Why Are 12-Year-Olds Terrified Of Ageing?

Girls are products with a shelf life

Via: Hyram, TikTok.

There’s this line, at the top of my cheek, that creases when I smile.

I first noticed it a few months ago, in a photo of me at graduation — a tiny line that I thought was a crack on my phone screen. I smudged over it with my finger but it stayed, stubborn, stamped on me like an expiry date sticker.

I did what anyone would do in that situation and searched Google for solutions. wrinkle under eye help took me to a Reddit forum, r/SkincareAddiction, where I found a flurry of young women, like me, obsessing over the lines on their faces.

I soon got over mine. Not because I found a solution or anything but because I was suddenly disturbed by something else: a lot of these girls were younger than me. Some were teens. Others were pre-teens. “this is a pic of my freckles” began a post by a twelve-year-old girl. “would you say this is the sort of bad sun damage that will cause significant damage like skin cancer/deep wrinkles in the future?” I dug deeper, through posts like: “there are permanent faint lines there already at 16. Is this a normal thing ???? please help” and “I'm only 14 and I have so many face wrinkles…please someone help me...I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of them.”

All over Reddit, it turns out, girls are listing out their 20-step skincare routines, discussing their daily suncream applications and measurements in minute detail, and panicking about fine lines and crow’s feet and nasolabial folds before they’ve even hit puberty. What the hell is going on?

I decided to reach out to some Gen Z users to find out. Did they fear ageing? Why?