The Beauty Standard Trap
By Madeline Smith
In a world flooded with filtered selfies, photoshopped ads, and celebrity “snapbacks,” it’s easy to feel like we’re constantly falling short. From magazine covers in the early 2000s to today’s TikTok trends, beauty standards have never stood still—but what hasn’t changed is how narrowly they define worth. Today, we’re told that beauty means glowing skin, tiny waists, and curves in all the “right” places, a look that’s not just unrealistic for a majority of the population, but often unattainable without editing apps, cosmetic enhancements, or a lifestyle far out of reach.
This not only has an impact on older women, but younger women and even children. As the media continues to grow a younger and younger audience with Generation Alpha, girls as young as ten are being subjected to these standards. They’re scrolling through perfectly curated feeds, seeing their favorite influencers and celebrities praised for “ideal” bodies, and internalizing the idea that their worth is tied to how they look. An experiment run on children ages 10-14 showed decreased self-esteem in other oriented social media, which is youths who mostly view and respond to other’s posts instead of posting themselves (Steinsbekk et al., 2021).
Nowadays, even companies are pandering to a younger audience. Beauty companies such as Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe, and Rare Beauty create ads and do collabs with influencers with a much younger following. This puts the idea in young girls’ minds that they need to be pretty, wear makeup, have a thirteen-step skincare routine, in order to fit in with everyone else.
An article written by Beauty Independent in 2023 talks more specifically about the brand Drunk Elephant, who openly stated that their products are for all skin types via a post on Instagram. While I can see the thought process of wanting to promote good hygiene and a proper skin routine, Drunk Elephant’s products range from $30 to even $100+ dollars, which is an outrageous price. They also promote the idea of a “skincare smoothie” which is mixing all of their products together and then putting it on your face at once, convincing these young girls that they need to have a routine made up of entirely their products.
I went and did the math after reading this article, and found that a basic skincare routine (cleanser, toner, serum, moisturizer) is around $233 without taxes (I don’t even spend this much on my own skincare products!!). This list also doesn’t include extra “add ons” to a skincare routine such as eye creams ($62-$64), nighttime serums ($90-$134), or even their body care line ($20-$40). With gas and grocery prices skyrocketing, not many people can afford to spend two hundred dollars on just a skincare routine, and to advertise these expensive products to kids can be challenging for parents who simply can’t afford to buy such items for their kids.
This leads me to another topic, bullying. With skincare and makeup being so prevalent in younger generations, it can lead to bullying of girls who do not participate in these trends. A blog post to the New York Post by Shona Hendly in 2023 highlighted her experience with her own daughter wanting to wear makeup to school, despite Shona being against her daughter wearing makeup simply because she is too young.
She talks about her daughter, who is only ten, expressing to her that her friends will make fun of her for not wearing makeup to school. Shona talks about how she herself believes that primary school is far too young to be wearing products such as foundation, mascara, and lip products, things she said she didn’t start caring about until her mid-teens.
This post reflects a troubling shift in our society, beauty expectations are not only intensifying, but reaching children earlier than ever. When makeup becomes a marker of social acceptance at such a young age, girls begin to feel pressured to alter their appearance just to fit in. Not just for self-expression, but for survival in a judgmental environment. Instead of learning self-confidence and individuality, they’re taught that their natural appearance is something to be corrected.
Understanding how beauty standards are created and reinforced is only the beginning. In the next post, I’ll dive deeper into what happens after those unrealistic ideals take root. Specifically, how they affect our mental and emotional well-being. From low self-esteem and anxiety to depression and disordered eating, the psychological toll of chasing unattainable beauty is both serious and widespread, especially among young women. I’ll also introduce concepts from positive psychology and explore self-compassion strategies that foster self-acceptance. True beauty begins with how we feel about ourselves, not how we look to others.
References
Steinsbekk, S., Wichstrøm, L., Stenseng, F., Nesi, J., Hygen, B. W., & Skalická, V. (2021). The impact of social media use on appearance self-esteem from childhood to adolescence: A 3-wave community study. Computers in Human Behavior, 114, Article 106528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106528
Schaner, D. (2023, May 3). Drunk Elephant says many products aren’t designed for kids. Beauty Independent. https://www.beautyindependent.com/drunk-elephant-says-many-products-designed-kids/
Sullivan, M. (2023, November 7). My daughter is being bullied because I won’t let her wear makeup to school — she’s only 10. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/lifestyle/my-daughter-is-being-bullied-because-i-wont-let-her-wear-makeup-to-school-shes-only-10/