Blog 6: Teens and Makeup: How Soon is Too Soon?

Once I had an idea of what my blog post would be about this week, I decided to look through a Seventeen magazine to see how many thing I could find dealing with beauty and makeup. And yes, I do still receive Seventeen magazine. Do not judge me. I did not have to look far because right on the cover was "Look Pretty Now!" and "653 Fashion and Beauty Secrets!" On a side note, I have always wondered why there is an excessive use of exclamation points on and in magazines. Must you yell everything at me? But, I digress. In this particular issue, there was a total of 11 beauty ads. This does not include the many other skin care and fragrance ads that were also in the magazine. All makeup.


As we watched the "Merchants of Cool" documentary in class on Tuesday, there was one scene that stuck out to me. There was a girl at a modeling expo being interviewed by a modeling agency. When they asked how old she gets mistaken for she says 16-17 years old. When they asked what her real age was, they were shocked when they found out she was actually only 13. Although the girl was only 13, she had on a lip color that a woman in her twenties would not even wear. Well, at least I wouldn't. I am personally not interested in looking like a 40 year old woman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3sdzBa88Q8 

When I did a search for teen makeup on YouTube, there were 2,990 search results. Many of these results were smokey eyes or some other form of heavy makeup like the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9p1ZLaT3Nk


Now, I know the title says "Teen Makeup or a Night Out," but, honestly, why would a teen need to wear that much makeup on any occasion? 
  
However, I did come across this video a while back when it was originally posted back in September of 2009. I think he has the right idea when it comes to teen makeup. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqSLyTTR_k0


But the one scene that stuck out to me the most in the "Merchants of Cool" documentary was when the teen girls were in their hotel room putting on tins of makeup and one teen girl, Barbra, says she has to, no, needs to look good for people or else it will ruin her day. This is very disturbing to me. Not only are they too young to have on all of that makeup, but it should not matter how people perceive you. You should not want or feel you need to look good for other people. Yes, I do wear and love makeup and believe it can enhance what is naturally there, but I'm 20 years old, not 13.


It is my own personal opinion that 13 is entirely too young to be wearing as much makeup as the girls in this documentary do. I believe at that age it is best to stick with no makeup or just eye liner, mascara and lipgloss at the most.