TikTok has been afire with story after story from Sephora employees about packs of 10-year-old girls roving the beauty store for skincare brands like Drunk Elephant, Laneige, Summer Fridays, and Glow Recipe.
Many have likened the childhood obsession with beauty products—the majority of which employees of the beauty retailer have identified as inappropriate and too harsh for the skin of 10-year-olds—to the days of young girls begging their parents to go to stores like Claire’s and purchase accessories like earrings and lip gloss.
On a recent trip to their local mall, one uncle captured his own young niece begging for a Laneige lip product.
In the set of videos posted by TikTok user @tylerwoodman9, one of which has drawn over 5.1 million views, his 10-year-old niece begs for one of the skincare brand’s lipglosses through the glass windows of the display. A second video shows her asking her mother to purchase the lip product for her, swearing she will “pay her back.”
@tylerwoodman9 whats gotten into these 10 year olds #sephora #10yearoldsephora #sephorakids #fyp ♬ original sound – TYLER WOODMAN
“Summer Fridays is $25, they have no more, so I asked the worker if they have anything similar, a nice shimmer lip gloss that isn’t clear, and she said yes, something for $22,” the child tells her mother in the video. “I asked if it’s a lip balm, and she said no. Please, I pinky promise, I’ll pay you back, this will be good for me.”
As the mother denies her daughter’s request, she stomps her feet and argues with her about her decision.
@tylerwoodman9 its the "i pinky promise" #sephora #10yearoldsephora #sephorakids #fyp ♬ original sound – TYLER WOODMAN
The Daily Dot has reached out to @tylerwoodman9 via TikTok direct message regarding the video.
Many viewers suggested she try more age-appropriate alternatives, like Claire’s.
“Claire’s has shimmer lipgloss I just know they do lmaoo,” one commenter wrote.
“Girl Clair’s has a whole 4 pack of flavoured lip gloss try that,” another said.
“What happened to claire’s,” a user commented.
Others shared what they remember feeling this way about when they were her age.
“When i was 10 i was obsessed with unicorns & funny cat shirts,” one commenter wrote.
“I was obsessed with lip smackers and those cheap candy flavored glosses… not $30 glosses it’s so insane,” another echoed.
“At 12 I was asking my mom for a Minecraft account,” a commenter wrote.