Nuri Park ‘26
They are hated. Abhorred. Feared. They are Sephora Kids, and they are everywhere. In the past few months, there has been a noticeable influx of young, rude girls shopping in Sephora. These girls, labeled as Sephora Kids, are flooding not just local Sephoras, but also the internet. On TikTok, videos of rude and entitled Sephora Kids and the people they have scarred have been gaining popularity. Numerous stories have surfaced where innocent customers and Sephora workers alike are chastised by the girls for inconveniencing them in their unending search for expensive products such as the Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm or Sol De Janeiro’s Brazilian Bum Bum Cream.
What about Sephora makes these young girls act this way? Many St. Andrew’s students, such as sophomore Ruth Amha, believe Sephora has “good products and good sales.” Similarly, sophomore Elle Toomey believes Sephora has “lots of good quality options.” However, there is nothing about Sephora that should be especially appealing to waves of feral young girls.
In the face of their privilege, it is easy to dislike and blame the Sephora Kids for their actions. However, is the hate towards them warranted? Or are they just young and impressionable girls who fall victim to environments of popular trends, targeted marketing, and faulty parenting?
Six years ago, when almost every popular YouTube video was titled “Slime Tutorial – NO BORAX,” children across the world followed along, stealing their parents’ contact solution, swept away by the slime trend. When those same children saw slime advertisements on their TV, they begged their parents for slime, just as any child experiencing targeted marketing would. It would be just as unfair to blame those children for their actions as it would be to blame the Sephora Girls for their actions.
Yes, the extent to which their actions negatively affect others is completely different, but once again, the girls are not at fault for that. The only reason Sephora Kids can enact such havoc is because their parents enable them to. Instead of controlling their children, Sephora Kids’ parents turn a blind eye and swipe a credit card. Indeed, if a child is not properly parented, it is unreasonable to expect them to act as if they were. So maybe, the next time you see a young girl screaming at a Sephora employee, think twice before you side-eye her.