SACRAMENTO (AP) – When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles. By the time she turned 10, Scarlett and her friends were spending hours on TikTok and YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Scarlett developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturisers.
One night, Scarlett’s skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on Scarlett’s face, and her cheeks turn red in the sun.
“If I had known my life would be so affected by this, I never would have put these things on my face,” says Scarlett, who recently turned 11. Scarlett’s experience has become common, experts say, as preteen girls around the country throng beauty stores to buy high-end skin care products. Girls as young as eight are turning up at dermatologists’ offices with rashes, chemical burns and other allergic reactions to products not intended for children’s sensitive skin.
“When kids use anti-ageing skin care, they can actually cause premature ageing, destroy the skin barrier and lead to permanent scarring,” says Dr Brooke Jeffy, a Scottsdale, Arizona, dermatologist. More than the physical harm, parents and child psychologists worry about the trend’s effects on girls’ mental health. Extensive.