TikTok Skincare Trend Sees 7-Year-Olds Using Acid Peels, Risking Burns — And Spending Hundreds

CHICAGO — TikTok’s latest victims are child skincare influencers. Children as young as seven are layering on alpha-hydroxy acids, vitamin C serums, and anti-aging retinol — ingredients designed for adult skin problems they won’t develop for decades. Kids are waking up at the crack of dawn to follow these extensive skincare regimens, risking chemical burns in pursuit of the perfect skin they already have. On top of that, they’re spending hundreds of dollars in the process.

A new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics analyzed 100 TikTok videos featuring children as young as seven following complex skincare regimens. These routines averaged six products costing $168, with some exceeding $500, and contained an average of 11 potentially irritating active ingredients.

In one video, a young teenager with braces applied nearly $350 worth of products to her face. By the end, her skin was visibly red and inflamed. The girl told viewers: “This is what my skin looks like. It is very glowy right now, I love it! But also, I just had some allergic reaction to something that I tried, so ignore how red my face is. I don’t know what’s happening. But if anybody knows how to get it to stop burning, that would be greatly appreciated, because it actually hurts a lot.”

This quote captures the dangerous paradox at the heart of TikTok’s skincare obsession — children desperately seeking that coveted “glow” while simultaneously burning their faces with products designed for adults with mature skin concerns.

Only eight of the 82 content creators had visible blemishes, meaning the vast majority of these children don’t actually have skin problems that would warrant such intensive treatments.

How TikTok Creates Skincare Addicts

To understand how children encounter this content, researchers created TikTok accounts claiming to be 13 years old, the platform’s minimum age requirement. Once a young user views, likes, or saves just a few skincare videos, their feed becomes saturated with similar content, making these expensive, potentially harmful routines appear normal and necessary.

Content creator ages ranged from 7 to 18 years. Each video reviewed had an average of 1.1 million views. Nearly three-quarters of the creators had light skin tones, and almost all were girls, reflecting narrow beauty standards that may be particularly harmful to children’s developing self-image.

Researchers identified five main types of videos, with “Get Ready With Me” content being the most popular at 52%. These videos typically show creators applying products while chatting about their day, making the elaborate routines seem like normal morning activities rather than potentially dangerous experiments.

The High Cost of Perfect Skin

Beyond the immediate health risks, these routines come with a hefty price tag. In 2023, households with children aged 6 to 12 years spent 27.2% more on skin care than the year prior, even as overall consumer spending declined.

The most expensive routine in the study totaled $621, enough to cover a month’s worth of groceries for many families. Yet these astronomical costs often deliver zero benefit to young skin that doesn’t need fixing in the first place.

Researchers discovered that only one-quarter of videos (26.2%) included sunscreen, despite many featuring products that increase sun sensitivity. The most commonly used products contained alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs). These are chemical peelers that help adult skin look more youthful, but can cause serious damage to children’s thinner, more sensitive skin.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that anyone using these acids should also use sun protection because of the elevated risk of sun sensitivity. One study found that four weeks of AHA use resulted in an 18% increase in sensitivity to skin reddening and doubled sun damage to skin cells.

Making matters worse, more than half of all products contained added fragrance, one of the most common causes of allergic skin reactions in personal care products. Researchers identified 20 ingredients in the products that are known to cause allergic contact dermatitis in children.

What Kids Actually Need

Dermatologists consistently recommend the same basic routine for children and teens: a gentle cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen. For teens dealing with acne, over-the-counter products containing benzoyl peroxide, used under guidance from a doctor, are typically sufficient.

Children’s skin is naturally more sensitive than adult skin, making reactions more likely and potentially more severe. Research shows that early and frequent use of personal care products may increase the risk of developing allergic skin reactions later in life.

Parents should be particularly wary of products containing retinol, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and other “anti-aging” ingredients that are not appropriate for children’s routines. These ingredients can cause chemical burns, rashes, and long-term skin damage in young users.

Beauty Standards and Racial Bias

“It’s problematic to show girls devoting this much time and attention to their skin,” says study author Dr. Molly Hales, a dermatologist from Northwestern University, in a statement. “We’re setting a very high standard for these girls. The pursuit of health has become a kind of virtue in our society, but the ideal of ‘health’ is also very wrapped up in ideals of beauty, thinness, and whiteness. The insidious thing about ‘skin care’ is that it claims to be about health.”

Many of the videos frequently referenced aspirational beauty ideals that researchers noted may be tied to whiteness, using terms like “porcelain,” “glowy,” “glassy,” and “glazed.”

“We saw that there was preferential, encoded racial language in some cases that really emphasized lighter, brighter skin,” says study author Dr. Tara Lagu from Northwestern University.

While there may be some benefits to these skincare trends, such as mother-daughter bonding in “Mommy and Me” videos or opportunities for self-expression, the risks far outweigh any positives. Children are being encouraged to spend hundreds of dollars on products that offer no benefit while exposing themselves to real harm.

It’s ironic that these children already have what every adult desperately wants: naturally perfect, healthy skin. They’re literally paying to destroy their greatest asset while chasing beauty standards that didn’t exist until TikTok convinced them they did.