Despite the massive boom of the beauty and skincare industry, a consumer group has been largely overlooked in the past ten years: teens and pre-teens. Today, that is rapidly changing: a new generation of brands is building products, marketing strategies and even educational platforms for tweens and young teenagers, betting that Gen Alpha represents one of the industry’s next major growth opportunities.
A Controversial Yet Highly Underserved Market
In recent years, there have been two camps. Those who are wary of marketing to teens so early in their life, disapproving that such a large range of products is targeting them and promoting early consumption. A somewhat extreme illustration was when Shay Mitchell, actress and founder of luggage brand BEIS, announced her new pre-teen skincare brand, Rini. The launch, which included self-care face masks for girls as young as ten years old, faced considerable backlash online, with criticism of the brand as “exploitative” and “capitalism at its finest”.
On the other hand, many mothers are glad there is a new wave of exciting, kid-friendly brands targeting teens and pre-teens because as the “Sephora girls” phenomenon has shown, the interest and behavior are already present. Girls want to mimic their mothers as well as the influencers they see on social media; they might as well do so with products designed for younger skin. The alternative led to the Drunk Elephant episode, where teen girls were buying products of the brand not adapted to younger skin.
Sephora girls, or tweens, are entering the skincare and beauty categories, a phenomenon accelerated by today’s culture and social media. So, rather than fight it, there are brands addressing it by developing relevant, safe, and fun products for them.
From a business perspective, this market is a white space with tremendous opportunity. There are very few brands that are both age-appropriate, high-quality, trusted by parents, and exciting for teenagers. Traditionally, brands in the space are the ones that can be found in pharmacies or drugstores (think Neutrogena, La Roche-Posay, Proactiv..etc). They tend to feel too clinical, are heavily dermatologically-coded, and aren’t very exciting to teenagers. But with $95 billion in spending power, Gen Alpha is a demographic that is definitely worth serving in a more targeted way, and some brands are responding to the opportunity, in a way that is safe, adapted, and relevant.
The New Wave of Teen Skincare
In response to both the white space in the teen skincare space and the “Sephora kids” phenomenon, brands have started to emerge with a mission of repositioning skincare as a safe, fun, and confidence-building tool for young consumers. Brands such as Bubble, Sincerely Yours, Indu and Evereden perfectly capture this new wave of teen-appropriate skincare.
What makes them different from traditional drugstore teen brands? Not only do their formulas and product lines differ, they are also focused on providing gentle, clean, confidence-boosting products for teens and tweens, with an emphasis on colorful, modern and appealing packaging. For example, Evereden has extremely high formulation standards, banning more than 2,000 ingredients including sulfates, parabens, phthalates, petrolatum, and animal products.
Interestingly, the brand has grown alongside its customers: unlike brands like Sincerely Yours, which was developed specifically with teens in mind, Evereden started with baby products, before expanding to kids and Gen Alpha. Its positioning is very clear, with products that are clearly designed for children and teenagers, making entry into the category much smoother for young audiences. With $100 million in annual sales, the brand has become highly successful, attracting tweens via its social media accounts and reassuring parents with its hyper-safe formulas.
A handful of other brands are taking a similar approach. In France, founder of skincare and supplement brand Aime Mathilde Lacombe just launched a teenage brand called Ollie, positioned as “the new safe place, next-gen skincare.” With its playful language and packaging, and simple routine, the brand aims to offer a straightforward and effective solution to teens experiencing the first changes in their skin. It advocates against strong active ingredients or layering techniques, instead encouraging easy, effective routines.
“Parents want impeccable, safe and clean formulas; teenagers, on the other hand, are looking for pleasure, fun, emotion, products that reflect their own personality,” shared Lacombe about the brand’s mission, accessible on its website. “I envisioned a brand that reconciles these two worlds: joyful, sensory, desirable products, but designed with absolute rigor regarding safety, formulation, and education. A brand that parents can trust, and that teenagers can identify with.”
As many of these brands target consumers entering the category for the first time, they feel a part of responsibility in educating them when it comes to skincare routines and rituals. Indu is one of them. Founded in the U.K. in 2023 by entrepreneur Aaron Chatterley, who was inspired by conversations with his teenage daughters, the brand has made education a core pillar of the business. It has a 200+ member committee made up of teenagers who feed into product development, packaging and campaigns, making sure its products resonate well with that audience. At the same time, it aims to be a trusted guide, with a dedicated blog on its website meant to educate teenagers around the use and properties or certain ingredients, routines for specific skin types..etc. It often uses its social media platforms to publish educational content around building skincare rituals, skincare myths and many other topics relevant to young audiences.
However, we could argue that it is also the responsibility of retailers to orient teenage consumers towards the most appropriate products. Yet currently, there is a significant gap in how this audience is served. Sephora’s e-commerce site, for example, includes navigation for anti-aging, Korean skincare and feminine care, but no dedicated destination for teens or pre-teens. Considering that Sephora is the number one beauty destination for U.S. teenage girls, retailers like this one have an opportunity—and arguably a responsibility—to move beyond merchandising products to curating age-appropriate routines, educational content and discovery paths that help young consumers make informed choices rather than simply follow viral trends.
The skincare industry is expanding to welcome younger generations, who represent a significant market size. But serving these consumers properly requires a whole new approach, which a handful of brands have started doing very well. Ultimately, the next generation of beauty winners amongst Gen Alpha will be the brands that earn the trust of both teenagers and their parents by making age-appropriate skincare as intuitive as it is aspirational, wrapped in fun, straightforward packaging and communication.
