There's an iconic scene in Barbie that was almost deleted, the one in which Margot Robbie sits at a bus stop in the real world, bursting into tears overcome by her circumstances, and then sees an old woman next to her. Barbie says that she is beautiful and the old lady replies: “I know.” It was a cute scene, one of Gerwig's favourites and the actual lady in the scene was Barbie's costume designer Ann Roth.
But, was it just sentimental and do we really see old people as beautiful, like picture-perfect Barbie? The film seems to juxtapose Barbie's fresh skin against that of the older woman - we see it again when we're introduced to Ruth, who is making tea in a kitchen wearing pearls and dated florals, her white, trademark old lady perm and wrinkles lit up in the strange fire escape at Mattel HQ.
The problem is, Gen Z are already petrified of ageing and Barbie seems to only make it more frightening. Just a few months ago we saw a 14-year-old's long and complex beauty routine to “slow down the aging process” go viral.
The uploader, who goes by Carson on TikTok, says she started her practice when she was only 12 and her complicated skincare routine includes apple cider vinegar pills twice a day, retinol twice a day, a Korean sheet mask twice a day, sunscreen underneath her makeup, and green tea. "I always have green tea in the morning with a spoonful of honey ... Green tea is great for slowing down the aging process, and it's super anti-inflammatory," the TikToker adds.
Certain self-proclaimed TikTok ‘wellness’ experts are spreading an ignorant message.
The most worrying of all is that she tells everyone "Whenever I'm going on a long road trip, I always tape up a piece of construction paper," she explains, while showing a video of her adding paper to a car window so no light comes through. "This blocks out most of the UV rays."
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The video has been seen 7.2 million times on Twitter. Many responded in how shocking things are for young women right now. One Twitter user replied: "like not even being able to look out the window on a road trip bc you’re terrified of getting a line on your face. the kids are not alright.”
Dr Paris Acharya, Leading Aesthetic Doctor and Face Surgeon at Waterhouse Young Clinic tells GLAMOUR this kind of extreme skincare regime at such a young age is worrying.
"A 14 year old is a child and should not be subjecting her skin to the multitudes of anti-ageing products available without a clinical indication. In some cases 14-year-olds may suffer with skin conditions such as acne in which case dependent on the severity I would recommend certain key products to help manage their acne however anti-ageing would not form part of this approach," says Dr. Acharya.
“When looking at this routine, it is clear that she is trying to prevent and reverse ageing immediately by using huge amounts of products. Firstly, a 14-year-old has plenty of collagen and anti-ageing should be the last thing they should be considering when looking for skincare. Instead they should try to stick to a simple effective routine, incorporate SPF and if there are specific concerns I would seek professional advice before experimenting with multiple different products," advises Dr. Acharya.
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This is just one example - TikTok is flooded with thousands more that seem to normalise a culture of costly, labour-intensive anti-ageing routines. And it's hardly surprising when the same platform recently decided to roll out a face-ageing filter that creates an AI-generated image with wrinkles, thinning hair, and under-eye bags. Even the celebs are saying how much they hate the older versions of themselves. Kylie Jenner shakes her head while looking at her digitally aged-up visage. “I don't like it,” she says. “I don't like it at all.”
Dr. Acharya thinks the biggest problem on social media is the fact that most people sharing content on beauty regimes and anti-ageing hacks aren't qualified to do so. “While I do in fact think that adopting a skincare routine from a young age is important to help tackle teenage/hormonal acne and spots, the ongoing anti-ageing message that continuously circulates online can be very damaging to those who aren't properly educated on skincare,” she says.
“I personally think it is important to teach the younger generation that ageing skin is beautiful and that we should embrace it. Sticking to a thorough routine is of course always beneficial to help with all skin types, from dull and tired skin to pigmentation and acne but we shouldn't be teaching our kids that ageing is something to be scared of. If anything, some products shouldn't be used on premature skin as this can cause more damage than not using anything at all,” she advises.
My own Instagram feed is dominated by these anti-ageing trends - glass skin, glazed donut skin - basically ways to fib people into thinking you are more filtered, more flawless and glowy than you really are. Beauty writer and author Jessica DeFino recently told Mashable. "A lot of beauty trends today are all about getting the skin in real life to look as filtered as possible, which generally means no deviation in tone, or texture, poreless, wrinkle free, no fine lines, just sort of this flat, reflective, shiny glow, which is not what a face looks like, that's what a phone screen looks like." She's not wrong.
While I'm 35, I find myself among one of the few who hasn't succumbed to the pressure of injectables “You mean you've never had anything done?” a top Harley Street doctor recently asked me twice during a consult for dry eyes. I was also reminded that it's best to start Botox “before the ageing process takes hold” - again, assuming no young woman wants to age gracefully.
It took 57 years in the toy aisle for these iconic dolls to be anything other than slim.
In some ways I feel lucky, I actually had a childhood that didn't involve learning about society's beauty expectations on women via social media. Yes, we saw airbrushed models and celebrities on magazine covers, but young women today are literally living inside one big filter where you don't even think about posting a selfie without zooming in and blurring something out. They are hounded by anti-ageing tutorials and product placements at every possible turn - from Love Island to Instagram, content consumption is the first and last thing they do every day. We're basically telling young women that they aren't good enough, even as teenagers.
Dana Moinian, Psychotherapist at The Soke tells GLAMOUR: “The beauty industry still pumps us with unrealistic ideals and promises that are hugely exaggerated that continue to come at a cost to women of all ages. True beauty is displayed to us by models who are mostly under the age of 30 and made up cleverly and positioned in the most flattering way and photographed by very talented photographers and the pictures are then touched up to remove any imperfections or flaws. This is hard enough to remotely live up to let alone grasp the concept of getting old.”
Sadly, the beauty industry's end goal remains the same as it has always done and will always do: profit off of women's insecurities and the thought of going grey and old is making children as young as 12 feel the need to take action. Frankly, it's the role of adults to make them see their senses and encourage young women to enjoy their youth without the dread of growing old. After all, there's enough to worry about.
