Dear Moms: I’m a Teacher. Here’s What I See Happening to Our Kids’ Skin.

Posted by the Mom Behind Olivia’s Rainbow Rub | Olivia’s Rainbow Rub Blog

June 6, 2026

I need to start this post with something I witness every single day — not at home, but in my classroom.

I am a middle school Health and Physical Education teacher. I spend my days with tweens and teens, and I have a front-row seat to things that most parents only hear about secondhand. I hear what kids talk about between classes and see what skincare and beauty products they bring to school. I see which trends sweep through a grade level like wildfire and which ones quietly take root and grow into something much bigger.

The skincare trend is one of the biggest trends among young girls and I don’t see it going away anytime soon.

And I say that not with excitement — but with genuine concern.

Because what I am watching happen to my students’ skin, their confidence, and their relationship with their own bodies, as a direct result of social media influencers and the beauty industry’s relentless marketing to children, worries me deeply. Not just as a teacher. As a mom.

I’m the mom behind Olivia’s Rainbow Rub. Olivia and I started this brand because of our love of all things skincare and the belief your skin deserves honest, all-natural ingredients — only what it truly needs, and nothing more. And after everything I’ve seen inside a middle school, I believe that now more than ever.

Let me tell you what’s really going on.

What I See in My Classroom That Most Parents Don’t Know About

It started in the most unexpected place — during puberty lessons.

When I teach hygiene and personal care as part of our health curriculum, I open the floor for questions and conversations. It’s meant to be a safe space for kids to ask what they’re genuinely curious about. And what I began hearing from my female students surprised me. Rather than questions about basic hygiene or simple skincare, girls were sharing elaborate routines they had built entirely from what they’d seen online. Multi-step regimens that could rival what most adults have on their bathroom counters — described to me by eleven and twelve-year-olds as if this was simply what taking care of your skin looks like now.

These were products kids had researched, requested, and in many cases purchased themselves — directly influenced by content they were consuming on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Products designed for adults in their thirties dealing with fine lines and sun damage. Being applied to the faces of eleven and twelve-year-olds with perfectly healthy, naturally radiant skin.

What strikes me most as a teacher is not just what they are using — it is how completely and uncritically they believe what they see online. A trending product gets a viral moment and suddenly every student feels they are missing something essential if they don’t have it. The content moves fast, the pressure builds fast, and the skepticism that might slow it down simply isn’t there yet. These are kids. Trusting what they’re told is developmentally natural. Being exploited for it is not.

As a teacher, I can tell you: the pressure these kids feel is real, relentless, and arriving from every direction at once. Social media doesn’t clock out at 3pm. It follows them home, into their bedrooms, and straight to their phones, and the beauty industry has engineered it that way on purpose.

The “Sephora Kids” Phenomenon Is Real — and the Numbers Are Alarming

What I see in my classroom is reflected in the research. The data on what is happening to tweens and teens in the world of skincare is genuinely startling.

A study published in Pediatrics analyzed 100 TikTok skincare videos popular among teens and tweens. They featured over 250 unique products, many containing potent active ingredients such as retinol and glycolic acid. Nearly 76% of the top 25 most-viewed videos promoted products with known allergens such as artificial fragrance. These are not educational videos from medical professionals. They are influencer content — and as one pediatric dermatologist put it bluntly: “These skin care product videos on social media are largely commercials. These people are being paid to promote these products. And it’s potentially extremely harmful.”

The reach of this content is breathtaking. 74% of kids aged 7 to 17 watch “get ready with me” videos, which shape their understanding of skincare routines. And it is driving real purchasing behavior: recent trends show adolescents are using anti-aging products, having Sephora shopping extravaganzas, and spending $500 to $1,000 a month on skin care products they don’t need.

I can confirm that from the inside of a school. I see it on their faces — literally. And I hear it in their conversations every day.

Only 4% of dermatology-related Instagram accounts are managed by board-certified dermatologists, raising concerns about the reliability of skincare advice found during product discovery. My students are consuming skincare content from influencers with millions of followers and no medical credentials whatsoever — and treating it as expert advice.

As their teacher, that matters to me enormously. Because I know what they don’t know yet: that what you see on a screen is almost never the whole story.

What These Products Are Actually Doing to Young Skin

Here is what no influencer video will ever tell your child — and what I wish every parent and student in my school could hear.

Young skin is biologically different from adult skin. It is not underdeveloped adult skin that simply needs the same treatments at a lower dose. It is its own category entirely, with its own needs and its own vulnerabilities.

“Many of these products can damage the skin barrier, which is not fully formed in pre-teens and early adolescents,” says Dr. Shah of University Hospitals. “Children’s skin has robust amounts of collagen and elastin fibers, so anti-aging products aren’t necessary in younger skin.”

Let me break down what the most popular social-media-driven skincare ingredients are actually doing on a twelve-year-old’s face.

Retinol and Retinoids

Retinol is one of the most talked-about ingredients in tween skincare content right now. Influencers rave about it. “Many products have what we call ‘active’ ingredients — like salicylic acid, retinols, peptides. They are more suitable for mature skin to target wrinkles or skin with specific concerns like acne. But for tweens and teens, these ingredients can do damage, irritate the skin and cause the reverse effects they are hoping to achieve,” says Dr. Carol Cheng, board-certified pediatric dermatologist at UCLA Health.

Retinol works on adult skin by stimulating collagen production that has naturally begun to decline. Before a person reaches their twenties, collagen has not yet begun to decline, making retinol redundant on young skin — and potentially damaging.

Exfoliating Acids

Alpha-hydroxy acids, beta-hydroxy acids, glycolic acid, salicylic acid — these are chemical exfoliants that strip away layers of skin. Glycolic acid poses many dangers to young skin, including burning, rashes, swelling, and peeling. “Strong active ingredients like retinol and AHAs can disrupt the delicate skin barrier in younger users, leading to short-term dryness and irritation but also potentially longer-term sensitivity,” warns a spokesperson from the British Skin Foundation.

Harsh Cleansers: Where the Damage Often Starts

Before we even talk about serums and actives, we need to talk about cleansers — because this is often the first step where young skin is compromised. Traditional gel and foam cleansers often contain harsh surfactants that disrupt the skin’s natural moisture balance. Over time, this can lead to dehydration, irritation, and increased sensitivity.

Most traditional cleansers work by stripping the skin of its natural oil barrier, leaving skin completely bare. But the skin needs that natural barrier to stay healthy and moisturized. When that barrier is stripped away — especially on skin as young and sensitive as a tween’s — everything that follows becomes a potential source of irritation and damage.

I have watched students lather up with harsh foaming cleansers in the school bathroom between periods, chasing the “squeaky clean” feeling they’ve been told means their skin is clean. That feeling isn’t clean. That’s stripped. And stripped skin is vulnerable skin.

The Layering Problem

Perhaps the most alarming thing I see happening among my students is product layering — stacking multiple active products on top of each other in the same routine. Some preteens who are unaware of proper skincare practices are layering multiple products, inadvertently inducing comedones and precipitating acne cosmetica or even worsening pre-existing acne vulgaris. They’re using products to get clear skin, and those products are creating the breakouts they were desperate to prevent.

I’ve watched that exact cycle happen to students in my class. They break out, they add more products, they break out worse, they feel worse about themselves — and the algorithm serves them more content to keep the cycle spinning.

The Statistics That Every Parent Needs to See

I share these numbers not to alarm you — but because I think every parent deserves to know what we’re up against.

More than 1 in 4 UK tweens aged 9–12 are using skincare products packed with strong actives like retinol and AHAs. Nearly half of tweens have already experienced redness, itching, or irritation after using their skincare products. 55% of tweens say they don’t check product labels.

Yale Medicine dermatologist Dr. Kathleen Suozzi’s research has shown that 20% of preteens and teens surveyed spend upwards of $50 a month on products they don’t need — and will sometimes layer on five or more of those products.

Pediatric dermatologist Dr. Carol Cheng says she is seeing more kids and adolescents come in with rashes caused by layering on too many products in pursuit of a flawless, poreless look promoted on Instagram and TikTok as “glass skin.” In some cases, patients as young as 8 or 9 are coming in with bad reactions to these beauty products.

Dermatologists are seeing an increase in tweens and teens presenting with allergic and/or irritant contact dermatitis. Mental health professionals have also reported rising anxiety among tweens who feel pressured to follow beauty trends to fit in with their peers.

I see that anxiety in my classroom every single day. Students who should feel completely at home in their own skin — because their skin is young, healthy, and doesn’t need fixing — convinced that something is wrong with them because an algorithm told them so.

That breaks my heart as a teacher. It drives me as a mom.

What Young Skin Actually Needs

Every credible dermatologist and pediatric skin expert says the same thing, and it is beautifully simple.

Dr. Suozzi says most kids need no more than a gentle cleanser, water, simple moisturizer, and a mineral-based sunscreen. “If they don’t have a condition such as acne or eczema, their skin care should be aimed at protecting and supporting the ideal skin environment they have at their age.”

The word that comes up every single time, from every credible medical source, is this: gentle.

Not powerful. Not anti-aging. Not a ten-step routine with actives. Gentle.

As a teacher, I wish I could put that word on every whiteboard in every classroom in America.

Why I Created the Olivia’s Rainbow Rub Facial Cleansing Balm

When Olivia and I started Olivia’s Rainbow Rub, I made a promise: every product would be 100% all-natural, formulated with only what skin actually needs, and nothing it doesn’t. The Facial Cleansing Balm was built on exactly that promise — with kids, tweens, teens, and every sensitive skin type specifically in mind.

Here is why a cleansing balm is categorically different from the harsh cleansers trending on social media.

Cleansing balms use oils to break down dirt and residue, making them easier to rinse away. They’re a gentle alternative to harsh foaming agents because they aren’t designed to strip the skin — a cleansing balm shouldn’t leave skin dry or vulnerable.

“Cleansing balms can be massaged into the skin to help break down makeup and remove buildup, oils, and residue while also being gentle on the skin barrier and nourishing the skin,” says dermatologist Dr. Garshick.

That is the entire philosophy behind the Olivia’s Rainbow Rub Facial Cleansing Balm. It gently and completely removes what needs to be removed — makeup, sunscreen, excess oils, environmental impurities from the day — while actively protecting the skin’s natural barrier rather than dismantling it.

The Olivia’s Rainbow Rub Facial Cleansing Balm:

This is the cleanser I would hand to every student in my class. The one I hand to my own daughter. The one I believe in enough to put our name on.

What You Can Do Right Now — as a Parent, a Teacher, or Anyone Who Loves a Kid

1. Have the conversation before the algorithm does. Talk to your tween or teen about what healthy skincare actually looks like — and why. The medical consensus is simple: a gentle cleanser, a basic moisturizer, and sunscreen. Everything else is marketing aimed at their insecurities.

2. Bring it into the classroom. If you’re a teacher reading this: you have a platform. Students listen to the adults in their lives who they trust. A brief conversation about reading labels, questioning influencer advice, and understanding that these videos are commercials can plant a seed that changes the way a student thinks.

3. Read labels together. 55% of tweens don’t check product labels. Make it a habit — at home, at the store, anywhere. If the first five ingredients are unrecognizable, that’s a conversation worth having.

4. Question the content. Social media influencers typically have affiliate links that they profit from with skincare companies, despite presenting products under the guise of sharing a secret skincare tip. Help your child understand that what looks like a friend’s recommendation is almost always a paid advertisement.

5. Choose gentle, always. For any child without a diagnosed skin condition, gentler is always better. A balm cleanser over a stripping foam. A simple natural moisturizer over an active serum. Less is genuinely more — especially for young skin.

6. If there’s a real concern, see a dermatologist. If your child is struggling with a skin disease like acne, eczema, or psoriasis — an actual treatable medical condition — then you should see a dermatologist. Not follow a TikTok routine. See an actual doctor.

A Final Word — from a Teacher Who Cares, and a Mom Who Made Something Better

Every day I walk into my classroom, I see kids who are extraordinary. Curious, creative, funny, deeply feeling human beings who are navigating a world that is throwing more information, more pressure, and more manufactured insecurity at them than any generation before them has ever had to manage.

The beauty industry has figured out how to reach inside that world — through the phones in their hands, through the influencers they trust, through the “glass skin” aesthetic that makes a perfectly healthy twelve-year-old feel like her face is failing her.

As a teacher, I try to give my students tools to think critically about the world around them. To ask who benefits from the information they’re receiving. To question what’s being sold to them — and why.

As a mom and the founder of Olivia’s Rainbow Rub, I try to offer something simpler: products made with complete honesty, for people who deserve to know exactly what they’re putting on their skin.

You can opt out of the noise. You can choose gentle. You can choose honest.

That’s what we’re here for. That’s what we’ll always be about.

With love — from a teacher, a mom, and someone who believes your skin deserves better,

The Mom Behind the Rainbow 🌈 Olivia’s Rainbow Rub

Sources & References

  1. Trepanowski, N. et al. “The skincare craze among tweens: Ethical and dermatologic implications of social media beauty trends.” ScienceDirect / Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, February 2025. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738081X25000434
  2. “Tween Skin Care Mishaps via Misinformation on Social Media.” Dermatology Times, March 2024. https://www.dermatologytimes.com/view/tween-skin-care-mishaps-via-misinformation-on-social-media
  3. “Why are tweens and teens obsessed with skin care? Doctors warn the trend could be doing more harm than good.” WTOP News, January 2024. https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2024/01
  4. McCoy K, Class MM, Ricles V, et al. “Kids These Days: Social Media’s Influence on Adolescent Behaviors.” Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, May 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11107899/
  5. “How the skincare industry makes billions marketing products to tweens.” CBS News, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/skincare-industry-products-tweens-harm-young-skin/
  6. “A tween skin care craze on social media has some doctors concerned.” NPR Shots, July 2024. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/07/12/nx-s1-4990677
  7. “Impact of Social Media on Skincare Product Choices.” Clean Skin Club, 2025. https://cleanskinclub.com/pages/the-impact-of-social-media-on-skincare-product-choices
  8. “UK study finds rise of tweens using retinol, sparking skin health concerns.” Personal Care Insights, April 2025. https://www.personalcareinsights.com/news/tween-retinol-skincare-safety-concerns.html
  9. “When Kids are Obsessed with Skin Care Products.” Yale Medicine, 2024. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/when-kids-are-obsessed-with-skin-care-products
  10. Cheng, C. “Active Skincare Ingredients Are Harming Tweens.” Newsweek, February 2024. https://www.newsweek.com/skincare-anti-aging-damaging-skin-tweens-1865737
  11. “Protecting ‘Sephora Kids’: How to keep tweens safe from harmful skin care and cosmetic ingredients.” Environmental Working Group, July 2024. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/07
  12. “The Teen & Tween Skincare Craze: Harmless or Harmful?” University Hospitals, June 2024. https://www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2024/06/the-teen-tween-skincare-craze
  13. “Study shows 1 in 4 tweens are using Retinol.” Pai Skincare, 2025. https://www.paiskincare.us/blogs/news/tween-skincare-study
  14. “Four Things Teenagers Should Know About Anti-Aging Skin Products.” University of Utah Health, November 2024. https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2024/11
  15. “Trendy Skin Care for Tweens & Teens: Is It Safe?” American Academy of Pediatrics / HealthyChildren.org, 2025. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/Pages/trendy-skin-care-for-tweens-and-teens-is-it-safe.aspx
  16. Garshick, M. “Cleansing balms may actually be better for your skin than traditional face wash.” NBC News Select, December 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/best-cleansing-balms-rcna123825
  17. “How To Use Cleansing Balm in Your Daily Routine.” Furtuna Skin, 2023. https://www.furtunaskin.com/blogs/stories/cleansing-balm
  18. “Best Cleansing Balm Guide: Protect and Nourish Your Skin Barrier.” Mask Skin Care, February 2025. https://maskskincare.com/blogs/blog/best-cleansing-balm-guide

This blog post is written for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. If your child is experiencing a skin condition, please consult a board-certified dermatologist.

All Olivia’s Rainbow Rub products are 100% all-natural and handcrafted in small batches with love. Our Facial Cleansing Balm is formulated to gently cleanse and protect the skin barrier — for every age, every skin type, and every day.

🌈 Find your rainbow at oliviasrainbowrub.com