The prospect of companies paying social media influencers to promote their products is common practice in today’s online economy. Consumers will often see their favorite influencers promoting items such as the trendiest new water bottles or skincare products, promising they cannot go without this product. 

What happens when the demographic being targeted isn’t yet old enough to have their own credit card or even drive a car? What happens when you exacerbate a culture of wants and needs, creating a divide amongst your peers? This is precisely what’s happening with America’s adolescent youth. 

Deemed by the internet as “Sephora kids,” tweens and teenagers have flooded popular branded stores and are fighting with their parents tooth and nail to get their hands on the latest trending product– even if it means taking it out of the hands of an adult shopper. Of course, not all young people being influenced by social media creators are destructive “Sephora kids” however, many kids are deriving their personal worth from having these brand-name products.

According to a story by Fox News, “Current and former (Sephora) employees have shared stories about dealing with these young customers (‘Sephora kids’), saying they make a mess of the stores, display rude attitudes when they don’t get what they want and strong-arm their parents into spending hundreds of dollars on products.”

Many children have built social media into their identity. A 2023 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that nearly one in five teens are using TikTok and YouTube “almost constantly.” In what is now a nearly $11 billion-a-year business, advertising to minors on these social media platforms is far more profitable and dangerous than we could’ve predicted.

Social media and influencers shouldn’t be contributing to middle school or high school popular culture, especially when the products they promote come with such a high price point. We feel these “Sephora kids” need a reality check— materialistic things don’t determine a person’s value.

Because social media is deeply integrated into the everyday lives of young people, product placement is even more important to teenagers and tweens. American Psychological Association Chief Science Officer Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D., said exposure to social media during adolescence has a profound effect on brain development, during a U.S. Senate Committee hearing in February. 

“Among these initial areas (of the brain) developing among most youth, typically starting at the ages of 10-12 years old, are regions associated with our craving for ‘social rewards,’ such as visibility, attention, and positive feedback from peers,” Prinstein said.

During adolescence, children typically achieve these “social rewards” with their tangible, trendy material possessions, predictably creating an environment of haves and have-nots. 

Thanks to the efficiency and success of influencer-based advertising campaigns, parents are seeing more and more of their children’s favorite content creators give “Shark Tank” pitches to their children through previously untainted avenues. According to a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, children are considered “uniquely vulnerable” toward the susceptibility of advertising, resulting in them making ill-informed decisions. 

“Getting product recommendations from people you admire is nothing new no matter your age. But the price point for many brands is now significantly higher than it was for the trendy products of the ‘90s, 2000s, and early 2010, and many have also expressed concerns about tweens using the highly active ingredients in Drunk Elephant products on their youthful skin,” Kara Nesvig writes in Allure.

We feel strongly that deliberate, targeted advertisements through influencers to children on popular social media are disingenuous. Furthermore, we believe this is indicative of a larger issue regarding the lack of safeguards that protect the mental health of the country’s youth.

Social media’s influence on tweens and teens has created an environment where having the newest Summer Friday lip gloss makes the difference between being considered “in” or “out.” We feel this kind of advertising has created a toxic impulse in children that leads them to feel they need to have expensive, trendy products in order to fit in and feel validated by their peers.