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Tween Girls and Adult Beauty Products: The Impact of GRWM Culture
If you're not familiar with the acronym 'GRWM', you've likely seen a video on your social media of a young person, doing their makeup while telling you a story, or taking you through their skincare routine. It's a popular format of storytelling and sharing and we're seeing younger and younger girls being influenced by it.
December 20, 2024
Tween Girls and Adult Beauty Products: The Impact of GRWM Culture
If you’ve scrolled through Instagram in the past decade, you’ve probably seen GRWM or ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos. Ring a bell? It should, because this is a phenomenon that has taken the online world by storm. Today, these videos are pillars of the digital landscape – you can find one on almost every corner.
What in the world are GRWM videos?
For content creators in this world, GRWM videos are a quintessential way to connect to their audiences. The videos give users a behind-the-scenes look at a slice of their daily routine – maybe they’ll apply makeup, choose an outfit and make an oat milk coffee before taking on the outside world.
It appears to be all fun and games for both the creator and the consumer. But when we dig a little deeper and consider the trend collectively, it becomes a little more sinister – especially when tweens begin adding to the noise. And of course, the tweens at the centre of it all are as cute as a button. But that’s where the innocence grinds to a halt.
What’s the deal with ‘tweens’ and social media?
In case you’re not familiar with the word, tweens are kids aged between 8 and 12 years old. And before you cringe about our young ones having a space in the world of social media, consider this fact: Nominet’s Digital Youth Index found that 75% of children aged between 8 and 10 years old were on social media of some kind. Yep. It’s probably much worse than you thought.
We all know by now that the convoluted realm of social media plays a potent role in crushing self esteem and coaxing young boys into toxic narratives. It plays a mammoth role in shaping the perceptions and behaviours of teens and adults, so it’s more than a little jarring to wonder what effect it’s having on our young people.
It’s one thing to consume content as a tween – but it’s a whole other ballgame to create it. We have to dive into a whole new can of worms to dig into GRWM culture and its tween allure.
So let’s do it.
How do ‘GRWM’ videos affect the psychology of tween girls?
First things first, we need to talk about the ‘standard’ that GRWM videos set. Often presenting highly curated content on reality, the creators behind the videos are usually poised with perfect makeup, flawless hair and sometimes even heavily edited or filtered appearances.
A distorted sense of self
For tweens, whose sense of self is still fragile, these videos can open up countless self-confidence problems. Unconsciously consuming content that stirs up comparison and perfectionism is life-shattering for adults – so can you imagine how it affects young people whose brains are still developing?
Without a doubt, videos like these can lead to a distorted self-image, a confusion of identity and an overarching feeling of not being good enough. Constant exposure to idealised beauty standards like the ones we see scrolling create a chasm in the mind of young girls. Their skin, smile, hair and closet is never as lush as what they see on the internet, and this cuts deep.
Body dysmorphia
This can often be the slippery slope towards an early onset of body dysmorphia, which is a mental health condition characterised by an obsessive focus on perceived flaws in one's appearance.
Traditionally, we’ve seen this in older teenagers and adults, but the age of onset is rapidly dropping thanks to social media.
Constant pressure to perform
Another issue is the way these GRWM videos weave urgency and perfectionism into daily routines. We all get ready for the day – it’s a natural part of being a human. But when getting ready is blasted on social media and ‘perfected’ to a tee, it can create a tsunami of pressure for young people to perform.
Can you imagine being 10 years old? Imagine you’ve just woken up, and you’re still in your pyjamas on a school day. You head to the bathroom to brush your hair, but the only thing on your mind is how you can nab the perfect shot in your crappy bathroom lighting. It has to be perfect. Your bed hair has to look cute, not feral. There’s so many unachievable standards running through your mind, and you haven’t even had breakfast yet.
Navigating life in this mindset sets tweens up for pure disappointment. It might manifest as a constant state of worry about how they look, whether they have the ‘right’ products from Sephora or if they’re ‘cool’ enough to keep up with the latest makeup trends.
Are we luring our young ones to grow up too fast?
Another striking consequence is the way we’re pressuring our young ones to grow up too fast. GRWM influencers often tout products from high-end or beloved beauty brands, and a lot of the time, these products are designed for adult skin. A tween doesn’t need retinol, chemical exfoliants or full-coverage makeup – but if it’s in the content they consume, it’s a part of their world now, too.
The physical side of things is a real bummer – foundations, bronzer and heavy concealers can do a world of damage by clogging pores and disrupting the natural balance of tween skin. But the psychological side of things is more disturbing, and now we’re even seeing consumer-facing companies tend to the gap by building tween-friendly marketing strategies. Yuck!
What can parents and teachers do about this?
We need to start by encouraging parents to learn about the dangers of trends like GRWM. That way, guardians can actively talk to their tweens about what they get up to in the digital world.
It’s important to be open, curious and informative about this, and include your tween in the conversation too. You might even like to ask them about how certain videos make them feel.
It’s also vital to bring media literacy into the mix – a concept that can support tweens to recognise the careful curation of social media and GRWM videos. By having this insight, tweens will slowly begin to understand that these videos are created to promote products and project unrealistic standards of beauty.
Another awesome approach is encouraging balance. If your tween is genuinely interested in makeup and glamming it up, nurture that form of expression, while still focusing on self-acceptance and natural beauty. They key is working with them to understand that their sense of worth and sense of self is not tied to the way they look, or the way they can perfect their favourite influencer’s morning routine.
GRWM culture has opened up a portal into a whole new world for our tweens. And while we could talk forever about the negative impacts rippling out and into their minds, it’s probably more productive to focus on where we should go from here.
Fostering conversations on perfectionism, self-concept, creativity in expression and fun is the most powerful way for parents and educators to support the tweens in their life. After all, their self-expression is well on its way to formation – so we need to create a softer landing space where they can be themselves in their offline reality.
A powerful way to support self-expression is engaging with Tomorrow Woman. Workshops like Her Tomorrow are designed specifically for teenagers to support them on their path to embodying bold lives. You can find more information on our workshops here.
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