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When I Was Six, I Played With Dolls. Now Six-Year-Olds Have Make-Up Tutorials On TikTok

Social media has created a generation of girls hyper-focused on external validation

Kim Fedyk
Bitchy

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A young girl with a phone in front of her face
Photo by Andrey K on Unsplash

“Ok honey, just turn your body that way. Smile a bit more. There you go.” I watch as my friend tries to position her five-year-old daughter for the best picture at the holiday party.

My son looks at me and fidgets, impatiently waiting for her to finish.

She clicks the picture and looks at it. “No, that isn’t it. Can you smile this way?”

Her daughter tries again.

Click. Again, a “no.”

“Hmm maybe the light would be better if you stand over there?”

My son fidgets even more, “why can’t they be done?” he whispers at me.

I don’t know how to answer him, so I shrug my shoulders. I wait with him another five minutes until my friend is satisfied she has taken the best picture of her daughter.

“Great,” she finally says. “You look so pretty now.”

As the kids run off, a part of me is still thinking about what I just witnessed. In my friend’s quest to get a “perfect” picture of her daughter, what was she unconsciously teaching her?

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