When We Show Kids That Our Value Lies in Our Looks

Despite the fact that all around her, her peers are going wild over Squishmallow sheet masks, Sol de Janeiro shower kits, Bubble brand moisturizers, and star-shaped pimple patches, my child remains firmly indifferent to the siren call of the beauty industry. Instead, she values comfort and fun above all else, and wanders around with hair like that of the the main protagonist in Emily Hughes’s Wild.

This feels like a matter of nurture at work. I also value comfort above all else, as evidenced by my complete lack of skincare routine, my eschewal of makeup, my every-five-months haircut, and my embrace of the unsexiest pajamas on the planet.

How this will play out as she gets older is anyone’s guess.

Anyway.

While it’s bad enough that tween-focused beauty products already exist, people are now losing their dang minds over beauty brand Rini, which offers a skincare line aimed at at—brace yourselves—3-year-olds.

Morwenna Ferrier, fashion and lifestyle editor for The Guardian, points out that while the beauty industry—looking for profits above all else—definitely holds blame here, our children’s desire for such things comes from them wanting to mirror their parents’ behaviors.

I can see this. Growing up, Em was my shadow, my mini me, rolling out her own mini yoga mat, becoming an avid watcher of baking videos, and falling in love with graphic novels.

But as she’s grown older, discovering who she is, moving closer to the woman she will eventually become, some of this mimicry has fallen away (though comics and cosplay are forever 😉).

The thing is, beauty culture is insidious, so deeply ingrained in the larger culture that we’ve incorporated its messaging into the very core of our being: who we are is not enough, and the way we look can change everything.

Are products by brand like Rini just another cute (hella gendered) way for our kids to copy us, as they do with their play kitchens and their play brooms?

Or is this brand launch a horrifying sign that cultural indoctrination can start sooner than we think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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I don’t know about you, but my child and her friends are on Roblox (and Minecraft) every. dang. day. They play on a private server on Minecraft, but Roblox feels much more like the wild, wild west.

And it’s true. The Roblox Corporation has recently come under fire due to concerns about grooming, gambling behavior, and other potential harms for children on its platform.

Amid these concerns, Roblox has announced that they will be implementing new safety measures, but these steps are far from perfect… and, for many, don’t feel like enough.

SIECUS has developed a Policy Heat Map that provides users with a more comprehensive picture of the various sexual and reproductive health laws and policies that are being introduced every year, and their combined impact on young people.

From the site: “For example, in a state like Mississippi, young people not only have to contend with poor sex education policies ... but also abortion bans, criminalization of people living with HIV, and prohibitions on transgender youth in gender affirming care and school sports. While these policies are independent of one another, we must understand the compounding effect that the policy landscape has on young people. In Mississippi, young people are experiencing the disastrous impacts of these laws, such as high rates of unintended pregnancy among teens, high rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, low contraceptive use among youth, and higher rates of child sexual abuse as compared to the rest of the country.

“Conversely, in the state of Washington, where policies are more supportive of youth across these issue areas, we see a declining teen birth rate, STI rates below the national average, and improving mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ youth compared to the rest of the country.”

Check it out.

Donate to the brand new EducateUS Fund. EducateUS has launched a brand-new 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which connects advocates and educators in need with experienced lawyers for one-hour pro bono consultations. They’re also building a legal resource library that will be accessible anytime, and plan to offer additional organizing support, sex educator training, and more. This isn’t a resource you can use at home, but it is something that will help those trying to share essential knowledge with your children.