorta anti-consumerist, doesn’t want accounts with FB, Insta, twitter or any kind of social media but that is a rare thing and it doesn’t exempt her from the image pressures all teens face. Meanwhile, my FB feed is filled with 8th grade graduation pictures of friends daughters, full face of makeup, stiletto heels and flirty dresses looking like they are ready to attend HS prom. No judgements from me- it would have been my dream to do so when I was their age. But I know for a fact that none of their moms allowed any of that when we were preteens. My mom, and my catholic all girls HS, surely did not. Best wishes to you in finding a balance raising Connor Claire to have fun with it but not be dragged down by its dark side.
I’m really enjoying the comments on this post. I hate the idea of a kid thinking their skin isn’t perfect and that they need a serious makeup routine to be beautiful. I think it has to do with the framing of why a kid is using makeup: if it’s because it’s fun and they want to figure out how to make themselves look a different way, I can appreciate that. But if they’re young and think they *have* to make their faces up to be pretty… I get more sad about it.
My 15 y/o niece wears the basics to school and goes all-out for occasions like homecoming, etc. My 11 y/o usually rolls her eyes, but just started wearing a little bit to a couple of school dances (she’ll be 12 next month, booo!!!!). My 3 y/o loves playing with her pretend makeup and must have it with her in her tiny little purse at all times. Meanwhile, my 2 y/o looks at her sister like “You do know that’s not actual makeup, don’t you?” She really likes to keep it real, lol.
Kids are growing up way to fast. The girls I used to babysit only care about belly tops and eyeshadow .
When I was their age I used samples my mom got from Sears . I also remember applying it after my parents had left for work .
Kids now a days grow up way a days . Thanks to social media a lot of them don’t have privacy .
Sorry getting off my soap box now .
Just want to say I totally agree!
I didn’t wear a ton of makeup growing up. My mom let me buy some CoverGirl stuff when I was 13, but I just used the little sponge applicator to put some sheer ass eyeshadow on my eyelids and some clear or brown mascara. However, I went through years where I didn’t really wear makeup at all (Most of my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years of high school). In fact, my senior pictures have just clear mascara and some Bonne Bell lip gloss (hey, at least I’m not wearing bad makeup in them, LOL!). I was lucky to have clear skin growing up (I don’t now…).
I don’t know. Makeup is fun, but I hope these young folks don’t feel like they HAVE to wear that much to be presentable! I feel like that kind of makeup looks great in photography or on stage, but in real life it doesn’t really translate.
I was a teen around 10 years ago *gulp* (I know you think I’m still a baby but sometimes I’m still shocked about my age) and Alisson is an actual teenager (I really hope Connor will be a nicer one than Alisson is) so I can give you a better insight about teenagers and makeup these days. I think the only difference is that we are in Mexico not in the US.
I think that most of teenagers not really use a lot of products because:
A) They don’t have a lot of them.
B) In most junior high schools are prohibited, you can only use lipgloss and not of the bright ones.
C) Their parents are not really into their daughters wearing a lot of makeup until they get to high school, more on that in a minute.
What I’ve seen in the quinceañera parties of Alisson’s friends is that even when they have the opportunity to use more makeup they won’t use a lot of them. I’ve seen bright lips, mascara and eyeliner, but not a lot of bright eyeshadows and false lashes (most of the time only the quinceañera wears that).
In my opinion, Alisson wears more in parties than her friends because of my influence but even then she doesn’t wear tons of foundation and concealer because she thinks like me and says that amount of makeup is more for a drag than a person.
About entering to high school, depending on where you enter you can wear more or less makeup, in my case I entered in a high school from a public university so they really didn’t care about what you wore (Alisson is entering to the same system) and the biggest amount of makeup I saw on one person was a full face but more in the “old” way not with contouring and a cut crease.
Also take in consideration that when you enter to high school you have around 15 years so now everybody considers you not a child but a miss (a younger man depending the case), so we begin to get treated differently.
In conclusion I think the video you saw was more like a one in a hundred kind rather than the average girl. And yes I almost wrote and essay.
My daughter is four now, and constantly begging me for nail polish, lipstick or similar. At first I thought it was my bad influence, but then I realized she was the only girl in her group of friends that had not painted her toe nails. I think that is too early, I don´t think that makeup should become a thing before 12, maybe 13, and then in small doses, like ONE Lipgloss, or maybe ONE nail polish.
But times change, and I am not sure I can compare me growing up to her growing up. As long as I manage to teach her that she doesn´t need makeup to be beautiful and that it is fun, everything will be alright.
No you’re not just old and stuffy, it is a bit absurd! I wear foundation to cover redness and post acne marks. Otherwise, I wouldn’t wear it! Younglings with perfect skin don’t need it, so WTF. LOL. But, I’m torn between my obtuse feelings on it and the ‘you do you’ sentiment. If they just enjoy makeup, then I guess that’s just their thing and I should shut up about it LOL. I can’t stand instaglam makeup tho … blech. I hate that girls are all about not being who they are naturally, instead preferring all this fake shit. It’s literally drag queen or stage makeup. It’s literally to pretend you’re something you’re not. And who puts that much effort into their makeup IRL, that’s just silly. LOL.
LOL … as a teen my go to was always drugstore powder or liquid to powder compacts (Mainly Covergirl because they catered to teenage skin problems) and mascara and liquid liner. All of the makeup we do now was just unheard of. And my makeup probably looked terrible too! LOL.
I have a 12 soon to be 13 year old daughter. She wears a full face of stage makeup almost every weekend for dance recital or competition. She hates it because she’s been dancing since she was 4. At 4 she just had to wear lipstick, but I’d say starting around 8 it was full face glam on the stage. For everyday/ school she wears clear mascara, tinted chapstick, and a good moisturizer. Awe to be young again! Whenever she gets to foundation (highschool), I’ll encourage her to wear bare minerals loose. It’s pretty natural and not too bad for the face ( I use it or tinted moisturizer).
Woop, really late comment over here…
Honestly, I agree with the uncomfortable feeling. I’m in my mid twenties, and seeing kids (kids!) wearing crazy amounts of makeup just feels wrong. But age and image aside, I think (for me) the main problem lies in the expectation that wearing makeup carries with it. You mentioned that this young girl was applying product after product to achieve “flawless skin” when she already had it… If wearing makeup is harmful to young kids these days (or perhaps I should say the marketing industry in general), it’s because it makes it lowers the age at which we obsess over our appearance. Twelve year olds don’t have pores, and yet they seek to hide them because advertisements have convinced them that these “imperfections” are inherent.
Honestly, yikes.
I have a 12 year old grand daughter who gets all my experimental oops didn’t work for me purchases. Her friends come over to play with it. Mostly they do it as face paint with butterfly wink eyes ( complete with eyeliner feelers and legs at times, and coat themselves with rainbow unicorn highlighter (really, what was I thinking when I bought that) kind of cute, then they take pictures and post them . Then they go climb trees……
That’s so sweet, Lena. It’s nice to know that kids still act like kids!