Throughout a latest GLAMOUR editorial assembly, the workforce was reeling on the latest Gen Alpha ‘invasion’ of Sephora. “They’re shopping for Drunk Elephant tanning drops!” senior commerce author Georgia Trodd and I exclaimed in unison. Who has the model’s D-Bronzi Anti-Air pollution Sunshine Drops on their wishlist this winter? Tweens, apparently. It does not cease there, both, for the reason that likes of niacinamide and polypeptides are prime skincare buzzwords for a median pre-adolescent, it appears.
Whereas the ten year-olds on the market are perfecting their multi-step skincare routine, there’s simply as many millennials who’re embracing an nearly schoolgirl aesthetic. Working example: 2024’s bow pattern. Did somebody say Freaky Friday?!
Gen Alpha is searching for cult-status skincare merchandise, while millennials and Gen-Z add outsized gingham scrunchies to their carts. In fact, TikTok has given us a trending time period for this: the ‘teenage-twenty-something’. The hashtag #teenagegirlinher20s on TikTok has amassed, at current, 10.6m views, so there isn’t any doubt I am onto one thing.
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I listened to a latest episode of Tradition Vulture offered by Sh*t You Ought to Care About’s Luce and Bel, through which they cowl popular culture, sizzling takes and properly, sh*t it’s best to care about. They mused over this girlhood theme. “Ladies are desirous to develop up, ladies are desirous to develop down, what the fuck’s happening right here?” the hosts questioned.
We have been all 13 happening 30 as soon as. However once I was 10, I used to be overlaying myself in physique glitter from Claire’s Equipment, and skincare meant a set of Lip Smackers. My first fragrance got here in a Hollister bottle and as an adolescent, my mates and I’d make one another over with layers of Maybelline’s Dream Matte Mousse (all of us bear in mind basis lips, proper?). The generational improve from Claire’s to Sephora – and sticky lip gloss to niacinamide serum – seems like fairly a disparity.
With the rise in social media, I am positive there’s extra strain right now than ever on younger folks to develop up quick. We solely needed to cope with the boundaries of dial-up web. We needed to ask if anybody wanted to make use of the telephone earlier than we spent an hour after college signing out and in of MSN in order to ‘pop-up’ when our crush was on-line. As we speak, teenagers have ‘prepare with me’ content material from their mates – and influencers at their fingertips 24/7. Millennials bear in mind a pared-back digital age. Maybe this opposing basis of web information is a contributor to our harking again.
2023 introduced with it a reclamation of girlhood that has spilled into 2024. Each outfit wants a bow. We’re watching Barbie while making bracelets – most likely to swap at Taylor Swift live shows. Jellycat toys are actually dwelling decor. However these tropes are usually not with out their points. We’ve additionally seen ‘Lady Math, ‘Lady Dinner’, and the latest ‘Lady Interest’ developments flood TikTok. While I personally err on the aspect of leisure with this content material, I additionally consider ladies shouldn’t really feel the necessity to justify their funds, their meals, or their hobbies. These concepts are sometimes born from preconceptions and gender stereotypes.
I hope Gen Alpha don’t develop up too quick – and to the identical impact, I hope millennials and Gen-Z don’t take these developments to some extent of infantilising their femininity. In addition to, possibly this reclaimed girlhood is simply one other expression of womanhood? #I’mjustagirl, however let or not it’s identified I’m additionally a girl.
