Your Teen’s Skincare FYP Could Do Way More Harm Than Good

The tween skincare craze can seem pretty wholesome — kids are taking care themselves instead of engaging in dangerous challenges or bullying each other — but a new study has found that if your kid’s For You page is populated by skincare content, it still might not be great for them.

The study, conducted by Dr. Molly Hales and four other researchers at Northwestern Medicine, found that many of the most commonly recommended products in the videos contain ingredients dermatologists don’t consider safe for kids. And in a particularly validating moment for parents who are sick of Sephora, the study confirms the routines young creators promote are far too expensive for so little benefit.

We read the study so you don’t have to, and broke down the findings with a dermatologist. Here’s what parents need to know:

How The Study Worked

The researchers created brand new Tik Tok accounts and identified themselves as being 13 years old. The app doesn’t register any other demographic info, like gender identity, so it only had their ages to work with. Then, they scrolled through their For You pages until they’d been served 100 skincare routine videos made by content creators 18 and younger. For each video, they recorded the number of products used, whether a sunscreen was among them, whether the content creator had visible blemishes, their skin tone, and more.

The Findings

The most viral products contain ingredients known to be irritating, especially to young skin.

The most commonly recommended products in the videos included active ingredients like alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs), including citric acid, lactic acid, and glycolic acid, and vitamin-based ingredients, including niacinamide (vitamin B3), tocopherol (vitamin E), and panthenol (vitamin B5). The top 25 most-viewed videos contained an average of 11 and a maximum of 21 potentially irritating active ingredients in their routines, the study notes.

“Children’s skin is more sensitive than adults,” says Dr. Brooke Jeffy, board certified dermatologist and founder of youth skincare brand BTWN. These actives can irritate adult skin, especially when layered in multi-step routines, and she doesn’t recommend kids use them.

The study also says that skincare Tik Toks “encourage use of complex regimens containing multiple products, despite evidence that earlier and more frequent use of personal care products may result in increased risk of developing allergic contact dermatitis.” The researchers compared the most recommended products to The Pediatric Baseline Series, a panel of 38 ingredients commonly used in patch testing to identify the cause of allergic contact dermatitis in kids 6 to 18. Nineteen of the 25 most recommended products contained at least one known allergen.

Contact dermatitis is becoming more common as a result of these Tik Toks, Jeffy says. “My colleagues are talking about seeing more of this going on. I’ve definitely seen it in my practice as well. I've seen problems range from a little mild kind of itchy rash all the way to a condition of the skin called lichen simplex chronicus, all from repeated use of some of these products that contained some actives that were just way too harsh.”

Very few young creators showed themselves using SPF.

Only one quarter of the videos showed content creators using sunscreen before starting their day. Wearing SPF is recommended by both the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Academy of Pediatrics for children older than 6 months. When using skincare products with certain actives, like AHAs, sun protection is even more important.

“Irritation from these products harms our skin barrier, making it even more sensitive potentially to the effects of sun exposure,” Jeffy says. “In my practice when I talk to kids who are doing some of these regimens, they hardly ever mention sunscreen.” Kids using products that tout anti-aging benefits should really focus on applying SPF daily instead, Jeffy says — diligent sun protection is what will really help them in the long run.

The average routine used six products and cost around $168, with the most expensive being $621.

A typical regimen in these videos showed kids using “one or more cleansers, toners, serums, moisturizers, and sometimes a sunscreen,” the study says. Certain brands were represented far more than others, with the study specifically calling out Glow Recipe, Bubble, Drunk Elephant, and The Ordinary.

As the researchers concluded, “Skin care regimens on TikTok are time-intensive and carry a high price tag while providing little benefit. They encourage young girls to pursue unattainable ideals of physical perfection under the guise of ‘self-care.’ Indeed, many of the ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos show girls waking up as early as 4:30 AM to fit in their elaborate morning regimens before school.”

The lack of diversity could feed into worse self-image for girls of color.

The two researchers recorded the skin tone of 82 creators across the 100 videos, noting that three quarters of them had light skin tones, while only seven could be considered as having dark skin tones. They chose to highlight the lack of diversity “in acknowledgment of...the racism and colorism that underlie and bolster beauty norms as they circulate on popular media, as well as research that links internalization of social media beauty standards to dissatisfaction with one’s appearance.”

The study also notes that almost all of the creators had no visible blemishes, so teens who are dealing with acne may be hard-pressed to find peers online who actually have zits too — not a boon for their self-esteem.

What does this mean for parents?

When it comes to choosing safe products for your kid, should you just stick to the lines clearly branded for tweens? Even those have some products that include fragrance and other irritants, Jeffy says. You will likely have to do a little research on each product to ensure they’re fragrance-free and don’t contain AHAs, BHAs, or retinols.

That said, you can narrow down the amount of research by setting parameters on your kid’s routine. Jeffy recommends letting them choose one cleanser, one moisturizer, and one SPF. Say no to serums and toners, which tend to be heavy on active ingredients and just add more layers and steps to the routine. “Sticking to those products eliminates a lot of problem, even if they might have one irritating ingredient or something. I think that helps parents have kind of a framework to limit the number of products,” she says.

Lastly, she encourages parents to use skincare Tik Toks as a way to start talking to their kids about where they find health information online. “Have a conversation about how to critically evaluate the source. For skin, [look for] dermatologists and estheticians. There are even cosmetic chemists now that put out great information, but you really probably shouldn't get your skincare advice from another child or a celebrity,” Jeffy says.

Of course, two researchers scrolling through 100 videos is barely scratching the surface of all the skincare content on Tik Tok, but it’s a glimpse into just how often new, young app users are served this kind of video — and a nudge to parents to check in on their kids’ ideas about skin health.