WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - 'Get ready with me' videos, where people show off their skincare routines, are everywhere on TikTok. Millions of teens are watching these videos but new research says they might be doing more harm than good.
A new study from Northwestern Medicine, published in Pediatrics, warns that these trendy skincare routines could lead to lifelong skin allergies in teens.
'It's problematic to show girls devoting this much time and attention to their skin,' said corresponding author Dr. Molly Hales.
The study closely explored at both the skin and mental health risks of these viral beauty trends.
'When you have kids waking up at 5:30 in the morning on a school day to have enough time to layer on these complicated regimens, I think it becomes less about health and more pursuing an idea of beauty that is unrealistic and problematic,' Hales added.
Researchers found that girls between the ages of 7 and 18 are using an average of six different skincare products every day. Some are even using more than 12.
After watching 100 TikTok videos made by young content creators, the researchers found that most routines included around 11 ingredients that could irritate the skin. Many of these can cause allergies or make skin more sensitive to sunlight. Surprisingly, only about 25 percent of the routines included sunscreen.
Moreover, the average skincare routine shown in these videos had six steps and cost about $168 a month. Some routines even cost over $500.
Even worse, the popular products often included harsh ingredients like acids, retinoids, and fragrances. These can cause a skin condition called allergic contact dermatitis, which can ruin the overall skin of teenagers.
'We're setting a very high standard for these girls,' Hales commented. 'The pursuit of health has become a kind of virtue in our society, but the ideal of 'health' is also very wrapped up in ideals of beauty, thinness and whiteness. The insidious thing about 'skin care' is that it claims to be about health.'
Researchers also noticed something troubling in the way these videos looked and sounded as they felt that the message shown in them doesn't seem to offer much real benefit to the young viewers.
'We saw that there was preferential, encoded racial language in some cases that really emphasized lighter, brighter skin,' noted senior author Dr. Tara Lagu. 'I think there also were real associations between use of these regimens and consumerism.'
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