From confidently strutting through school hallways with that too-short Dora bob and a flippy sequin T-shirt to creating “Get Ready With Me” videos at age 10, girls are now spending their tween years in a drastically different way than just a few short years ago. Those old pictures of style, clothing and makeup experiments may not make us feel too good about ourselves, but that awkward phase was the first step in self-expression. However, these days, many tween girls follow 15-step skincare routines without even having acne. Younger girls seem to be wearing full faces of makeup and revealing clothing made specifically for older teens and adults. With social media and social comparison becoming more prevalent in everyday life, tween girls are growing up too fast, skipping necessary developmental stages where they learn about themselves and how they fit in this world in their tween years.

Girls’ tween years are some of the most crucial periods of their social and mental development. They become more independent, create stronger bonds with their friends and play around with the way they want to express themselves. Additionally, this is when they start solidifying their values and strengthening their sense of right and wrong. However, they also grow more sensitive to peer pressure and become more self-conscious of their appearance. During this period, young girls need positive reinforcement and proper guidance to ensure they don’t fall into unhealthy societal trends, but changes in social culture makes this difficult. 

As third places — a third location in addition to one’s home and workplace where people can socialize and connect, such as arcades, bowling alleys, malls and movie theaters — are becoming less relevant and accessible, tweens now turn to social media for social interaction. Rather than going to a mall, tweens opt to buy clothes online for convenience; instead of going to movie theaters, they turn to digital streaming for more choices at less of an expense. Tweens are missing out on opportunities to meet new people as electronic alternatives replace third places. Without these physical spaces to connect, tweens often end up spending time online by themselves, which has negative effects on their mental health. 20.4% of 8th graders in King County have depressive feelings, according to a 2023 Healthy Youth Survey.

Excessive social media use causes long-term effects on the way tweens develop socially and mentally. Most major social media platforms require users to be at least 13 years of age. However, in a study of over 10,000 adolescents, around 64% of tweens under 13 years old had social media accounts, according to the Official Journal of the Academic Pediatric Association. Unrealistically edited images online can easily influence younger girls, making many feel pressured to live up to a new beauty standard. In addition, the production of media targeted toward tweens — movies and TV shows like Gilmore Girls and iCarly — has seemed to decline, leaving content that is either too childish or too mature. As a result, today’s tweens lean more toward content meant for older audiences. Consuming this media subconsciously pushes them to want to fit in and grow up faster.
Gaining more and more traction in popular media, the “Sephora Kid” phenomenon highlights the issues that come with wanting to grow up too fast, where young girls obsess over skincare and makeup. Kids often spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on unnecessary skincare products and overpriced celebrity-branded makeup, many of which contain harmful chemicals for young skin. Most tweens won’t look into the ingredients in their products, and parents endorse this behavior when they buy these items for their kids. Even worse, advertisements are taking advantage of tweens’ interests by creating commercials and sponsoring beauty influencers that target younger demographics. For instance, Drunk Elephant skincare products, which range in price from $20 to $120, are highly sought after by young girls who have been asking their parents for it. With widespread engagement across various social media platforms along with not making it clear that their products are for more mature skin types, makeup and skincare brands like Drunk Elephant can end up misleading their customers. 

Additionally, these “Sephora Kids” have been seen racing or fighting over trending products in popular beauty stores, like Sephora or Ulta Beauty, often causing a mess with samples and not cleaning up after themselves. When marketing campaigns specifically target them and parents support their unhealthy habits, young girls can grow up believing this is the norm when it shouldn’t be.

The awkward exploration time between child and young adult is fading. While the phenomenon of children wanting to act like adults has always been present, it is occuring more than ever now due to pressures and judgement from social media. To avoid this, parents need to properly educate their children about the dangers of social media trends and beauty products meant for older demographics rather than immediately buying what they ask for. In addition, influencers need to be more aware of how their content can affect consumers, especially if tweens are a large part of their audience; and cosmetics companies need to clearly state who their products are made for. They all need to be held accountable for the way they’ve impacted tweens in recent years. Although avoiding all negative influences isn’t possible, tween girls should still be given a chance to enjoy their childhood years to the fullest extent without having to worry about external pressures.

Moreover, the increase in online spaces has normalized shaming people for looking or acting a certain way. While tweens are supposed to use this time to figure out how they fit into social norms, many can end up throwing their passions away to fit a “normal” lifestyle where they won’t be judged for their actions. Tweens have always, to some extent, behaved like this; however, online trends, like [find examples], have amplified this. Especially with online anonymity making it so much easier to bully others, young girls care substantially more about the way others see them, further adding on to why they’d want to grow up and skip the “awkward tween phase”.