So-called “Sephora kids” may have a hard time getting their hands on their favorite skin care products if a newly proposed bill passes in California.
As noted by the Los Angeles Times, democratic assemblymember Alex Lee of San José introduced a bill that would essentially ban the sale of anti-aging skin care products for shoppers under the age of 18. Products formulated with active ingredients such as vitamin A (including retinol and retinoids), vitamin C, and alpha hydroxy acids [AHAs]—ingredients frequently used to address or prevent wrinkles, fine lines, and other aging concerns—would be restricted.
This is Lee’s second attempt to get this bill through California legislature; a previous iteration proposed banning the sale of these products to kids under 13 and failed last May. Despite the initial failure, Lee believes that the beauty industry has a direct responsibility to young customers. “Kids don’t need anti-aging products. The beauty industry knows that, and some companies have acknowledged the issue. But their statements—absent real and meaningful action—are performative and fall short of responsible behavior,” he said in a statement. “We have to stop the beauty industry from exploiting our youth. It’s time we take action, and my bill is a common sense measure to protect kids from unnecessary and potentially harmful anti-aging products.”
Over the past year, much ink has been spilled about the phenomenon of children shopping at beauty retailers—some of it in this very publication. Gen Alpha kids, who’ve been raised on YouTube tutorials and TikTok hauls, have become major Sephora shoppers, spending their allowance money on Drunk Elephant and Glow Recipe skin care, Sol de Janeiro body sprays, and Rare Beauty makeup. While the idea of tweens wanting to experiment with makeup and skin care is nothing new—we all remember our first MAC Lipglass or Covergirl foundation—some of their most coveted products are intended for grown-up skin.
That said, not all of the ingredients targeted by this bill are downright harmful to younger skin. In fact, some of them—vitamin C and AHAs, for example—are helpful tools for tweens and teens experiencing acne. “On one hand, active ingredients on healthy younger skin can in some instances cause irritation or breakouts; on the other, sometimes we need those ingredients to help treat whiteheads, blackheads, or exfoliation,” says Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Connecticut. The important thing, she notes, is that the young people using those active ingredients are doing so to address specific problems (preferably under the supervision of a doctor) and not just for the hell of it. Generally speaking, she’s wary of barring minors from accessing those ingredients. “Extremes are always dangerous,” she says. “All or nothing is usually not a good idea.”
