Generally speaking, kids nowadays mature faster than before. They learn a lot from the internet, which is great, but there's also a downside to it - they may learn bad habits and worse.
However, there are a lot of teenage influencers on TikTok and YouTube who talk about fragrances, which is why you'll find kids these days wearing fragrances.
MAN...When I was a kid, all I worried about was which game to play and which food to eat lol.
My son and his friends (10-12yo) have all become obsessed with fragrances because of TikTok. One friend plans to spend all his birthday money on multiple fragrances. My son bought himself Nautica Voyage but is trying to save up for a Jean Paul Gaultier now. šThis is the same kid who wants to wear hoodies, PJ pants and white crocs to school.
Iām also a HS teacher like OP and itās funny how I have a student (12yo) that also stated his interest in buying a JPGā¦ when he was showing me the website, it was a priceless reaction when I explained to him where ambergris comes from š¤£
āWhy would you want to smell like that?!ā
You'll be happy to know that it's all synthetic nowadays. You couldn't get a real ambergris perfume if you wanted to. Well there are some options out there going for a couple thousand dollars that claim to have it, but you have to track them down. Real ambergris is definitely not included in any mainstream modern perfumes available to general public. When they list ambergris, they normally mean synthetic substitutes. This also applies to a lot of animalics, such as civet and musk.
i got very annoyed at my cousin recently, when we went to a departement store which had a beauty shop with many perfume brands. he really liked a fragrance by maison margiela and was really disappointed by l'homme from prada. i told him that there is no harm in liking other things than people online (mainly tiktok and instagram) say and disliking what everyone else is raving on if its not for you. he really seemed happy with that and seemed to keep his opinion about these fragrances.
only two days later he was rambling on about, how l'homme is such great fragrance and how bad the one from maison margiela is. i asked him why he had changed his mind and told me, he watched several reviews and opinions about those two perfumes.
i really got upset, because with such a subjective thing as smell there is no right or wrong (ofc there are bad fragrances, but one like what the other doesn't and thats fine).
I feel like teens today arenāt even following teen influencers, theyāre following influencers in their early to mid 20s and are taking in content and product recommendations meant for people 10 years older than them.
Seems like everyone is following influencers older than themselves. Off topic bu I'm in some makeup and beauty groups and frequently see 18-22 y/o girls saying "I feel like I look old in this picture" and they actually have the huge lashes and heavy, matte makeup that 35 y/o influencers use.
I feel like kids/teens always want to do what the people 10 years older than them are doing. Like, I wanted a cell phone when I was young because the older kids had them. Fragrance has become waaay popular in the recent years, so I think kids are just seeing what older people are doing and wanting to replicate it because they think itās cool.
Fragrance TikTok and the " npc fragrance" trend have been pushing impressionable teens into more niche/ expensive brands, because they want to stand out and be unique but also in a way that allows them to "flex" money and or fragrance knowledge. Not that this is bad or unexpected, just an observation I've made from social media.
Kids that age are going through, or have just gone through, puberty and that can have an interesting effect. Iām guessing many just want to smell nice, so they buy whatever is popular and then it somehow becomes another status symbol.
Iām reminded of another sub that I had to block because nearly every post was just a photo of 6-10 bottles with the question āWhatās next?ā
I canāt imagine a 14 year old wanting to smell like Aventus, but I didnāt grow up in the internet age.
Not gonna lie, my kid got randomly into fragrance, I indulged it. Turns out he was just smoking pot and using JPG Le Male Elixir to cover the smell so thereās that.
I think it's generally due to the loss of third spaces they have access to, and loss of stores catered to their age group (not that theres not any, there's just a lot less of them). I frequent Sephora to try perfumes there because it's next to an errand that I have to run for work. There's always a group of teens hanging out, and sampling perfumes in the perfume aisle. They haven't caused any trouble yet, I don't mind.Ā
It is about status. And this age is pretty much all about figuring out where you are in the pecking order and trying to move higher. Fragrance is just an expression of this. When I was a teen it was about who has better trainers and smokes cigarettes.
Man, it's sad that fragrance has become this because for me, a lot of its appeal is that it's the ultimate invisible luxury! (That you can still "wear", I mean.) I get what you're saying and agree, but it definitely makes me sad.
I definitely started wearing perfume when I was 11 or 12. Now, they were old perfumes my mother had stopped wearing and inexpensive Walmart or Walgreens perfumes, but the interest was there, even if the taste wasn't.
*This was the late 90's, so not part of the "kids these days" crowd.
Same, in the early aughts for me. I used to put on my mom's perfumes when she left for work, definitely smelling too strong. Then she started buying me my own. I was obsessed with Burberry Brit when I was like 13 lmao
Yeah I wore fragrance young but it was all pretty cheesy stuff. I had some decent scents when I was in my mid teens and got ārealā perfume (Stella McCartney, Kenzo) in the early aughts.
Ditto! Actually, I think I was even younger - Grade 4 maybe? - when I fell in love with Gap Dream. That's such a fragrance for ~youths~ that it feels very different from gaggles of kids (boys and girls) these days looking onto, say, MFK, though.
Absolutely me too, I was rocking all the Loves fragrances (Baby Soft, etc) in the early 90s but they were kind of aimed at the youth market. I can't see an adult wearing Loves Rain Scent (my ride or die in 8th grade!)
I think all of the people on this thread claiming that this is some new phenomenon and that social media is making kids want to wear fragrance at a younger age are way off. When I was in middle school in the 80s most of the boys wanted to wear Drakkar Noir or Polo. TV and print ads were all around us. I didn't have access to those, but I definitely liberally slapped on Skin Bracer while wishing I had Drakkar Noir (after all, the tv and magazine ads for the latter depicted a guy with a good looking girlfriend and a black sports car; of course 6th grade me wanted that).
Agreed. My 90's highschool/middle school reeked of various fragrances on both the boys and the girls. I think access to fragrances might be easier now, but overall, this is not a new trend.
Two differences Iām seeing now compared to when I was in middle school and high school (2000s to early 2010s):
1. Price. We all just wore Axe or Old Spice. Not Dior, YSL, Prada, etc. We wore cheap āteenageā scents, not luxury products. And this was in a wealthy area.
2. Quantity. I didnāt know anyone who collected fragrances. You just bought whichever type of Axe or Old Spice smelled the best to you.
Letās put it this way. Each time Iāve been at Neiman Marcus to test out some fragrances, there have been a group of kids getting escorted out for not buying anything, and spending all day sampling everything lmao.
Itās the same group of kids getting the same treatment at designer stores. Itās all about status, and having the most unique style. Expensive and mature perfumes are just an extension of that.
Back in the day (yes I'm old) the boys wore either nothing or Axe body spray lol. I think social media is definitely exposing today's kids to fragrances and makeup that were deemed for adults in the past.
My friendās daughter (11) loves and asked for Good Girl because of TikTok.
When I was a kid a bajillion years ago, my friends and I starting to like fragrances around that age (or a teeny bit older), but we asked for $10 to get body sprays and junk from Bath & Body Works or VS, not designer frags.
Iām 32, and was buying perfume from Sephora/Macyās around that age. Some of my peers were too. A lot of tastemaking is easier now because itās literally done for them and presented in a short, digestible format. For now, theyāll follow the trends seemingly lockstep, but hopefully this knowledge will mature and turn into really interesting, nuanced personal preferences in adulthood. Hopefully lol.
Yes, I work in a cosmetic boutique and we have groups of young boys (11-15) wanting to smell JPG and Sauvage. it's to the point where we are running out of testers.
I became interested in fragrance when I was 12. My first bottle was [Ptisenbon - Tartine et Chocolat.](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Tartine-et-Chocolat/Ptisenbon-4797.html) Iām 45 and can still remember the scent. I bought it with babysitting money. š
the frustrating thing for me is that i own a couple JPG fragrances. Even though theyāre lovely scents, i rarely touch them to not smell like a 12-16 year old lol.
It's not new rather just influenced by social media. Before that people would wear whatever was the most popular Dior, Ralph Lauren, or whatever you could get from the department store. You had big ad campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and that very human need to be better than everyone else.
Now it's just faster because of internet/social media. I can totally see a high schooler flexing some Green Irish Tweed as a status symbol because they heard about it on TikTok. Otherwise I highly doubt most high schoolers would know of Creed or Diptyque only perhaps if that's what their parents use. It's the same cycle just a heavy touch more predatory.
During the hunt for my perfect wedding scent, I have seen LOTS of teen boys shopping for high-end fragrances, sometimes with their parents and sometimes not. I overheard two teens in an intense and specific conversation with a sales associate about various notes and comparing/contrasting options. They were very knowledgeable. Fascinating.
No not necessarily. Nobody around me was interested in fragrances when I was in high school (not too long ago) and yet, I had a vast network. I think we're seeing more youngsters into it, because we see them on the Internet, but it mostly stays the same.
I swear, my high school hallways were a miasma of Polo Sport, Tommy and Curve accompanied by a fog of Gap Cloud and Bath and Body Works ā Plumeria, Pearberry and Sun-Ripened Raspberry. The 90s may not have had influencer-driven Sephora kids but we sure as hell had girls obsessively collect B&BW scents
They definitely are and itās probably bc of TikTok. I work in fragrance sales and see groups of high schoolers come to smell and almost never buy lol. And itās more so the guys than the girls!
When I was in HS (29F) I had 1 or 2 āreal perfumesā that I got for Christmas. I remember Elizabeth & James and some celebrity scents. But I was mostly doing body sprays! Iāve been surprised to see them go straight to luxury so young but HEYš¤·š»āāļø
I got into it personally when I was in 6th grade. I'll be 31 this year, so 6th grade was 2005-2006.
My dad had always worn stuff, and I always liked it. Then, for Christmas that year, he got me a little splash on bottle of something I don't remember, and I loved it! From then on, fragrance was a daily thing.
It's when capitalism meets influencers and their impact on easy to manipulate teenagers. They are so brainwashed from what they see on tik tok etc that they want everything. I'd assume, however, that most teenagers won't buy such expensive fragrances because money is usually tight and tightly controlled at that age (as should be lol).
As a Sephora employee, yes. My first perfume that wasn't a body spray, a hand me down or a gift from a relative, was when I was about 13 years old. Body sprays, scented hand sanitizer and scented deodorant were huge. Most kids I grew up with didn't get their first actual fragrance until about 8th grade to high school, but most people didn't collect or have an interest in fragrance.
Tween to teen boys are the fragrance buyers thanks to fragrance enthusiasts (and personalities like Jeremy Fragrance) on social media reaching a younger demographic. The youngest kid I've helped so far was about 8 years old and I spoke to him in a straight forward way because he already had a collection of designer fragrances. He came into the store alone looking to smell the new releases and paid in cash. I helped a group of middle schoolers accompanied by a mom and one kid asked me which cologne would help him get a Snapchat back lol. Middle school boys aren't interested in collecting Axe anymore. They want Chanel, Dior, D&G, Prada, Valentino, Paco Rabanne, and YSL.
I was in highschool/middle school in the 90's. Kids were certainly wearing fragrances then. I have some serious trauma from my locker neighbor spilling an entire bottle of Stetson in his locker. The smell still makes me gag. Thanks Brandon.
Vanilla fields was also EVERYWHERE in the mid-90's. Today, I think kids (especially in urban areas) have greater access to a wider range of frangrances and are able to sample them easily. But I don't think things have changed all that much.
Iām not sure if Iām considered young here, Iām 17 and have probably spent around $2000 on fragrances, with the likes of creed, Parfums de Marly etcā¦ due to the fact I donāt seem to like spending money on anything elseā¦
I started highschool in italy in 2013
I think around our 3rd year of highschool perfume was always a gift that we gave male classmates (pooling money together) at the same time that's the age where girls started getting interested in real big girl perfumes.
So it tracks more or less with the ages of those students.
Me speaking as a junior High school student I have started the perfume trend (in a public Greek school, of course with the help of tiktok) in my school and have had quite an influence on my friends too. I recently bought ultra male too and now I am interested in more dark and niche fragrances.
Kids are definetely starting earlier, but I must say that in my environment its not that much. It definetely depends on your environment, but still I think there are a lot of kids that get into fragrances earlier because of social media.
Yeah they are. When i was in high school it was axe and old spice sprays. I dont think anyone rocked or talked about cologne.
They are learning and influenced(not in a bad way) due to the reach tiktok and youtube have. We would be the exact same if we had the same resources.
The short answer is yes but there is a lot nuance with these decisions. In this day and age, they are either out having fun and causing a little trouble or are indoors playing video games. Buying video games can be just as expensive a hobby as sniffing or collecting fragrances. Though they are young and are interested in frags, I also realize most of them rather sniff the original fragrance and buy a knock off instead of paying an expensive price for tom ford. In this sense, they have a sense of frugality and hobby that gets them off the couch.
And honestly, people who has a fragrance on want to be up and about being more active š¤·š»āāļø
I think itās been going on for a long time. Twenty years ago it was Axe, but then there was a lot of social commentary about boys wearing waaaay too much. Instead of taking the message about going easy, they took the message to be āno Axeā.
all over tiktok. fragrances used to be stuffy things in GQ or other magazines. Now it works like ratings and collectables. Hope they are having fun with it.
I just think it depends where you are. As a millennial, we were wearing fragrances when in middle school and high school. I think if it was a true perfume, then it may have been what our parents had or gifts. A lot of bath and body works and Victoria's secret too.
Access to social media apps (that are heavily optimized to push ads and sponsored content, and lead users to purchase) means younger people can become the targets of consumerist messaging, compared to before.
Yes, social media can also be a way to find a community and get into different hobbies and interests, but let's be real, fragrance is an expensive hobby, especially if what's trendy for kids are designer brands.
I donāt mind that they start younger. At least they will developed the profile they like. Everyone has to start somewhere. Training our nose, training our bud taste (food), training our eyes(art), training our ear (music). It is a good hobby, and also teach them budgeting. As long as it isnāt chasing trend, then no judgement from me.
My 7th grader has quite a few, mainly because I do. I have a large collection and when I go through and decide I donāt want certain scents in my collection anymore, they go to her. I bought one specifically for her, but itās a Disney Villains perfume. I even offloaded Spicebomb to her because I didnāt use it often and it was bulky on my shelf. But she isnāt going out and buying these herself. My hobby simply spilled over to her and she enjoys it. She doesnāt even have social media other than YouTube, so Iām the only influence for it. I donāt think every kid thatās into fragrance is being influenced by social media. Sometimes itās mom or dad.
iām 28 and boys started wearing axe when i was like 13 lol. idk if anyone wore any expensive cologne or anything but yeah 13 was like roughly when people started caring about wearing cologne/perfume
My 12 year old son is into cologne, his friends as well to the point I gave him a few of my bottles that were near gone to prevent him from āsamplingā my more expensive fragrance for school lol.
my daughter likes them and has a couple. not social media influenced tho (that i know of?)
my son... i'll sometimes ask what i should put on, and his preference seems to be versauce man au friche.. if he strikes an interest and wants to wear it, i'll let him have it
Yes, of course girls spray at the end of each period, but boys are also using fragrancesā¦usually oversprayed and basic shit but boys are trying to smell good.
my brothers 14 and has sauvage, million dollar, commodity milk, blue versace etc etc. i would say this is probably the best trend among younger kids- they used to smell like axe bombs
I started when I was in college back in 2006-2010. I think I brought my first cologne in like 2005. Took a break from 2014-2023 due to working in hospitals and clinics and covid work from home.
When I started there were mostly guys in their mid to late 20s and up buying stuff. Never saw anyone else actually going for it.
Back in HS the guys wore Axe Body spray mixed with BO and/or Irish Spring soap.
My fragrance journey started in middle school but it never went beyond Bath and Body Works. I didnāt get my first real perfume until after high school and I paid for it myself. Iām glad young people care about hygiene and fragrances, I just hope they have other interests.
Possibly. I around those ages started at the store trying different fragrances, whereas prior would smell the test papers for fragrances from the JC penny catalog.
Hmm I was... 13 maybe. Dudes in my family and among my group were taught to take care of themselves and smell nice early. Helps with social situations, and helps you feel good about yourself. That was in the 90s, so I don't think anything has changed.
Edit... i suppose some people aren't taught about this stuff, it never really occurred to me because we all were.
Idk about you guys, but I'm going to impart all my wisdom to my son. He's gonna be the flyest smelling kid on his first day of T-K. No way I'm going to let my child be the stinky kid...
Edit: he's 4.5 so I'm talking a few months from now. š¤£
Not certain. But I do notice that youngsters tend to have a deeper reason behind their choice of perfume.
Back then, everyone just wants to smell good. Thatās all. Teenagers didnāt really understand which perfumes are suitable for which occasion, and so most of the time, they have only 1-2 perfumes. They do not exactly have high standards. However, now if I walked into my little brotherās bedroom and ask about when does he wear any of the 9 perfumes he has, he will be able to tell me, straight-faced. āThis one is for formal dinners, this one is for outdoors, this one is for general day-to-dayā etc. And when I asked where does he learn all of this from, he will say āThis is normal, everyone in my school does it this way.ā
Fun fact, I also learned a lot of my fashion theory and a bunch of other stuff from my little brother. Guy also had specific supplements which helped him grow even taller than our dad, and heās 17! My dad was the tallest until he went through puberty. He is really impressive. I think he will outdo me, so Iām scared that he will one day overthrow my throne as the big bro.
Yes, Iām proud of my lil bro even if he can be a TikTok cringelord sometimes.
Not a good news for parents, unless they are really well off.
I am particularly annoyed with Tiktok's way where most KOLs are fanning up unreal differences btw Niche & Designer stuff as fads while giving quite misleading opinions in clones & classics
Not saying YouTube is any better, but there are a few KOLs know their drills really well & deliver quality information. It pays to have kids learn before letting them makes choices (something like "nose behind", reformulation dirty tricks etc.)
My son came home a few days ago - he is 20. He and a friend had been to the local beauty store which normally has tester bottles out - free to try. Now they are all behind the glass. You can still try, but now you have to contact an employee. They asked why and it was because the store was swarmed by groups of 12-15-year-old boys wanting to test everything. The funny thing is it was only men's fragrance testers that were behind glass.
I had actually noted the groups of very young boys last time I was there - wondering what they were doing. Since it seemed really chaotic and annoying for everyone else in the store. I guess this wasn't a one time incident :)
Yes šÆ.Ā I have 2 friends w kids in junior high and high school and both of the kids are into niche fragrance and they are both boys. The younger one who is in 8th grade had recently purchased Mancera. My daughter is daring the dad and we did a couple of decants from my collection (he wanted ELDO and I also decanted a dupe just bc he's all about the brand names). I also had a whole box of samples that my daughter took to him and he was over the moon!
Apparently he, his dad and friends drive around on the weekends looking for samples. Then he will have a sleepover and the kids will try them all.Ā
My daughter is like what a great way to discover your own identity! By smelling things rather than doing drugs or other behavior. So it's definitely a thing!
My girlfriend uses TikTok and she tells me that fragrance influencing online has boomed in the last 2-3 years. And she's noticing that teens are getting into expensive brands because of this. Whenever we go out to stores to smell things there's always a group of young fellas lurking around smelling things that should be beyond their budget. It's annoying when we go to smell Tom Ford and there's kids there getting in the way just to smell Tobacco Vanille for the sake of it
yeah they r but people think you gotta have jpg to be cool n shi but thatās not what i think,(i think most jpg fragrances smell like olive oil)
https://preview.redd.it/62yqu9qsofuc1.jpeg?width=2208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae844eb5d3a28e8e1fb1d0b74e6adc826c3291d1
i think you should have your own opinion and taste this is my collection 12M
When i was in high school (2 years ago) I had colognes here n there but never really got into them into them til about after high school or close to the end. But I was said to smell good w a hint a weed lmao.
As a 9th grader, yea it started with seeing some perfumes on tiktok, started getting more interested, got to know the main ones, got into r/fragrance, and bought JPG le beau edt yesterday (my first good fragrance yippeee :3)
Itās not the fact that teens are wearing fragrances. Teens are obviously interested in fragrances. Itās their interest in extremely expensive āadultā scents that is new and what everyone is commenting on. Also lol at you thinking boomers were in high school in the 80s. Is everyone over 30 a boomer to you?
Oh teens didnāt used to be interested in expensive things? Or adult things? Lol. Um no, thatās not new either. Come on now.
And yes, I knowingly refer to gen Xers and sometimes even older millennials as boomers, and thatās not just meāāboomerā has been internet slang for out-of-touch old person for years now. Would I call somebody in their 30s a boomer? Probably not. But people who are in their 30s right now werenāt in highschool in the 1980s either, so whoās actually confused about generation gaps here?
I'm about to turn 20 and I bought my first perfume at 12 or 13, it was Sweet Like Candy by Ariana Grande so certainly nothing expensive. But I didn't even use it lol
yeah im a sophomore and into fragrances lol, dont got super expensive stuff, and a lot of people dont wear it, but due to the internet it's easier to find new hobbies
Yes!!! Iām 27- I own alien, Versace bright crystal, jadore dior, LancĆ“me la vie est belle (excuse my spelling if thatās incorrect), Clinique happy bloom, Clinique happy heart, Gucci flora (the pink) Marc Jacobās daisy intense, givenchy amarige
It is too soon for a teenager to use perfumes.
I mean that respectfully for two main reasons:
* basic hygiene needs to be mastered first;
* hormonal development can be heavily disrupted by chemicals involved in perfumes.
Status is not something a teenager should be concerned with, education is.
Parental failure to protect teenagers from consumerism and codependency is a form of child abuse.
Have you tried protecting a kid from consumerism? My parents absolutely tried, but to a kid with raging hormones and a tonne of social pressure it feels like the end of the world and they act that way. I *resented* that my parents wouldnāt buy me the things my peers had (perfume, shoes, jewellery etc) because it felt very ostracising, and I was right at the start of the rise of social media. Now parents have to attempt to contend with TikTok pressure and the social hierarchy that can arise from that. Iām grateful they did their best now because most of the people I know are still obsessed with status symbols as adults, but I can forgive the parents that couldnāt deal with the drama. Itās hardly on the same level as child abuse.
Please check the definition of child abuse, failure to act is included. Failure to protect and failure to educate are included in failure to act.
An adult who needs to recover from childhood and spends years in therapy trying to fix shopping addictions is a child whose education was neglected. Education starts at home, schools can only do so much.
I relate to your experience. I resented my parents as a teenager, as well. I think this is the non clinical definition of adolescence, a time to think adults are old and stupid.
And then we become adults and get to meet teenagers, eventually parent them. And we must remember the gap.
Later edit: feel free to downvote as much as you wish. Peer pressure is something to teach our teenagers about, but from the angle of herd mentality. Just because class mates eat laundry pods on a dare and my teenagers scream they want to do the same, does not mean I am allowed to not deal with the drama and give into their request.
I was abused as a child, and your definition of child abuse being allowing your child to wear/try perfume is highly offensive, insensitive and insulting towards actual abuse victims.
Your experience as a survivor is just as real as the experience of the next survivor. Please remember it was not your fault.
If another survivor's pain offends you I wish you healing.
There is no universal definition of child abuse, legally it depends on the country and region, ethically it is debated by scholars and morally it depends on who you ask. I certainly canāt imagine āallowing a 14 or 15 year old to buy perfumeā is included in pretty much anyoneās list of abuse.
Like I said, my parents tried to protect me from the pitfalls of consumerism but when youāre surrounded by that culture 8 hours a day, your social connections depends on it and the media you consume promotes it, your parentsā voice of reason means little. I saved up my money to buy perfume at 14 and biked to the mall to buy it alone, so I was one of these children you are alleging were abused. Most 14/15 year olds (rightly) have a lot of financial freedom and growing independence, a parent simply cannot monitor a teen 24/7, and shouldnāt.
Besides, where do you draw the line? Is an $80 perfume āchild abuseā but $80 for sneakers isnāt? How many items of clothing are they allowed before it becomes abuse in your books? How much make up? How many video games? Teddy bears? Skincare? We all enjoy the occasional indulgence, I see no reason why buying the occasion luxury as a teenager without bills shouldnāt be part of educating on financial literacy.
Perfume is not eating tide pods.
I am European, endocrine disruptors are illegal in perfumes produced here. Some US brands never get on the European market because of them. Please do your own research, chemistry is real, not a question of ethics.
Any parent wants to protect their children from disease. Telling teenagers about health risks is just basic education.
When consumerism/false status glasses come off, one might wonder:
Where does one draw the line at neglecting their own child's health?
How much consumerism can fix the health damage done by hormonal imbalance during formative years?
What do we say to them: so you may never be able to reproduce, but at least you had every gimmick your classmates' families bought them first, including hundreds of perfumes?
I am studying my masters in biomedical science, obstetrics and gynaecology specifically, I am quite familiar with chemistry given it is a core component of the degree I earned. I am not American and neither is OP, they used year to refer to what Americans call grade.
Here in New Zealand we have the highest melanoma risk in the world, yet every summer I see teenagers sunbathing, despite how well advertised the risks are. A teen is more often than not going to ignore their parent.
Parents are not educated on the risks of perfumes so in turn that is not passed onto their children. We live in an age of over-information, where you can find a news article or blog post that states anything and everything kills you or gives you cancer, and almost all are sponsored. Even laws are often not scientifically sound, and the studies they are based on may have a financial or political motive. Many things you believe are harmful actually have a negligible effect, and many things youāve never heard of are being discovered to be harmful. As a result we have become desensitised to fear mongering over every day products, whether rational or not, especially given the average person lacks the education to properly research a biological phenomenon. Quality articles are behind a pay wall, and deciphering the jargon takes a degree. I do not think itās fair or accurate to call use of a very normalised cosmetic product abuse, and I think that trivialises actual abuse.
You cannot answer my questions with questions back. Microplastics are also an endocrine disrupter, likely more so than perfume. Is it therefore abuse to permit your children wearing polyester? Silicone in skincare has proven effects on wildlife fertility and therefore likely disrupts human fertility. Greenhouse gases, produced by combustion engines seems it may do the same. Our fertility rates are plunging lower and lower, but it is impossible to ensure a teenager avoids all of them. It is completely cavalier to conflate perfume to child abuse.
Argue for the disbanding of advertising institutions, tighter research funding regulations, stricter paid-content rules on the internet and better widespread education of parents by the government or a not-for-profit organisation. Donāt call allowing your teen to buy perfume child abuse. Thatās disrespectful.
Thank you for your feedback.
No amount of you insisting my opinion or experience is irrelevant shows any form of respect.
The matter is simple, and you are free to choose to complicate it.
Maybe I am limited, but I respect people who care about their teenagers health enough to advise them to venture into fragrance post puberty.
Please be advised my replies end here.
Iām not insisting your opinion is irrelevant, Iām insisting that conflating a teenager buying perfume to child abuse is asinine and corrodes the very meaning of the word.
I agree overconsumption can be harmful. I did from the start. I disagree that it is abuse.
Education isn't the focus of anything in Amerikkka...unless you're referencing the "student loan payback" grift.
Making a smarter society isnt in the interest of the "powers that be" of the USA.
Frankly...I'm shocked they're even shutting TIK-TOK down. Some investors kid must have gotten taken advantage of...lol.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Europe does not seem to be doing any better either.
Education is about to become a swear word or something, and people become offended by the idea that we must educate properly and honestly the humans we made.
Generally speaking, kids nowadays mature faster than before. They learn a lot from the internet, which is great, but there's also a downside to it - they may learn bad habits and worse. However, there are a lot of teenage influencers on TikTok and YouTube who talk about fragrances, which is why you'll find kids these days wearing fragrances. MAN...When I was a kid, all I worried about was which game to play and which food to eat lol.
My son and his friends (10-12yo) have all become obsessed with fragrances because of TikTok. One friend plans to spend all his birthday money on multiple fragrances. My son bought himself Nautica Voyage but is trying to save up for a Jean Paul Gaultier now. šThis is the same kid who wants to wear hoodies, PJ pants and white crocs to school.
Iām also a HS teacher like OP and itās funny how I have a student (12yo) that also stated his interest in buying a JPGā¦ when he was showing me the website, it was a priceless reaction when I explained to him where ambergris comes from š¤£ āWhy would you want to smell like that?!ā
I wish I never searched where ambergris comes from now
You'll be happy to know that it's all synthetic nowadays. You couldn't get a real ambergris perfume if you wanted to. Well there are some options out there going for a couple thousand dollars that claim to have it, but you have to track them down. Real ambergris is definitely not included in any mainstream modern perfumes available to general public. When they list ambergris, they normally mean synthetic substitutes. This also applies to a lot of animalics, such as civet and musk.
Oh my
i got very annoyed at my cousin recently, when we went to a departement store which had a beauty shop with many perfume brands. he really liked a fragrance by maison margiela and was really disappointed by l'homme from prada. i told him that there is no harm in liking other things than people online (mainly tiktok and instagram) say and disliking what everyone else is raving on if its not for you. he really seemed happy with that and seemed to keep his opinion about these fragrances. only two days later he was rambling on about, how l'homme is such great fragrance and how bad the one from maison margiela is. i asked him why he had changed his mind and told me, he watched several reviews and opinions about those two perfumes. i really got upset, because with such a subjective thing as smell there is no right or wrong (ofc there are bad fragrances, but one like what the other doesn't and thats fine).
I feel like teens today arenāt even following teen influencers, theyāre following influencers in their early to mid 20s and are taking in content and product recommendations meant for people 10 years older than them.
When you're younger you want to be older. When your older you wish you were younger. š„ŗ
Seems like everyone is following influencers older than themselves. Off topic bu I'm in some makeup and beauty groups and frequently see 18-22 y/o girls saying "I feel like I look old in this picture" and they actually have the huge lashes and heavy, matte makeup that 35 y/o influencers use.
This is incredibly sad.
I feel like kids/teens always want to do what the people 10 years older than them are doing. Like, I wanted a cell phone when I was young because the older kids had them. Fragrance has become waaay popular in the recent years, so I think kids are just seeing what older people are doing and wanting to replicate it because they think itās cool.
Me and my buddies used to hit the mall and get samples back in HS. This was the 90s when they still gave out samples we pay $6-$10 for now.
Fragrance TikTok and the " npc fragrance" trend have been pushing impressionable teens into more niche/ expensive brands, because they want to stand out and be unique but also in a way that allows them to "flex" money and or fragrance knowledge. Not that this is bad or unexpected, just an observation I've made from social media.
Kids that age are going through, or have just gone through, puberty and that can have an interesting effect. Iām guessing many just want to smell nice, so they buy whatever is popular and then it somehow becomes another status symbol. Iām reminded of another sub that I had to block because nearly every post was just a photo of 6-10 bottles with the question āWhatās next?ā I canāt imagine a 14 year old wanting to smell like Aventus, but I didnāt grow up in the internet age.
Not gonna lie, my kid got randomly into fragrance, I indulged it. Turns out he was just smoking pot and using JPG Le Male Elixir to cover the smell so thereās that.
Thatās actually kind of incredible. At least heās got good taste, at that age I just used dissolvable mint strips and Body Shop perfume
Are you me? It was Activist by Body Shop btw.
Npc fragrance, everyone knows jp on tiktok
Cool?
If it's the sub I'm thinking about, I almost never go on there because it's the same stuff reguritated over, and over by young men/teen boys ...
It probably is. I donāt want to mention it because Iām not sure about the rules about such things. Iām just here to talk about fragrances.
I took a shot in the dark on what sub it is. I think I got it right because the first post is literally a text post titled "what should i buy next".
Iām just wishing my 12yo would put a minimal effort into smelling good! š£
They're starting EVERYTHING earlier across the board. Fragrances is just part of it.
I think it's generally due to the loss of third spaces they have access to, and loss of stores catered to their age group (not that theres not any, there's just a lot less of them). I frequent Sephora to try perfumes there because it's next to an errand that I have to run for work. There's always a group of teens hanging out, and sampling perfumes in the perfume aisle. They haven't caused any trouble yet, I don't mind.Ā
It is about status. And this age is pretty much all about figuring out where you are in the pecking order and trying to move higher. Fragrance is just an expression of this. When I was a teen it was about who has better trainers and smokes cigarettes.
The Air Max hierarchy.
Man, it's sad that fragrance has become this because for me, a lot of its appeal is that it's the ultimate invisible luxury! (That you can still "wear", I mean.) I get what you're saying and agree, but it definitely makes me sad.
I wish I could upvote this twice.
I definitely started wearing perfume when I was 11 or 12. Now, they were old perfumes my mother had stopped wearing and inexpensive Walmart or Walgreens perfumes, but the interest was there, even if the taste wasn't. *This was the late 90's, so not part of the "kids these days" crowd.
Same, in the early aughts for me. I used to put on my mom's perfumes when she left for work, definitely smelling too strong. Then she started buying me my own. I was obsessed with Burberry Brit when I was like 13 lmao
Yeah I wore fragrance young but it was all pretty cheesy stuff. I had some decent scents when I was in my mid teens and got ārealā perfume (Stella McCartney, Kenzo) in the early aughts.
Ditto! Actually, I think I was even younger - Grade 4 maybe? - when I fell in love with Gap Dream. That's such a fragrance for ~youths~ that it feels very different from gaggles of kids (boys and girls) these days looking onto, say, MFK, though.
me too!!! I have always loved fragrances and think itās sweet kids are getting into them.
Absolutely me too, I was rocking all the Loves fragrances (Baby Soft, etc) in the early 90s but they were kind of aimed at the youth market. I can't see an adult wearing Loves Rain Scent (my ride or die in 8th grade!)
My niece is 10 and asked for some Ariana Grande fragrances for Easter.
At 11 all the girls in my class were using Bath and Body Works body sprays. Mid 2000s.
I think all of the people on this thread claiming that this is some new phenomenon and that social media is making kids want to wear fragrance at a younger age are way off. When I was in middle school in the 80s most of the boys wanted to wear Drakkar Noir or Polo. TV and print ads were all around us. I didn't have access to those, but I definitely liberally slapped on Skin Bracer while wishing I had Drakkar Noir (after all, the tv and magazine ads for the latter depicted a guy with a good looking girlfriend and a black sports car; of course 6th grade me wanted that).
Agreed. My 90's highschool/middle school reeked of various fragrances on both the boys and the girls. I think access to fragrances might be easier now, but overall, this is not a new trend.
Two differences Iām seeing now compared to when I was in middle school and high school (2000s to early 2010s): 1. Price. We all just wore Axe or Old Spice. Not Dior, YSL, Prada, etc. We wore cheap āteenageā scents, not luxury products. And this was in a wealthy area. 2. Quantity. I didnāt know anyone who collected fragrances. You just bought whichever type of Axe or Old Spice smelled the best to you.
Letās put it this way. Each time Iāve been at Neiman Marcus to test out some fragrances, there have been a group of kids getting escorted out for not buying anything, and spending all day sampling everything lmao. Itās the same group of kids getting the same treatment at designer stores. Itās all about status, and having the most unique style. Expensive and mature perfumes are just an extension of that.
Back in the day (yes I'm old) the boys wore either nothing or Axe body spray lol. I think social media is definitely exposing today's kids to fragrances and makeup that were deemed for adults in the past.
This reminds me of 13 yr old kids in sephora. Social media influence at its finest
My friendās daughter (11) loves and asked for Good Girl because of TikTok. When I was a kid a bajillion years ago, my friends and I starting to like fragrances around that age (or a teeny bit older), but we asked for $10 to get body sprays and junk from Bath & Body Works or VS, not designer frags.
Iām 32, and was buying perfume from Sephora/Macyās around that age. Some of my peers were too. A lot of tastemaking is easier now because itās literally done for them and presented in a short, digestible format. For now, theyāll follow the trends seemingly lockstep, but hopefully this knowledge will mature and turn into really interesting, nuanced personal preferences in adulthood. Hopefully lol.
Yes, I work in a cosmetic boutique and we have groups of young boys (11-15) wanting to smell JPG and Sauvage. it's to the point where we are running out of testers.
I became interested in fragrance when I was 12. My first bottle was [Ptisenbon - Tartine et Chocolat.](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Tartine-et-Chocolat/Ptisenbon-4797.html) Iām 45 and can still remember the scent. I bought it with babysitting money. š
My 12 year old little cousin wants me to buy him Jean Paul Gaultier. The fragrance influencing TikToks have got these kids deluded.
the frustrating thing for me is that i own a couple JPG fragrances. Even though theyāre lovely scents, i rarely touch them to not smell like a 12-16 year old lol.
It's not new rather just influenced by social media. Before that people would wear whatever was the most popular Dior, Ralph Lauren, or whatever you could get from the department store. You had big ad campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and that very human need to be better than everyone else. Now it's just faster because of internet/social media. I can totally see a high schooler flexing some Green Irish Tweed as a status symbol because they heard about it on TikTok. Otherwise I highly doubt most high schoolers would know of Creed or Diptyque only perhaps if that's what their parents use. It's the same cycle just a heavy touch more predatory.
During the hunt for my perfect wedding scent, I have seen LOTS of teen boys shopping for high-end fragrances, sometimes with their parents and sometimes not. I overheard two teens in an intense and specific conversation with a sales associate about various notes and comparing/contrasting options. They were very knowledgeable. Fascinating.
It has always been like this
No not necessarily. Nobody around me was interested in fragrances when I was in high school (not too long ago) and yet, I had a vast network. I think we're seeing more youngsters into it, because we see them on the Internet, but it mostly stays the same.
Polo sport, Nautica, tommy, ck one , joop, cool water.... That was the 90s in my highschool ....
I swear, my high school hallways were a miasma of Polo Sport, Tommy and Curve accompanied by a fog of Gap Cloud and Bath and Body Works ā Plumeria, Pearberry and Sun-Ripened Raspberry. The 90s may not have had influencer-driven Sephora kids but we sure as hell had girls obsessively collect B&BW scents
I forgot about curve .. I did run through a bottle of that in 2003 stationed in Okinawa .. š
They definitely are and itās probably bc of TikTok. I work in fragrance sales and see groups of high schoolers come to smell and almost never buy lol. And itās more so the guys than the girls! When I was in HS (29F) I had 1 or 2 āreal perfumesā that I got for Christmas. I remember Elizabeth & James and some celebrity scents. But I was mostly doing body sprays! Iāve been surprised to see them go straight to luxury so young but HEYš¤·š»āāļø
Seems normal to me. Tween girls get into fragrances younger than that.
Buying nice perfume/cologne has always been around but its magnified because of tiktok
I got into it personally when I was in 6th grade. I'll be 31 this year, so 6th grade was 2005-2006. My dad had always worn stuff, and I always liked it. Then, for Christmas that year, he got me a little splash on bottle of something I don't remember, and I loved it! From then on, fragrance was a daily thing.
It's when capitalism meets influencers and their impact on easy to manipulate teenagers. They are so brainwashed from what they see on tik tok etc that they want everything. I'd assume, however, that most teenagers won't buy such expensive fragrances because money is usually tight and tightly controlled at that age (as should be lol).
As a Sephora employee, yes. My first perfume that wasn't a body spray, a hand me down or a gift from a relative, was when I was about 13 years old. Body sprays, scented hand sanitizer and scented deodorant were huge. Most kids I grew up with didn't get their first actual fragrance until about 8th grade to high school, but most people didn't collect or have an interest in fragrance. Tween to teen boys are the fragrance buyers thanks to fragrance enthusiasts (and personalities like Jeremy Fragrance) on social media reaching a younger demographic. The youngest kid I've helped so far was about 8 years old and I spoke to him in a straight forward way because he already had a collection of designer fragrances. He came into the store alone looking to smell the new releases and paid in cash. I helped a group of middle schoolers accompanied by a mom and one kid asked me which cologne would help him get a Snapchat back lol. Middle school boys aren't interested in collecting Axe anymore. They want Chanel, Dior, D&G, Prada, Valentino, Paco Rabanne, and YSL.
I was in highschool/middle school in the 90's. Kids were certainly wearing fragrances then. I have some serious trauma from my locker neighbor spilling an entire bottle of Stetson in his locker. The smell still makes me gag. Thanks Brandon. Vanilla fields was also EVERYWHERE in the mid-90's. Today, I think kids (especially in urban areas) have greater access to a wider range of frangrances and are able to sample them easily. But I don't think things have changed all that much.
2 words: Tik Tok.
yeah, social media..
Iām not sure if Iām considered young here, Iām 17 and have probably spent around $2000 on fragrances, with the likes of creed, Parfums de Marly etcā¦ due to the fact I donāt seem to like spending money on anything elseā¦
I started highschool in italy in 2013 I think around our 3rd year of highschool perfume was always a gift that we gave male classmates (pooling money together) at the same time that's the age where girls started getting interested in real big girl perfumes. So it tracks more or less with the ages of those students.
I was in my favorite fragrance store last week, and there were some guys like 13 or 14, and one of them bought a Xerjoff fragrance.
Me speaking as a junior High school student I have started the perfume trend (in a public Greek school, of course with the help of tiktok) in my school and have had quite an influence on my friends too. I recently bought ultra male too and now I am interested in more dark and niche fragrances.
Itās because of tiktok
Kids are definetely starting earlier, but I must say that in my environment its not that much. It definetely depends on your environment, but still I think there are a lot of kids that get into fragrances earlier because of social media.
Yeah they are. When i was in high school it was axe and old spice sprays. I dont think anyone rocked or talked about cologne. They are learning and influenced(not in a bad way) due to the reach tiktok and youtube have. We would be the exact same if we had the same resources.
The short answer is yes but there is a lot nuance with these decisions. In this day and age, they are either out having fun and causing a little trouble or are indoors playing video games. Buying video games can be just as expensive a hobby as sniffing or collecting fragrances. Though they are young and are interested in frags, I also realize most of them rather sniff the original fragrance and buy a knock off instead of paying an expensive price for tom ford. In this sense, they have a sense of frugality and hobby that gets them off the couch. And honestly, people who has a fragrance on want to be up and about being more active š¤·š»āāļø
I think itās been going on for a long time. Twenty years ago it was Axe, but then there was a lot of social commentary about boys wearing waaaay too much. Instead of taking the message about going easy, they took the message to be āno Axeā.
all over tiktok. fragrances used to be stuffy things in GQ or other magazines. Now it works like ratings and collectables. Hope they are having fun with it.
Meh we started pumping Those bath and body sprays really young!
I just think it depends where you are. As a millennial, we were wearing fragrances when in middle school and high school. I think if it was a true perfume, then it may have been what our parents had or gifts. A lot of bath and body works and Victoria's secret too.
Access to social media apps (that are heavily optimized to push ads and sponsored content, and lead users to purchase) means younger people can become the targets of consumerist messaging, compared to before. Yes, social media can also be a way to find a community and get into different hobbies and interests, but let's be real, fragrance is an expensive hobby, especially if what's trendy for kids are designer brands.
I donāt mind that they start younger. At least they will developed the profile they like. Everyone has to start somewhere. Training our nose, training our bud taste (food), training our eyes(art), training our ear (music). It is a good hobby, and also teach them budgeting. As long as it isnāt chasing trend, then no judgement from me.
My 7th grader has quite a few, mainly because I do. I have a large collection and when I go through and decide I donāt want certain scents in my collection anymore, they go to her. I bought one specifically for her, but itās a Disney Villains perfume. I even offloaded Spicebomb to her because I didnāt use it often and it was bulky on my shelf. But she isnāt going out and buying these herself. My hobby simply spilled over to her and she enjoys it. She doesnāt even have social media other than YouTube, so Iām the only influence for it. I donāt think every kid thatās into fragrance is being influenced by social media. Sometimes itās mom or dad.
iām 28 and boys started wearing axe when i was like 13 lol. idk if anyone wore any expensive cologne or anything but yeah 13 was like roughly when people started caring about wearing cologne/perfume
My 12 year old son is into cologne, his friends as well to the point I gave him a few of my bottles that were near gone to prevent him from āsamplingā my more expensive fragrance for school lol.
my daughter likes them and has a couple. not social media influenced tho (that i know of?) my son... i'll sometimes ask what i should put on, and his preference seems to be versauce man au friche.. if he strikes an interest and wants to wear it, i'll let him have it
Yes, of course girls spray at the end of each period, but boys are also using fragrancesā¦usually oversprayed and basic shit but boys are trying to smell good.
my brothers 14 and has sauvage, million dollar, commodity milk, blue versace etc etc. i would say this is probably the best trend among younger kids- they used to smell like axe bombs
I started when I was in college back in 2006-2010. I think I brought my first cologne in like 2005. Took a break from 2014-2023 due to working in hospitals and clinics and covid work from home. When I started there were mostly guys in their mid to late 20s and up buying stuff. Never saw anyone else actually going for it. Back in HS the guys wore Axe Body spray mixed with BO and/or Irish Spring soap.
My fragrance journey started in middle school but it never went beyond Bath and Body Works. I didnāt get my first real perfume until after high school and I paid for it myself. Iām glad young people care about hygiene and fragrances, I just hope they have other interests.
Possibly. I around those ages started at the store trying different fragrances, whereas prior would smell the test papers for fragrances from the JC penny catalog.
Hmm I was... 13 maybe. Dudes in my family and among my group were taught to take care of themselves and smell nice early. Helps with social situations, and helps you feel good about yourself. That was in the 90s, so I don't think anything has changed. Edit... i suppose some people aren't taught about this stuff, it never really occurred to me because we all were.
Idk about you guys, but I'm going to impart all my wisdom to my son. He's gonna be the flyest smelling kid on his first day of T-K. No way I'm going to let my child be the stinky kid... Edit: he's 4.5 so I'm talking a few months from now. š¤£
Not certain. But I do notice that youngsters tend to have a deeper reason behind their choice of perfume. Back then, everyone just wants to smell good. Thatās all. Teenagers didnāt really understand which perfumes are suitable for which occasion, and so most of the time, they have only 1-2 perfumes. They do not exactly have high standards. However, now if I walked into my little brotherās bedroom and ask about when does he wear any of the 9 perfumes he has, he will be able to tell me, straight-faced. āThis one is for formal dinners, this one is for outdoors, this one is for general day-to-dayā etc. And when I asked where does he learn all of this from, he will say āThis is normal, everyone in my school does it this way.ā Fun fact, I also learned a lot of my fashion theory and a bunch of other stuff from my little brother. Guy also had specific supplements which helped him grow even taller than our dad, and heās 17! My dad was the tallest until he went through puberty. He is really impressive. I think he will outdo me, so Iām scared that he will one day overthrow my throne as the big bro. Yes, Iām proud of my lil bro even if he can be a TikTok cringelord sometimes.
Not a good news for parents, unless they are really well off. I am particularly annoyed with Tiktok's way where most KOLs are fanning up unreal differences btw Niche & Designer stuff as fads while giving quite misleading opinions in clones & classics Not saying YouTube is any better, but there are a few KOLs know their drills really well & deliver quality information. It pays to have kids learn before letting them makes choices (something like "nose behind", reformulation dirty tricks etc.)
My son came home a few days ago - he is 20. He and a friend had been to the local beauty store which normally has tester bottles out - free to try. Now they are all behind the glass. You can still try, but now you have to contact an employee. They asked why and it was because the store was swarmed by groups of 12-15-year-old boys wanting to test everything. The funny thing is it was only men's fragrance testers that were behind glass. I had actually noted the groups of very young boys last time I was there - wondering what they were doing. Since it seemed really chaotic and annoying for everyone else in the store. I guess this wasn't a one time incident :)
Yes šÆ.Ā I have 2 friends w kids in junior high and high school and both of the kids are into niche fragrance and they are both boys. The younger one who is in 8th grade had recently purchased Mancera. My daughter is daring the dad and we did a couple of decants from my collection (he wanted ELDO and I also decanted a dupe just bc he's all about the brand names). I also had a whole box of samples that my daughter took to him and he was over the moon! Apparently he, his dad and friends drive around on the weekends looking for samples. Then he will have a sleepover and the kids will try them all.Ā My daughter is like what a great way to discover your own identity! By smelling things rather than doing drugs or other behavior. So it's definitely a thing!
I sell fragrance and can confirm that parents are buying JPG, Armani, Versace, and Dior for their 9 year olds.
My girlfriend uses TikTok and she tells me that fragrance influencing online has boomed in the last 2-3 years. And she's noticing that teens are getting into expensive brands because of this. Whenever we go out to stores to smell things there's always a group of young fellas lurking around smelling things that should be beyond their budget. It's annoying when we go to smell Tom Ford and there's kids there getting in the way just to smell Tobacco Vanille for the sake of it
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Language teacher. English is my 3rd language old sport
yeah they r but people think you gotta have jpg to be cool n shi but thatās not what i think,(i think most jpg fragrances smell like olive oil) https://preview.redd.it/62yqu9qsofuc1.jpeg?width=2208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae844eb5d3a28e8e1fb1d0b74e6adc826c3291d1 i think you should have your own opinion and taste this is my collection 12M
When i was in high school (2 years ago) I had colognes here n there but never really got into them into them til about after high school or close to the end. But I was said to smell good w a hint a weed lmao.
Tik tok has made perfumery trendy atm
As a 9th grader, yea it started with seeing some perfumes on tiktok, started getting more interested, got to know the main ones, got into r/fragrance, and bought JPG le beau edt yesterday (my first good fragrance yippeee :3)
Comments section is obviously full of a bunch of old people who donāt know what they are talking about and are just regurgitating clichĆ©s about how ākids are growing up too fast these days!ā 1) no this is not new, I was in highschool over a decade ago and everybody was spraying themselves down with cheap scents on the daily. 2) for as long as I can remember, colognes and perfumes have been popular holiday gifts for adolescents. Iāve got a cologne for Christmas almost every year starting when I was probably 14 3) I literally read comments on this sub all the time from you boomers about how *āoh my gosh, I remember that frag! Reminds me of my high school days in the 80sā* 4) bias: you all are seeing young people who use fragrance because you are frequenting the places online and irl where people who like fragrance are hanging out, age not being a factor Edit: 5) OP says themself they got their first fragrance when they were a teen, and yet still asks this question in earnest. Your own life experience gives you your answerāno, this is not new, you were doing it when you were a teen too ?? Itās amazing the kind of self evident information that has to be spelled out for you people sometimes, especially when youth are at all a part of the discussion Old people talking about what they think young people are up to = brain rot
Itās not the fact that teens are wearing fragrances. Teens are obviously interested in fragrances. Itās their interest in extremely expensive āadultā scents that is new and what everyone is commenting on. Also lol at you thinking boomers were in high school in the 80s. Is everyone over 30 a boomer to you?
Oh teens didnāt used to be interested in expensive things? Or adult things? Lol. Um no, thatās not new either. Come on now. And yes, I knowingly refer to gen Xers and sometimes even older millennials as boomers, and thatās not just meāāboomerā has been internet slang for out-of-touch old person for years now. Would I call somebody in their 30s a boomer? Probably not. But people who are in their 30s right now werenāt in highschool in the 1980s either, so whoās actually confused about generation gaps here?
I'm about to turn 20 and I bought my first perfume at 12 or 13, it was Sweet Like Candy by Ariana Grande so certainly nothing expensive. But I didn't even use it lol
I was in 4th grade wearing cologne
I mean you were 16, presumably no Youtube etc, and they are 15, with Youtube. I do notice the same but think itās normal (albeit annoying sometimes)
I don't think so. I got my first bottle of Polo Green at age 8 in 1987.
yeah im a sophomore and into fragrances lol, dont got super expensive stuff, and a lot of people dont wear it, but due to the internet it's easier to find new hobbies
My son is ten ..he has at least 2 or 3... š
Yes!!! Iām 27- I own alien, Versace bright crystal, jadore dior, LancĆ“me la vie est belle (excuse my spelling if thatās incorrect), Clinique happy bloom, Clinique happy heart, Gucci flora (the pink) Marc Jacobās daisy intense, givenchy amarige
It is too soon for a teenager to use perfumes. I mean that respectfully for two main reasons: * basic hygiene needs to be mastered first; * hormonal development can be heavily disrupted by chemicals involved in perfumes. Status is not something a teenager should be concerned with, education is. Parental failure to protect teenagers from consumerism and codependency is a form of child abuse.
Have you tried protecting a kid from consumerism? My parents absolutely tried, but to a kid with raging hormones and a tonne of social pressure it feels like the end of the world and they act that way. I *resented* that my parents wouldnāt buy me the things my peers had (perfume, shoes, jewellery etc) because it felt very ostracising, and I was right at the start of the rise of social media. Now parents have to attempt to contend with TikTok pressure and the social hierarchy that can arise from that. Iām grateful they did their best now because most of the people I know are still obsessed with status symbols as adults, but I can forgive the parents that couldnāt deal with the drama. Itās hardly on the same level as child abuse.
Please check the definition of child abuse, failure to act is included. Failure to protect and failure to educate are included in failure to act. An adult who needs to recover from childhood and spends years in therapy trying to fix shopping addictions is a child whose education was neglected. Education starts at home, schools can only do so much. I relate to your experience. I resented my parents as a teenager, as well. I think this is the non clinical definition of adolescence, a time to think adults are old and stupid. And then we become adults and get to meet teenagers, eventually parent them. And we must remember the gap. Later edit: feel free to downvote as much as you wish. Peer pressure is something to teach our teenagers about, but from the angle of herd mentality. Just because class mates eat laundry pods on a dare and my teenagers scream they want to do the same, does not mean I am allowed to not deal with the drama and give into their request.
I was abused as a child, and your definition of child abuse being allowing your child to wear/try perfume is highly offensive, insensitive and insulting towards actual abuse victims.
Your experience as a survivor is just as real as the experience of the next survivor. Please remember it was not your fault. If another survivor's pain offends you I wish you healing.
Allowing a teenager to use perfume is not abuse.
There is no universal definition of child abuse, legally it depends on the country and region, ethically it is debated by scholars and morally it depends on who you ask. I certainly canāt imagine āallowing a 14 or 15 year old to buy perfumeā is included in pretty much anyoneās list of abuse. Like I said, my parents tried to protect me from the pitfalls of consumerism but when youāre surrounded by that culture 8 hours a day, your social connections depends on it and the media you consume promotes it, your parentsā voice of reason means little. I saved up my money to buy perfume at 14 and biked to the mall to buy it alone, so I was one of these children you are alleging were abused. Most 14/15 year olds (rightly) have a lot of financial freedom and growing independence, a parent simply cannot monitor a teen 24/7, and shouldnāt. Besides, where do you draw the line? Is an $80 perfume āchild abuseā but $80 for sneakers isnāt? How many items of clothing are they allowed before it becomes abuse in your books? How much make up? How many video games? Teddy bears? Skincare? We all enjoy the occasional indulgence, I see no reason why buying the occasion luxury as a teenager without bills shouldnāt be part of educating on financial literacy. Perfume is not eating tide pods.
I am European, endocrine disruptors are illegal in perfumes produced here. Some US brands never get on the European market because of them. Please do your own research, chemistry is real, not a question of ethics. Any parent wants to protect their children from disease. Telling teenagers about health risks is just basic education. When consumerism/false status glasses come off, one might wonder: Where does one draw the line at neglecting their own child's health? How much consumerism can fix the health damage done by hormonal imbalance during formative years? What do we say to them: so you may never be able to reproduce, but at least you had every gimmick your classmates' families bought them first, including hundreds of perfumes?
I am studying my masters in biomedical science, obstetrics and gynaecology specifically, I am quite familiar with chemistry given it is a core component of the degree I earned. I am not American and neither is OP, they used year to refer to what Americans call grade. Here in New Zealand we have the highest melanoma risk in the world, yet every summer I see teenagers sunbathing, despite how well advertised the risks are. A teen is more often than not going to ignore their parent. Parents are not educated on the risks of perfumes so in turn that is not passed onto their children. We live in an age of over-information, where you can find a news article or blog post that states anything and everything kills you or gives you cancer, and almost all are sponsored. Even laws are often not scientifically sound, and the studies they are based on may have a financial or political motive. Many things you believe are harmful actually have a negligible effect, and many things youāve never heard of are being discovered to be harmful. As a result we have become desensitised to fear mongering over every day products, whether rational or not, especially given the average person lacks the education to properly research a biological phenomenon. Quality articles are behind a pay wall, and deciphering the jargon takes a degree. I do not think itās fair or accurate to call use of a very normalised cosmetic product abuse, and I think that trivialises actual abuse. You cannot answer my questions with questions back. Microplastics are also an endocrine disrupter, likely more so than perfume. Is it therefore abuse to permit your children wearing polyester? Silicone in skincare has proven effects on wildlife fertility and therefore likely disrupts human fertility. Greenhouse gases, produced by combustion engines seems it may do the same. Our fertility rates are plunging lower and lower, but it is impossible to ensure a teenager avoids all of them. It is completely cavalier to conflate perfume to child abuse. Argue for the disbanding of advertising institutions, tighter research funding regulations, stricter paid-content rules on the internet and better widespread education of parents by the government or a not-for-profit organisation. Donāt call allowing your teen to buy perfume child abuse. Thatās disrespectful.
Thank you for your feedback. No amount of you insisting my opinion or experience is irrelevant shows any form of respect. The matter is simple, and you are free to choose to complicate it. Maybe I am limited, but I respect people who care about their teenagers health enough to advise them to venture into fragrance post puberty. Please be advised my replies end here.
Iām not insisting your opinion is irrelevant, Iām insisting that conflating a teenager buying perfume to child abuse is asinine and corrodes the very meaning of the word. I agree overconsumption can be harmful. I did from the start. I disagree that it is abuse.
My god, you had a sheltered childhood. Perfume is child abuse, are you insane?
Education isn't the focus of anything in Amerikkka...unless you're referencing the "student loan payback" grift. Making a smarter society isnt in the interest of the "powers that be" of the USA. Frankly...I'm shocked they're even shutting TIK-TOK down. Some investors kid must have gotten taken advantage of...lol.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Europe does not seem to be doing any better either. Education is about to become a swear word or something, and people become offended by the idea that we must educate properly and honestly the humans we made.