Tweens and Make-up: a Rising Trend?

The New York Times today ran an article about tweens wearing more make-up "Graduating From LipSmackers?"  It profiled a few mothers discussing their views on make-up and how they've changed over the years - in the past, middle school was considered far too young for eye make-up and lip gloss was only emerging. Fast forward to today, and there are major cosmetic companies targeting tween girls. Neutrogena and Dylan's Candy Bar were cited as examples (Neutrogena recently launched its Teen line of acne clearing make-up), but if you walk into any of Beauty 360 CVS concept stores (an off-shoot of the drugstore giant focused exclusively on upscale make-up and skincare lines) or Sephora, you'll see younger-oriented packaging and labeling of many lines.

While hardly as insidious as Joe Camel, it does make one wonder if girls are in fact being explicitly groomed at younger ages by cosmetic companies in order to gain lifetime loyal customers. Girls have been raiding their mother's vanity drawers for ages, and it's nothing new for girls to aspire to look pretty, but is it inappropriate for companies to tailor make-up lines to girls? Is it adding fuel to the image fire, or is it a good thing for girls to have alternatives to the overly made-up images of adult cosmetic labels? Could a company create a line of make-up for tweens that focused on fun, inner beauty and teaching that didn't run a afoul of the very legitimate charge of making girls grow up too fast? Alyssa Pometta, the 11-year old tween profiled in the the NYTimes article seems to say yes: when "asked if there was a particular celebrity or fashion icon she tried to emulate when putting on makeup, [she] said: 'I don’t take a picture of a celebrity and try to make myself look like them. I try to make myself look like me.'"

And that's a great thing.

So, readers, where do you come out on this topic of make-up and tweens? At what age is it okay to migrate from Lip Smackers to want lip gloss and beyond? Is eye make-up ever okay before the age of 16? What about spa days - do those encourage a premature use of product, or are they good hygiene?

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