Of Course Gen Alpha Loves Sephora

I realized after finishing this week’s substack that this comes off as reportative. The point of this newsletter, blog, journal, etc, is to share my thoughts and opinions in a non-formal way. It is not my place or motive to sway anyone to my thinking, to hop on my silly-dumb-thought brain train. With that being said: On with the show!

This past summer I got a first hand experience of this skincare craze that young girls are obsessing over. Up in the So Cal mountains, one soon to be 6th grader that I looked after, had a whole row of products above her wooden bunkbed. It stunned me. Never have I seen such a thing in my life before. A girl who’s around the age of 11 using and saying products like a retinol serum, hyaluronic acid, and a bunch of others I still have difficulty pronouncing. She applied these every day and night of camp. Albeit, very strange and wrong to witness, I did not subject myself to say any of my viewpoints to her. My coworker AND the child’s bunk mates already gave her an earful. Fast forward to today, we see this trend pop up all over the internet, but to a whole different degree.

Whether you are on the internet or not, you most likely have heard or seen pre-teen girls wreaking havoc in cosmetic stores. Videos by employees and customers have flooded TikTok discussing the bizarre behaviors of Gen Alpha girls when it comes to beauty and skin care products. Bizarre, because as they, those who have commented about this topic, report by saying how SOME of these girls are “buying” Drunk Elephant, Rio de Janiero, Glow Recipe, and other beloved skincare products. Story times of customers sharing their shopping experience being spoiled by girls saying very bold and rude things to adults. The workers of stores like Sephora and Ulta have definitely also noticed that tester products have been completely wrecked, as these girls all across the country come in and act like they own the store. Treating everything and everyone with nothing but disrespect.

Have I gone into any of these stores and experienced any of this, let alone witness? No, I have not. Yet…

Though I did go into a Sephora this past holiday season, I saw many young girls unsupervised. Honestly, nothing stood out to me other than how some of them do not know what personal space is. They really do not know how to give a person space, but a lot of people are like this. Boomers act the same way. When I go into my preferred Sephora, I develop tunnel vision. It is so busy and loud, really, I need all of my concentration when I go in for the product I am seeking out.

After hearing countless of stories from 20 - 30 year old women discuss Gen Alpha asking for products that they clearly do not need, I wonder where this can stem from. Yes, we can sit here and say the culprit are the parents. Understandably, that is true. Sorry to the new Gen of parents, but maybe put your foot dpwn and be stern with them. Goodness! Honestly, the parents to Gen Alpha really are so lenient it seems. Before you attack me by saying well what do you know? you aren’t a parent! you have no experience! Yes that is true, I don’t. Working with girls of this age and being around them often, is what I think warrants me to put in my two cents.

Another reason I have heard as well, is that they want to be like older girls, like women too. Since many of these children( thats what they are) have access to the internet at the palm of their cashless hands, they are consuming popular media. In the Glossy newsletter Savannah Harpster discussed to them how hauls, especially holiday ones is where kids are seeing these things and launching it into a bigger trend. Usually, the products are bright and colorful. Playful packaging is what catches their eye. We' know this to be true as we have seen how vapes take on this similar premeditated packaging approach. The mindset of wanting to be older when you are a child is nothing new. It goes for every generation. What has changed now is that women are focused more on skincare than ever before. Skincare from all over the globe can be found and purchased anywhere, as long as you have internet connection. Which many kids are having a small computer in their hands at younger age as time goes on.

Now drum roll please! My honest real reason to why I think the young girlies are into skincare is the death of Clarie’s, Limited Too, and Justice. All the stores that are aimed at these girls. These stores contained age appropriate clothing, accessories, and makeup. Skincare was not a thing in these stores. Possibly because skin begins to produce excess sebum oil as you get older and start puberty. For the whole retinol and array of serums for anti-aging, well- hate to break it to you, but you really should start using them when you get to the big scary age of 25. That is because you naturally stop producing all the lovely things to keep your skin looking youthful. You stop growing, losing the elasticity and plumpness in your face. Whoever is telling Gen Alpha that it’s better to start out using these harsh serums and creams when they’re young should be slapped. I’m looking at you BeautyTok people. But what do they care? A lot of influencers have mercenary motives.

Club Libby Lu was also a very popular store that was just like Justice. You could host parties and they would do your makeup and hair.

With the previous places mentioned, where are kids going to shop at now when they go to the mall? As a kid I clearly remember BEGGING my mom to let me go in and maybe possibly, if I was good enough to let me get something. Which at times I was hesitant to pick out anything above a specific amount. Not because my mom was telling me that I couldn’t, but because I unwillingly knew the financial situation my parents were in. Or in hindsight, sort of led to believe.

It is so bold and disrespectful that kids today have the audacity to ask for something so pricey. So much of it. Nonchalantly too, as they seem to be growing a collection of it like it’s so accessible. It’s just teaching them to become very spoiled and privileged. Bring back humbling your kids and not being afraid of laughing or yelling at them when they ask for such a silly useless thing.

To circle back to Justice and Limited Too, they were a space created for girls to act and feel their age. A space where they could also host a birthday party too! I have a memory from a friend’s birthday at Justice. It entailed getting small gifts like those soda flavored Lip Smackers, having our hair done, getting our makeup done with CHEAP products that are safe for our delicate, gentle skin. Plus, GLITTER on everything. Glitter in our hair, makeup, and skin too! We felt so cool and woman like for getting glammed up like this. For having someone pamper us like this, a real big treat I would say.

glitter galore

Justice had these and it was everything to the tween girl.

Through the disappearance of these stores over the years, girls moved to places like Lululemon and H&M for clothes. For makeup they moved to Ulta and Sephora. Target not so much as they have a very limited selection. None of the “nice, expensive” products. I’m just assuming that’s how the younger girls think. Really want to understand them here by attempting to think like them.

I wanna close out by saying that not all girls are acting like this nor using such products. As I witnessed over the summer how one of the girls who had the row of products, many of the girls she was bunking with made comments to poke fun at her for having such things. It was like six against one in this case, so this leads me to believe that it is not a mainstream view point with tween girls. Let it be a reminder that just because I keep hearing over and over again of this topic or anything really, does not mean it applies to everyone in a specific group. Could it just possibly be that the algorithm is doing its thing as I engage more and more with content on the subject matter? yes, very much so. Remember that, always.

I really do not care for wrestling, but I am sucker for anything that takes place in the decades 1960 - 1980. Visually speaking, seemed like it was up my alley. I shared my full thoughts on my Letterboxd review here.

Ever since going to the Bamboo Club in Long Beach I have not listened to anything other than 80s dance and 70s Italian disco music. I came across this track on a Spotify made playlist. That synth sounds oddly familiar though! Any Portlandia fans here?

big freaking purchase, but it was a necessity! Also, thank you Elizabeth for helping me figure out what winter boot I should get. I just adore these pair.

Just a whole lot of pics from 90s Jcrew catalogues. My source for fashion inspo on instagram. Total normcore vibes.

here is simplicitycity's ig!

hahaha listen I put this episode off for a while. Then when I heard about people’s opinions and emotions over it, I pushed it off well after Christmas. Just as a cautionary thing for my mental health. Y’all were right about this one!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading + have a great rest of your Monday! :)