It all came to a head one day while I was introducing algebra to one of my not-so-enthusiastic sixth grade classes. A student interrupted to tell me that my skin was glowing. “It’s giving,” she said. After class, my co-teacher—one of few people who knew about my “other” life—made a suggestion that further brought my double lives together. “You should start a beauty club,” she said. “The kids would love it, and you would love it.”
So I took her advice and started an after-school beauty and wellness club for my tween students. Though it was open to all who had a passion for beauty and wellness, so far the club’s enthusiastic members are 10 to 12-year-old girls. As I got to know them better, I was taken aback by the breadth and depth of their knowledge about brands (“OMG, I love Charlotte Tilbury but it’s soooo expensive,” one of them told me), trends, and ingredients. For instance, they all know that using retinol would do more harm than good at their age.
We had more in common than I ever imagined. “You have the Summer Fridays lip balm?” one asked as she held up the same product I was reapplying during one of our after school meetings. ”Me too!”
“Can you take us on a trip to Sephora?” asked another. It wasn’t a bad idea; we happen to have one within walking distance of the school. Maybe next year. Comparing brands and reviewing ingredients together could make for a teachable moment.
That’s not to say I don’t learn from the students, too. They’ve taught me so much about how tweens think about beauty and where they get their information—TikTok and Instagram. That’s also where they’ve learned what “PR packages” are. (For the uninitiated: The public relations—or PR—departments at beauty brands send editors and influencers elaborate mailings with new products in hopes that they’ll review them.) During our weekly meetings, I shared age-appropriate beauty and skin-care products from my own PR packages. (My students didn’t question where I got the products, and I never revealed my sources—I’m not quite ready to tell them about my double life.)
Aside from product testing, I challenged the students to create presentations on product recommendations for their peers, detailing their own experience with the formula as well as ingredient information. I was afraid that my cover might be blown during their research and that they would find one of my articles online; however, their time and energy researching was spent at Sephora and Ulta, and on TikTok.
Gen Alpha’s understanding of makeup and skin care is so much more sophisticated than my own at that age. Whereas millennials like myself used St. Ives Apricot Scrub, they have a multi-step regimen designed to preserve the health of their skin barrier. I used what I now know was the wrong shade of Maybelline New York Express 3 in 1 cream foundation every day before middle school; they not only know how to color-match themselves, but how to find the best shade of highlighter for their skin tone.
