Many social media pages have been overrun by videos about a group of children nicknamed “Sephora kids” who have supposedly run rampant in the black and white themed makeup store. These kids are generally girls around the age of middle school, so about 10-13 years old. These kids have been accused of being greedy, rude, and making Sephora workers’ and customers’ lives incredibly difficult.

This trend seemed to rise with the popularity of skin care. By middle school most girls have taken an interest in makeup and general skin care. This is not a bad thing at all, for many, makeup is a way of self expression and skin care and hygiene are always good. However, today, due to the presence of online ads to children, they have been marketed things that are made for a very different age than them.

However, we can’t complain much because we were “Sephora kids” once too, however back then we didn’t have TikTok to humble us. One can argue that we weren’t as bad, but only the Sephora workers of 2018 could confirm that. All kids of that age are energetic and obsessed with growing up.

The difference is that back then our obsessions were the YouTube makeup influencers’ newest pallets. Today, kids are being marketed things that will truly damage their skin. When we were little the makeup influencers seemed almost godly to our underdeveloped minds, but now kids are being marketed these things by everyday people through places like TikTok. This gives them the idea that to be an adult they must have these things and now that other kids are posting these things, they must have it.

Since people have taken notice of this, a trend has seemed to appear on social media, especially TikTok, making fun of them. However, people do not acknowledge other problems in these situations: the fact that there are other groups at fault here, and neither includes the kids.

It is really easy to blame the kids. They are the face of bad behavior, but behavior is often learned from somewhere and even if it isn’t, there are people incharge of fixing bad behavior, parents. Sure, these kids should know better, that’s easy to say, but where’s the accountability for the parents? I understand that to parents, trends seem important to their kids’ social lives, however they need to know when to draw the line and just say no.

Throughout my time on the internet, I have seen very little criticism of the parents when it comes to the outbreak of “Sephora kids”. Of the critiques that exist, they generally center around the fact that the kids are being spoiled by their parents paying for the skin care, or that the parents are the victims. However, these videos seem to lack any critique about the responsibility of the parents in this situation.

I understand that these kids are at an age where they want independence, but in certain places that is not feasible. Many people blame kids for their behavior, but they also seem to leave out the fact that there aren’t many places these kids can go. As society is pushing makeup more onto younger and younger ages, just as many places that are friendly to this age group are closing, or are in places that have been made unwelcome to kids. Many malls these days will not let children in unsupervised which while it may prevent kids from going into Sephora, will also prevent them from going somewhere age appropriate like Claire’s.

The problem with Sephora is not that kids are in it, but that kids are being improperly supervised in it.

However, when children are misbehaving in public, people’s first blame is the kids. Society likes to deflect blame from the real people involved because on some level it makes them feel less responsible. This does not just apply to the parents though. Outside persons are also part of this. Beyond the behavior and parenting there is one other issue with the treatment of Sephora kids, online content.

Originally, the people online talking about the so-called Sephora kids tended to be Sephora employees and customers who were at the receiving end of the behavior. Generally these videos tended to be just verbal rants about what they had witnessed and were often fair to the kids. They were more frustrated by the behavior than anything else.

However, the internet quickly did what it often does, latches onto one side of the story and forgets the other part. What started as justifiably frustrated workers and customers sharing their complaints, soon became unkindness from grown adults towards kids. More and more skits came out that made fun of the kids instead of addressing the root issues of the behavior. These videos began to focus on the kids’ personalities and selves instead of just their outward behavior.

Generally, society needs to be kinder to one another, especially those whose minds are still forming. We can look towards stricter rules on entrance into places like Sephora or require parent supervision, however banning kids all together and be, ain’t them fully will not fix anything. Society needs to create more places where these kids can freely exist, without bothering others or endangering themselves.

The trend of targeting children is nothing more than grown adults bullying kids. We were all “bratty” 10 year olds once, today’s kids just present it differently and we and our slightly more matured brains understand the downsides too, to a further extent than we did. There is a difference between voicing an opinion about behavior versus letting their opinions become attacks. These videos also tend to leave out other responsibilities for this situation. The parents are the ones in charge of raising and managing their kids. Yes, the kids’ behavior is less than excellent, however they are still children after all.