How to prevent your pre-teen daughter from showing her age
How young is too young to begin undermining the self-esteem of our children?
Walmart set to launch Geo Girl - Skin Care and Make-Up for environmentally conscious, tech savvy, pre-teens.
When I first heard the news that Walmart plans to launch Geo Girl, a skin care and make-up line with a target demographic of girls between the ages of 8 - 12, I was appalled to say the least!
While some may say that being as how I do not have children of my own, I shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion; that I can't possibly grasp the day-to-day struggles of a child who just wants to fit in, be popular, be well-liked by her peers, and of course - be told she's pretty. To that I say, you are correct, I do not have biological children of my own. However, what I do have is years of experience with not just one, but hundreds of tweens, teens and adults alike who suffer from low self-esteem and perceived body issues due to our societies standards of what's deemed attractive - or not. The NYU Child Study Center reports that girls’ self esteem peaks when they are about 9 years-old and then declines steeply. We can all thank mass media and money mongers like Pacific World, the manufacturer of Geo Girl, for that one.
Let's start with the basics - a target audience that begins with an 8 year-old will undoubtedly spill over to those who are only 6 or 7, perhaps even the kindergarten playground will get it on this 2 billion dollar profit scheme. Now, imagine for a moment those same innocent, full of life girls ten years later. Will they be able to run out the door fresh faced, or will she be late to school because she overslept and couldn't get her day started without first putting on her make-up? Her "mask" if you will; the one that she has been told to hide behind because she's just not -fill in the blank- enough without it. (My bet is on the latter scenario being far more common than the first.)
According to the marketing team behind Geo Girl, the formulas are designed for 'young skin' and contain natural ingredients like white willow bark, chamomile, lavender and calendula, as well as anti-oxidants which are said to prevent aging.
I know of very few women (and some enlightened men) over the age of 35 who wouldn't give away a prized possession in order to regain their youthful cells of yesteryear. The fact is, everything slows down as we age, as in - age past our teen years. As we grow older we become blatantly aware of this process. Unless of course you're 11 years-old and you simply don't know better than to succumb to the marketing genius behind Geo Girl. Aware of it or not, Joel Carden, executive vice president, marketing and sales for Pacific World, is sending the message that once a girl enters her teen years, she is in fact over-the-hill.
Including ingredients such as white willow bark (salicylic acid, an exfoliant used to aid in speeding up cellular turnover), is in my humble opinion nothing short of absurd. What is the logic behind an 8 year-old needing to exfoliate her skin? Trust me, unless she has a medical condition, there is no logic - or reason! Granted, children are growing up much quicker in our current day, and even entering puberty at younger ages, but does that mean they are actually growing older more rapidly also? Or is our culture propagating the message that age is not simply a number, and if you're over the age of 8, you better not waste another day looking as old as you feel.
Aside from the ridiculousness of including anti-aging and anti-oxidant properties in a cosmetic line geared toward children, I can't help but to also have another point of contention with Geo Girl. Through their creatively labeled "tech savvy" products, G.G. encourages our youth to speak in letters rather than actually using their words. We've all seen the acronyms - lol, gr8, c u ltr - the list is endless, and does nothing more than lower our culture's already sub-par standards as it pertains to acceptable spelling and grammar. Clearly, Geo Girl prefers pretty over smart. And to me, that's just dumb!
If there happens to be an upside to this not-so-ingenious way of exploiting the deterioration of children simply being allowed to have a childhood, it would be that Geo Girl's packaging is eco-friendly and supports recycling. The other side of that coin is that if the products weren't manufactured in the first place, we wouldn't have to be concerned with Madison, Addison (oh, why didn't you have a son?) and her BFFs actually putting the used tube of mascara in the proper waste container.
Perhaps I should send a little note to Mr. Carden and suggest he investigates a future collaboration between Geo Girl and Toddlers and Tiaras - why stop the money train at 8 year-olds?
I realize this was one major tangent, but I am truly saddened and deeply concerned for the future of our youth. Am I alone on this one? Do you think it's appropriate for pre-teens to wear make-up? If so, how much, when and where? And more importantly, how much would you be willing to budget for this "luxury"?
Walmart set to launch Geo Girl - Skin Care and Make-Up for environmentally conscious, tech savvy, pre-teens.
When I first heard the news that Walmart plans to launch Geo Girl, a skin care and make-up line with a target demographic of girls between the ages of 8 - 12, I was appalled to say the least!
While some may say that being as how I do not have children of my own, I shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion; that I can't possibly grasp the day-to-day struggles of a child who just wants to fit in, be popular, be well-liked by her peers, and of course - be told she's pretty. To that I say, you are correct, I do not have biological children of my own. However, what I do have is years of experience with not just one, but hundreds of tweens, teens and adults alike who suffer from low self-esteem and perceived body issues due to our societies standards of what's deemed attractive - or not. The NYU Child Study Center reports that girls’ self esteem peaks when they are about 9 years-old and then declines steeply. We can all thank mass media and money mongers like Pacific World, the manufacturer of Geo Girl, for that one.
Let's start with the basics - a target audience that begins with an 8 year-old will undoubtedly spill over to those who are only 6 or 7, perhaps even the kindergarten playground will get it on this 2 billion dollar profit scheme. Now, imagine for a moment those same innocent, full of life girls ten years later. Will they be able to run out the door fresh faced, or will she be late to school because she overslept and couldn't get her day started without first putting on her make-up? Her "mask" if you will; the one that she has been told to hide behind because she's just not -fill in the blank- enough without it. (My bet is on the latter scenario being far more common than the first.)
According to the marketing team behind Geo Girl, the formulas are designed for 'young skin' and contain natural ingredients like white willow bark, chamomile, lavender and calendula, as well as anti-oxidants which are said to prevent aging.
I know of very few women (and some enlightened men) over the age of 35 who wouldn't give away a prized possession in order to regain their youthful cells of yesteryear. The fact is, everything slows down as we age, as in - age past our teen years. As we grow older we become blatantly aware of this process. Unless of course you're 11 years-old and you simply don't know better than to succumb to the marketing genius behind Geo Girl. Aware of it or not, Joel Carden, executive vice president, marketing and sales for Pacific World, is sending the message that once a girl enters her teen years, she is in fact over-the-hill.
Including ingredients such as white willow bark (salicylic acid, an exfoliant used to aid in speeding up cellular turnover), is in my humble opinion nothing short of absurd. What is the logic behind an 8 year-old needing to exfoliate her skin? Trust me, unless she has a medical condition, there is no logic - or reason! Granted, children are growing up much quicker in our current day, and even entering puberty at younger ages, but does that mean they are actually growing older more rapidly also? Or is our culture propagating the message that age is not simply a number, and if you're over the age of 8, you better not waste another day looking as old as you feel.
Aside from the ridiculousness of including anti-aging and anti-oxidant properties in a cosmetic line geared toward children, I can't help but to also have another point of contention with Geo Girl. Through their creatively labeled "tech savvy" products, G.G. encourages our youth to speak in letters rather than actually using their words. We've all seen the acronyms - lol, gr8, c u ltr - the list is endless, and does nothing more than lower our culture's already sub-par standards as it pertains to acceptable spelling and grammar. Clearly, Geo Girl prefers pretty over smart. And to me, that's just dumb!
If there happens to be an upside to this not-so-ingenious way of exploiting the deterioration of children simply being allowed to have a childhood, it would be that Geo Girl's packaging is eco-friendly and supports recycling. The other side of that coin is that if the products weren't manufactured in the first place, we wouldn't have to be concerned with Madison, Addison (oh, why didn't you have a son?) and her BFFs actually putting the used tube of mascara in the proper waste container.
Perhaps I should send a little note to Mr. Carden and suggest he investigates a future collaboration between Geo Girl and Toddlers and Tiaras - why stop the money train at 8 year-olds?
I realize this was one major tangent, but I am truly saddened and deeply concerned for the future of our youth. Am I alone on this one? Do you think it's appropriate for pre-teens to wear make-up? If so, how much, when and where? And more importantly, how much would you be willing to budget for this "luxury"?
Posted by Emerging Aesthetics at 2/3/2011 11:38 AM 
Categories: Headlines
Tags: Geo Girl Walmart skin care makeup preteen antiagin antioxidant skin selfesteem body image ecofriendl
Categories: Headlines
Tags: Geo Girl Walmart skin care makeup preteen antiagin antioxidant skin selfesteem body image ecofriendl
This is unfortunate for sure. As a mommy to a 19 and 2 year old girls, the parenting, teaching of self esteem, etc. falls to the parents. If you are a good, loving, active, participating parent that loves teaching your daughters about self love, self respect and self esteem then this will not effect your children.
From experience from raising a teenager, I enjoyed teaching her about appropriately ( and when ) applying make-up etc. We never experienced any of the things mention...thank heaven!!!
Let walmart do what they do, I think we need to be concerned about being GOOD parents and let our daughters know just how amazingly beautiful and unique they are!
I just read this to my friend Chris and he said Walmart is catering to the trailer park. LOL
Karri dear... This is disgusting and unfortunate, but I think it falls on the parents.
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