More and More Young Girls Using Makeup

According to studies highlighted in The New York Times, more and more "tween" girls are using makeup.  Between 2007 and 2009, the percentage of 8- to 12-year-old girls who use mascara rose from 10% to 18%, the percentage of those who use eyeliner from 9% to 15%, and the percentage of those who use lipstick from 10% to 15%. Where do they get the cash for products that can run up to fifteen bucks a pop?  Ah — their parents.

The Times piece touches on arguments about the beauty industry aggressively marketing to pre-teen girls, giving examples of the "teen" sections of the makeup aisles at drug stores (thanks again, Miley Cyrus, for yet another range of products aimed at turning young girls into sex objects). It also quotes Stacy Malkan, author of “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry," comparing the beauty industry to the tobacco industry.

But, ultimately, the author seems to conclude that " tween girls today are sophisticated enough to make at least some of their own beauty decisions," and the piece ends on a merry note of self-empowerment. The author quotes an 11-year-old, pictured putting on lip gloss in the mirror, saying she doesn't want to try to make herself look like a celebrity, she wants to try to make herself look like herself.

Question: Um, since when do 11-year-olds need makeup to look like themselves? Are we really confusing the enthusiastic use of mascara with sophistication and empowerment? And is it not disturbing that the use of eyeliner and lip gloss is getting all wrapped up with identity before girls even hit puberty?

Malkan, the author interviewed in the Times piece, cites constant pressure on tween girls to look older as part of the problem  — shows like 90210 feature teenagers who dress and look like they're 25 (as the actresses may actually be). There's a particularly cruel irony to this  — once women hit 30, then suddenly the beauty industry will be slamming them with the need to look younger, but up until twenty or so, they're supposed to look like sexy twenty-somethings headed out for a night on the town. There's always some distant goal to be striving for, and it always involves purchasing a beauty tool of some sort.

It's time women start taking this aggressive marketing of sexuality/womanhood/"beauty" to young girls seriously. This is a campaign along the lines of that of the tobacco companies: it is meant to create an addiction to the idea of women as objects, women as "beautiful" per society's standards (made up, glossy, thin, young, sexy), and to hook girls into this addiction as early as possible. Thankfully campaigns like Let Girls Be Girls are actively tackling this issue, but there's so much more to be done. Girls deserve a childhood unimpeded by the ubiquitous and damning pressures our society places on women.

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