Over the past two years, the beauty retailer Sephora has experienced an increasing number of preteen customers. This raises concerns for both employees and their respective parents. Known as “Sephora kids,” the children flock to Sephora in droves, making the beauty store a popular after-school location. Several pre-teens have also been caught destroying store property, as well as abusing the samples laid out to be tested. But why are children so zealous about Sephora?
The obsession with beauty can be traced back to the ever-popular social media app TikTok. Children, particularly pre-teens, are exposed to beauty influencers glorifying expensive makeup and self-care products, and by seeing such content are inspired to follow in their footsteps, often in the hopes of looking like the pretty influencers themselves.
Such children are incentivized to purchase the same products used by their favorite influencers, many of which are meant for an older demographic. However, critical concerns arise about the usage of adult products by young pre-teens, many of whom are susceptible to skin damage or acne due to the use of products not meant for children.
Another factor can be traced back to several Tiktok trends popular among pre-teens, where the latest rage is to destroy Sephora samples, often by mixing several products to create a “smoothie.”
Another trend is to continuously push a variety of sample tabs, all until the product is emptied out, with its destruction gleefully filmed in video accompanied by jaunty music. Such trends are responsible for the actions of the destructive pre-teens, who film themselves partaking in the trend in the desperate hope of reaching internet fame, as well as a sense of similitude with their peers.
The growing trend of pre-teen customers at Sephora is truly open to question. While regular customers may find the multitude of children in their shopping locations an annoyance, it must be noted that many of these so-called “sephora demons” journey to such stores because there simply aren’t any places specifically suited for pre-teens today.
Parents should take caution when allowing internet freedom for their children, seeing as over-exposure to such toxic trends will cause nothing but harm for most of society.
