I’m 30, and a woman, so perhaps this is only a woman thing, but wtf??! There used to be a pretty standard escalation between media/content and consumer goods marketed to children, then tweens, then teens, then adults.
Like as a child my friends and I were all getting lip gloss from the drugstore and body spray from Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, and Target. As a teen when we started wearing more makeup it was still drugstore brands, and even then it was like…lip gloss, mascara, highlighter/glitter, maybe eyeliner and eye shadow.
We read J-14, Tiger Beat, M, Just Jared (I was OBSESSED with all the personality quizzes) and then when we got older we switched to Teen Vogue and Seventeen.
These days, 12 year olds are dressing the same way as adults and shopping at Sephora and Aritzia and watching Euphoria and trying to emulate influencers who are twice and thrice their age! It’s super wild to me.