{"id":62483,"date":"2026-08-07T11:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62483\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T11:27:09","slug":"sephora-kids-and-social-media-how-to-protect-hong-kong-teens-from-appearance-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62483\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sephora kids\u2019 and social media: how to protect Hong Kong teens from appearance anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As our world becomes over-saturated with increasingly unattainable beauty standards showcased by celebrity and influencer culture, it\u2019s getting harder to look in the mirror and like what looks back. Today\u2019s teenagers and preteens are no strangers to this pressure. While there\u2019s no way to pinpoint one single cause, the trajectory between what young people see online and the effects this can have on behaviour is well documented.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to a 2025 study in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, a monthly peer-reviewed online resource, \u201cthe advent of social media influencers and the widespread availability of beauty products have markedly amplified children\u2019s interest and involvement with these products.\u201d In the US, this resulted in the \u201cSephora kids\u201d phenomenon, which saw increasing numbers of adolescents going into beauty retailers, testing, purchasing and using make-up or skincare products.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jill Carter with her daughters, Olivia (left) and Grace. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/54c7b445-3a83-4ac5-85cd-e852ff924fe2_7d74818d.jpg\" title=\"Jill Carter with her daughters, Olivia (left) and Grace. Photo: Handout\"\/>Jill Carter with her daughters, Olivia (left) and Grace. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Children are often gravitating towards products hyped up on social media with harsh ingredients such as exfoliating acids and retinol. So even worse than \u201cSephora kids\u201d wreaking havoc in stores, they\u2019re wreaking havoc on their skin.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cMany of these ingredients have never been properly tested for safety in children,\u201d points out Dr Steven Loo, a specialist in dermatology and venereology at the CUHK Medical Centre. \u201cA young person\u2019s skin barrier is easily disrupted, and piling on potent ingredients leads to irritation, dryness and breakouts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong may have been spared the \u201cSephora kids\u201d phenomenon \u2013 Loo says he\u2019s aware of it, but his concerns lie more with the message it sends. \u201cWhen a 10-year-old is taught to scrutinise her face for \u2018flaws\u2019, we risk fuelling appearance anxiety at an age that should be carefree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Dr Rick Smith is a Hong Kong-based clinical psychologist who has worked with adolescents for more than 25 years, but young patients coming to him with issues related to body image are comparatively new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As our world becomes over-saturated with increasingly unattainable beauty standards showcased by celebrity and influencer culture, it\u2019s getting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12718],"tags":[38883,38884,38882,3528,38880,38878,4955,12733,38881,1148,15556,38879],"class_list":["post-62483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sephora","tag-cuhk-medical-centre","tag-dr-rick-smith","tag-dr-steven-loo","tag-hong-kong","tag-jill-carter","tag-journal-of-drugs-in-dermatology","tag-lvmh","tag-sephora","tag-sephora-kids","tag-social-media","tag-unicef","tag-xanthe-maya-ganesan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}