Social media is prevalent in all our lives, especially that of our children. There are a myriad of platforms out there vying for our kid’s attention. By the time your tween hits high school, they most likely have a phone and access to a laptop. And it is certain they are consuming influencer content.
Influencer culture is now firmly part of the social media landscape that our children navigate. No matter what the topic, there’s an influencer out there creating content about it. Sadly, there’s a huge amount of misinformation. There’s also a lot of money to be made for those creators who promote products. One topic in particular that has saturated many online platforms is beauty, and in particular skincare. And considering roughly 68% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha have a skincare routine, with Gen Z now spending more on skincare than any other generation, our kids are a lucrative target market. So how is this all affecting our young people?
We can all remember hitting those early teen years; our bodies and skin changed, and our self-esteem suddenly rested more heavily on how we felt we looked. Hormones took over. Our children are experiencing these changes just as we did, but in a very different world.
With young people increasingly obsessed with skincare, leading beauty brand No7 Beauty Company commissioned research on social media, focusing on the impact of influencers on tweens’ behaviours and purchasing habits. The goal was to explore the real-life implications of these influences.
The study found that one in ten parents said they felt unconfident in giving basic skincare advice and product guidance to their tweens. * And over a third of parents reported that their teens had bought a skincare product from a social media influencer that has aggravated their skin or was unsuitable for their skin. *
No7 Beauty Company has always been committed to educating people of all ages about the importance of investing in the right skincare. So, in light of the findings, they teamed up with Grazia to create an educational module to help guide parents.
In this brilliant ten-minute video (below), Grazia Head of Beauty Joely Walker and dermatologist Dr. Emma Wedgeworth discuss tween skin care, how misinformation online is affecting teens, and take a look at how best to approach skincare.
To learn more about No7 Beauty Company's open-access Skin School and explore its educational modules, visit www.no7beauty.co.uk/skin-school.list
*No7 Beauty Company survey of parents of Tweens (Conducted August 2024)
Dr. Emma Wedgeworth is a London-based consultant dermatologist with a passion for healthy skin. She graduated with a first class degree from Cambridge University and went on to collect numerous prizes at the Imperial College School of Medicine. It was during these years of fastidious training that she developed a particular interest in skin, which ultimately led her to specialise in clinical dermatology at the world-renowned St John’s Institute of Dermatology. She currently has a private practice on Harley Street in London.