Jerrie Demasi: Toddlers shouldn’t be worried about skincare routines before they can tie their shoes

If it’s one thing your baby needs, it’s a skincare routine. At least that’s one of the dystopian nuggets that my daily Instagram doom-scroll served up this week. Actress Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars fame has just launched children’s skincare brand Rini, promising to fill a gap in the market for three to five-years-olds. I find myself picturing the boardroom meeting that birthed this idea; a handful of executives, circling a table. Then, the light bulb moment. Do you know who we haven’t beauty shamed yet? Toddlers. Rini sells a range of children’s sheet face masks with a line of toddler make-up and additional skin care to come. In the brand’s launch video, Mitchell says the idea was inspired by her three-year-old daughter, who constantly wants to participate in her mother’s beauty routine. “They are always wanting to do the things that Mummy’s doing,” she said. As the mother of a three-year-old girl myself, I am very familiar with that age group’s fondness for imitative play. My daughter loves to “cook,” often asking to help chop the vegetables for dinner. That doesn’t mean I’m handing her a kitchen knife. Mitchell goes on to say that when she tried to purchase a sheet mask for her toddler (a classic parenting moment) she found the products were far too harsh for young skin. “The ingredients in these masks are crazy,” she said. Do you know what’s crazy? Pushing beauty standards on an age group that will happily eat glue if left unsupervised. She may not be potty trained, but at least she’s dewy. Then there are the deeply unsettling advertising images. A literal baby-faced model, scarcely older than three, her flawless untouched skin veiled by a glossy iridescent sheet mask. They market it as “play-based” skin care, but her expression isn’t one of play. Her vacant stare and parted lips, suggest a performance of adulthood that she should not yet understand. Already versed in the choreography of beauty before she’s even learned to tie her shoes. This criticism might seem like overkill for something that’s intended to be a little bit of fun, and that’s how many influencer mums are defending the products on social media. But for me, it’s supremely problematic. For one, it is wildly unnecessary to do anything at all to a toddler’s face beyond washing off dinner or applying sunscreen. Experts say children’s skin is self-regulating and that over-moisturising can damage an immature skin barrier over time. New York dermatologist Dr Angelo Landriscina takes particular issue with the Rini “after-sun mask” on his high traction TikTok page. “The connotation is that you’re baking in the sun and that is especially dangerous for young children,” he said. “If your kid is getting burnt, that’s a problem.” Beauty products for young people certainly isn’t new, today’s tweens are contouring before they even hit high school. When I lived in Los Angeles, the hot new trend for children’s birthdays was a Sephora party. Forget pass the parcel, the modern eight-year-old is more interested in swiping lip gloss testers in front of ring lights. At first the concept seemed absurdly American, but now it feels like a looming prophecy. Childhood is just another market segment waiting to be moisturised, monetised and mined for clicks. I’m not suggesting that we should deny our children having fun, it’s about allowing them to grow into their skin before the world starts telling them how to fix it. But also … just leave little girls alone. They have the rest of their lives to be judged by impossible beauty standards, we don’t need to start that at age three. This is something I think about often, particularly since my job requires me to slap on a full face of war paint to be “TV-ready.” I wonder what message it’s sending my daughter when she watches on curiously as I paint the patriarchy across my face. Sometimes, she will ask me if she can try some of Mummy’s “yip-stick.” And do you know what I do? I tell her “no.” Perhaps as parents, we need to become better at simply doing that. Jerrie Demasi is a 7NEWS Perth reporter