If your TikTok “For You” page is anything like mine, chances are you have seen plenty of TikTokers complaining about preteens at their local beauty store. These “Sephora kids” have taken to popular brands like Drunk Elephant, a company known for their (rather expensive) skincare products. These children have been accused of making a mess, disrupting other customers and creating dangerous skincare “smoothies.” But how much of this is kids just being kids? Who should we point the finger at: Gen-Alpha, their parents or society as a whole? For the first time, we are forced to consider who should be using skincare and how. 

Many TikTokers have turned the blame onto the parents. However, while parenting is definitely a huge factor in kids’ behavior, this seems to be indicative of a larger problem. It’s no surprise that society has often made young girls and women feel somehow lesser than, a trend which has only been made worse with the rise of social media. But 10-year-olds buying anti-aging products seems to be a new low. The reality is that kids nowadays have access to the world much earlier than any generation before them. With this freedom comes the pressure to fit in, which means they feel the need to have the newest products, amazing skin and the perfect skincare routine. 

Not only is this societal pressure bad for young kids’ self-esteem, but dermatologists are warning it is also bad for their skin. Dr. Brooke Jeffy discussed an 11-year-old patient who experienced a pronounced rash around her eyes due to retinol, an anti-aging ingredient. “This rash had been going on for so long and was so intense, it’s probably going to take at least a month, if not more, to totally resolve,” Jeffy says. “All for trying to use an anti-aging product that she doesn’t need.”

Jeffy and other dermatologists have shown us that using these products is not harmless fun, it is detrimental to their health. 

It’s not new for kids to want the hottest product. It’s not new for kids to want to be like the older teens and adults they see, but this has been taken to a whole new level. Some online users have defended the pre-teens, arguing that skin care is a practice of self-love, something we should be encouraging. Skincare routines can be a wonderful way to take a few moments for yourself and feel refreshed and ready for the day. However, it’s important that the products we use are appropriate for our skin and that our desire to use them comes from a place of self-love. For both the “Sephora kids” and the adults reading this, skincare should not be about the newest product. Make skin care an act of self love by focusing on spending a few minutes with yourself, keeping your skin healthy and clean, and becoming the best version of yourself, not copying an influencer or celebrity.

Content warning: discussion of disordered eating and body image issues

I remember being most conscious of my widened hips and my four-inch growth spurt when standing in front of the mirror-lined wall in my gymnasium, practicing full turns and split jumps at gymnastics practice. 

I was surrounded by girls who were 5’1” and shorter – thin, lean and graceful. At 5’5”, I felt like a giant. I worried about how much more the vault’s springboard would depress or the uneven bars would buckle down when I put my weight on them compared to my teammates. I worried that my bigger body would magnify mistakes like sickled feet or bent knees when I competed in front of judges.

In seventh grade, I downloaded a calorie counter to my iPod Touch and cut my daily caloric intake in half. For a couple of weeks, I kept up like that, happy to see my (perfectly average) weight drop by a few pounds per week before I became so exhausted and starved that I reverted to my old eating habits.

Dropping a few pounds didn’t help me look more graceful during my routines. In fact, it crippled my abilities. I was moody, lethargic and generally malnourished. I struggled to get through my practices, and I could not give the same attention to minute details like pointed feet and 135 degree kicks that I could on a nutritious diet.

I can’t call my adolescent experiment in weight loss an eating disorder in any diagnosable psychiatric sense, but it certainly exhibited a pattern of disordered eating and body consciousness that I would later learn permeated athletes in what are traditionally categorized as “women’s” sports.

Statistics about the prevalence of eating disorders and body dysmorphia among women in sports are staggering. NEDA, the National Eating Disorder Association, cites that over 50 percent of female athletes in Division 1 NCAA sports reported behaviors that placed them at risk for bulimia. Over one-third reported symptoms which would place them at risk for anorexia. 

The first time I remember encountering the gross fixation on bodies within the athletic world was in the place where all critical thought goes to die: the YouTube comments section. I frequently watched videos of Olympic gymnastics, and this time I was watching clips from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. 

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin were the two frontrunners of the 2008 American women’s artistic gymnastics team. The two gymnasts were worldwide favorites to win on most apparatuses and in the all-around category.

Comments on clips of these two gymnasts competing at the Games are riddled with phenotypic and anatomical observations of Johnson and Liukin. Often, the two are directly compared to each other, and keyboard judges posited that Liukin’s domination on bars was due in large part to the natural grace of her lean body, as opposed to Johnson’s stout frame, which some commenters lamented would “thunk” down the balance beam. Though there were several comments praising the gymnasts’ skillfulness and athletic prowess, there were just as many detractive comments about how the athletes looked, most concerning the aesthetics of their bodies.

Following the 2008 Olympics, Johnson battled an eating disorder – unsurprisingly due in part to widespread media attention focused on her body. She spoke later in an interview about an unspoken mentality in gymnastics that associated better athletic performance with weight.

“Society, stereotypes [were to blame for how I felt about my body]. I don’t think it was one person. It was a simple mentality in our sport that the lighter you are, the better you look and the better you do,” Johnson said. 

Simone Biles – the all-around gold medalist in women’s artistic gymnastics in the 2016 Olympics and the most decorated American gymnast – has been the target of many cruel remarks regarding her physical appearance, despite the attention that should be given to the sheer magnificence of her gymnastics.

In February of this year, Biles made an Instagram post detailing her frustration with harmful beauty expectations as they’ve been applied to her in her athletic career. 

With resolve, Biles ended the post by saying, “Nobody should tell you or I what beauty should or shouldn’t look like.”

And yet, the media, commentators and sports fans do, and they have been for a while.

Though she is now predominantly associated with her scandal, Tonya Harding first made headlines in the early 90s by being the first American woman in figure skating to land a triple axel in competition. Accompanying those headlines, however, were nasty references to Harding’s “thunder thighs” in addition to criticisms of her outfit and hairstyle. 

Yet, was it not Harding’s “thunder thighs” that propelled her high enough to land the triple axel?

The same goes for Johnson and Biles: Is it not the same bodies the media have criticized that allow Biles to flip 10 feet into the air or Johnson to confidently land her inconceivably difficult beam series?

While being praised for groundbreaking athletic feats, women in sports are constantly being denigrated for the same finely trained body parts that enable them.

In sports like figure skating and gymnastics, where the athletes are literally being given point values for how their bodies look – the point of their toes, the angle of their bodies in the air, the confidence of their landing – the audience often feels justified in making critical observations about athletes’ appearances. Observers impose a homogenized standard of beauty onto athletes, yet fail to realize that it is the very physical diversity of athletes itself that make sports so exciting to watch.

Furthermore, it’s simply silly and degrading to expect these women to look like fashion models. They’ve trained, often for a decade or more, to be in peak physical form and have become the best of the best in their sport. Their bodies are physical manifestations of dedication, grit and perseverance.

Even beyond elite sports, the danger is still apparent. All athletes – men and women, from recreational sports all the way up to the Olympics – hear a certain set of narratives regarding their bodies. Athletes are told they must be trim and lean. Excess fat is something to be burned off through a stricter diet or harder training. That’s why the rate of eating disorders among athletes is so high. 

It’s evident we have to change the narrative. Training for and competing in your sport should have nothing to do with mainstream ideals about physical aesthetics.

I can recall my teammates frequently making negative comments about their own bodies, too, though I never thought too much about that because I was too consumed by my issues with my own.

Sometime after my experiment in weight loss, one of my teammates lamented the few pounds she must have gained while examining her stomach in that same mirror-lined wall. This was a frequent occurrence among the post-pubescent girls in my team. 

This time, my coach overheard, clearly perturbed, and she said something that still sticks with me when I get upset over gaining weight. 

“You are beautiful,” my coach said, “because of two things: You are healthy, and you are strong.”

And that’s all that should matter.

Like most people these days I have tried my fair share of subscription services, from Netflix to Ipsy to Blue Apron to Stitch Fix.

Forbes writes that the main demographic for those buying subscription boxes in 2017 were those who have a college degree, were politically liberal, female, have a household income over $100,000 and have children aged 3-5.

There are many reasons for the increase in use of subscription services. First, with the rise of technology it makes sense that more people are shopping online. Now people can have someone else shop for them and get the products shipped directly to them.

These services are typically affordable too. Around $10 a month for an Ipsy or Netflix subscription is relatively cheap. Services like Disney Plus even allow you to bundle Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN+ for only $13 a month.

Out of the services my family and I have tried, there are definitely some that are better than others.

First off, you can’t go wrong with Netflix. Probably most people reading this have Netflix and can vouch that it is a good service. For one, you can watch Netflix on virtually any device, anywhere and can watch different shows on several devices at the same time. You can even download shows to watch later.

Blue Apron is a meal prep delivery service that has options for vegetarians, Weight Watchers users and diabetics, as well as meals that include Beyond Meat. The dishes are often delicious, but many factors can go wrong here. First, the package can get lost or delayed. Second, sometimes they include two of one item instead of two separate items, but usually that is not the end of the world. Third, sometimes items come broken or beat up, such as flattened bread or an opened can of beans. Meal prep services are convenient, yet kind of pricy and not always reliable, no matter the company you choose.

Stitch Fix is fun and convenient, but not for the money saver. You fill out a survey online with styles you like and your sizes, and five pieces of clothing will be shipped to you. You keep and pay for what you like and send back what you don’t. Each piece of clothing can range from $25-500, but I have never encountered a piece of clothing under $50. If you have the money, this service is for you, but your average college student probably wouldn’t benefit from this service.

Last is Ipsy, which I cannot rave enough about. For just $12 you can receive five sample sizes of high-end products for hair, skin and beauty every month or every other month. You take a preference quiz to indicate what products you want, and then after you get your products, you rate each one so they can personalize your preferences even more. I’ve gotten products from brands like Tarte, First Aid Beauty and Pixi Beauty. This affordable service is perfect for college students who love skincare or beauty.