Mums have weighed in on the idea of their children becoming makeup influencers (Picture: Getty)

Body scrubs, hair oil, eye cream. These are just three of the cosmetic products promoted by North West and her cousin Penelope Disick in their viral skincare routines.

And no, they’re not the cheap-and-child-friendly stocking fillers many of us enjoyed in our youth, usually emblazoned with ‘Groovy Chick’ motifs or available to buy in Tammy. Instead, they’re bougie items most grownups would have to save up to afford.

Penelope, the 11-year-old daughter of Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick, recently showed off her favourite body scrub, hair oil and – bizarrely – a Josie Maran Wrinkle Repair cream as part of one of her multi-step cosmetics video. The latter retails for around $50 (£39).

Meanwhile North, the 10-year-old daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, regularly uses products from her mum’s range (surprise surprise). She has flaunted her love of the KKN by Kim cleanser ($43/ £42), Dior Backstage Rosy Glow Blush ($39/£34) and Dior Lip Glow lip oil) ($38/£32).

Both girls are part of Generation Alpha, those born in and after 2010, and marketing experts tell Metro.co.uk the next step in the cosmetics and beauty industries could be children as young as 10 promoting and critiquing the latest foundations, elixirs, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C treatments as influencers

But parents, whose children have expressed an interest in influencer culture and makeup, aren’t so keen.

Jamie Ray, co-founder of influencer marketing agency Buttermilk, who has worked with brands including Beauty Pie, L’Oreal, Armani, Rare Beauty, Fenty, believes it’s only a matter of time before Gen Alpha become fully fledged cosmetic influencers.

He tells Metro.co.uk: ‘For beauty brands, recruiting Gen Alpha influencers seems like a no-brainer. You create a gateway to help recruit a community of future consumers that live and breathe social and can help spiral digital word of mouth. 

‘However, with commercial upside also comes an ethical brand responsibility. How young is too young? And what about promoting realistic beauty standards? Can Gen Alpha influencers promote your product in a manner which adequately acknowledges the duty of care they have to their audience?

‘Getting that balance right is a difficult challenge for brands and product marketers to grapple with.’

Generation Alpha have fully grown up in a world of tech. The iPhone first hit the market in 2007 and Instagram launched the only three years later, ushering in an era in which anybody with a ring light, some makeup and a dream could manipulate algorithms to become product promoters. 

Now, children as young as nine are becoming ‘kidpreneurs’ – pre-teen influencers who give their verdicts on products, usually aimed at other kids their age.

Since both North and Penelope are too young to have their own TikTok accounts – you have to be 13 to have your own – they both post from joint accounts they share with their respective mums.

However, a YouGov poll in September 2021 found that nearly half (46%) of 6-11 year olds have an active social account, despite official age restrictions on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

In a study conducted by Visa involving 550 children aged eight to 14, by the age of eight, 57% of children are influenced by social media and content creators.

What would happen if the content creators are the same age as them?

Jen Barber, head of data and insights at leading digital marketing agency Campfire, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Gen Alpha is a growing buying force with three in four parents saying their kids influence family buying decisions, and on average spend 60% more and when their kids are involved in the purchase decision.

‘Makeup and broader beauty products can play a role in self expression which we know is key for this generation, and seeing users online applying makeup is arguably similar to what they would see siblings or parents doing as they grow up.’

A common thought among the parents is that makeup itself isn’t bad – they’re happy to let their children play around and experiment at home – but when it comes to influencing, that’s where concerns arise.

Edinburgh-based mum of two Maria Stapleton, 44, works in PR and has a lot of experience in the health and beauty industries. Because of this, she’s raising her two daughters, Anna, 12, and Olivia, 10, to have a particular point of view when it comes to makeup, skincare and influencing. She’s not against makeup, but she emphasises that it allows them to ‘highlight their natural beauty rather than mask it’.

‘It’s all about fun and meant to be playful and that’s the approach to makeup I’m taking,’ she says.

Once a month she lets her girls have a ‘proper facial’, although she doesn’t let them use active products, like hyaluronic acid, on their skin.

‘Some of my friends think I’m absolutely mental – my friends who have kids who are two years older say, “Kids don’t need makeup” but now they’re panicking because their kids are on TikTok and Instagram and they want to overline their lips,’ she says.

‘My girls don’t have they don’t have social media accounts. Anna has a smartphone but she doesn’t have TikTok or Facebook or anything like that. But they see it kind of passively through their friends because their friends might be on TikTok, they’re bombarded by these images.’

Maria says both of her daughters have shown an interest in beauty influencing (Picture: Maria Stapleton)

Anna has asked for Laura Mercier eye pencils – which her mum is struggling to find before Christmas – while Olivia has requested Benefit lip tint and lip balm. They both use Dandydill Way cleanser after seeing Harper Beckham, 12, use it on social media.

Although her daughters have expressed an interest in being on TikTok, Maria is totally against them becoming influencers at their age or in the next few years, pointing to Britney Spears as an example of what can happen to young people who gain fame at young ages. 

‘The pressure women are put under about their appearance and their beauty in the media and the amount of vitriolic hate you can get from trolls, it’s one thing for a grown woman – they’re already grownups and have a sense of self, or equally all this, “oh my God, you’re amazing. You’re so beautiful” – they can’t develop a sense of self. If they were adults, and they want to become beauty influencers they’re adults, fine, but subjecting a child to the internet generally…? I don’t even have my girls on Facebook.’

Maria also states that her attitudes would be different if she had a boy. ‘I feel like girls are a lot more vulnerable to body shaming attacks. I think nobody really comments on boys appearance, per se. If I had a boy, I wouldn’t even think about appearance. But being a mum of two girls, it’s an absolute minefield.’

Makeup influencing in particular can be one medium for self-expression for boys, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community like influencer James Charles – whose glamorous senior year picture went viral when he was 17 – and Bretman Rock – whose contour video on Vine became a viral sensation in 2015 when he was also around 17. Both had already accumulated a following on social media by this point.

In Maryland, USA, mum-of-two and social worker Jillian Amodio also says her 12-year-old daughter Juliette is well aware of makeup brands like Elf and ‘the others available at Sephora’ and she likes to watch makeup tutorials on YouTube. 

Her son, eight-year-old Jake, isn’t interested in makeup or skincare but he used to love painting his nails when he was younger. Some family members suggested this would ‘make him gay’, to which Jillian would say, ‘that’s not how that works and even if he was gay it’s not like the worst thing in the world, like, who cares’.

It was only when he started elementary school and kids started commenting on his nails he stopped.

With her daughter being on the cusp of being able to have TikTok, the mum says ‘it would be a huge no,’ if she wanted to start influencing.

‘I already have a plan for when my children are older for when they want to start using social media, like I will have to have access to their accounts to monitor what’s going on and their content would have to be approved. I don’t want to over-moderate what they do, but just like how we teach our kids how to ride a bike, we have to teach our kids how to be good digital citizens’. 

Jillian has a son and a daughter and says her attitudes about makeup are the same for both (Picture: Jillian Amodio)

Juliette also wants eyeshadow palettes and coloured mascaras for Christmas and mum Jillian thinks self-expression offline and at home is totally fine.

‘I think it’s either an interest or it’s a pursuit – are they pursuing a career or notoriety or social status? They can do whatever they want [at home]. I don’t put a lot of limits on self-expression as long as it’s not a safety issue.’

For Jillian she feels the same way about her daughter as she does for her son, saying there is a ‘huge misconception’ that ‘girls are the only ones who are targeted by internet predators’. She explains: ‘I wouldn’t care at all, gender-wise, that doesn’t make a difference. My daughter has already asked about [influencing]. I’m not opposed to it – but it does have to be done with safe boundaries.’

The responses to North West and Penelope Disick’s videos haven’t all been bad. Adult TikTok makeup and skincare guru @lifebyjessica who has almost 270,000 followers on the app has praised the products used by both kids as some of her top picks. ‘This gal gives you a 10 on 10 for your skincare routine, North West, good job,’ she says at the end of one of her video.

The very fact that these videos are being watched and judged by adults – not kids – for some is a problem in itself though.

Katie McCann, 40, from Cambridge, who is mum to Tom, four, and Jess, five is quite concerned.

‘I feel quite strongly children should be children for as long as possible, it’s a fine line between playing and being artistic than influencing; a potential stepping stone to making children grow up too soon.’

The mum feels strongly that children don’t need in-depth skincare routines, nor do they need to be promoting them.

‘Kids are so easily influenced, if you start telling them they need a product to “have better skin” what you’re saying is that they have bad skin and they need this product to make it better. I think it’s shameful, frankly.’

While parents are fine with kids role playing at home, influencing is seen as a step too far (Picture: Getty Images/Westend61)

Just like other parents, makeup itself isn’t the issue, it’s all about expression.

‘Little kids like to put on their mum’s stilettos and put lipstick on and practice and my daughter does try to put eyeshadow on, she’s doing that because she’s copying adult behaviour but she’s doing it for fun,’ she says.

‘There’s a different motivation with influencing, that is trying to sell stuff to people and using kids to do it.’

‘There’s a different motivation with influencing.’ (Picture: Katie McCann)

Social media has also seen a rise in what are being called ‘kidpreneurs’, Gen Alpha business owners who use social media to sell products. Although slightly different to influencing, where a content creator will promote someone else’s brand, both involve promoting products online

The social media channels are often run by their parents. They do the heavy lifting such as posting content. Nine-year-old Jayden Wallis, from Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex is the proud owner of toy company It’s A Kid’s World.

He got started by using unboxing videos on YouTube as inspiration. His mum, Gemma Wallis, 37, says getting him started in content creation and business will help to instill ‘business tenacity, budgeting and banking knowledge and resilience’.

Proud ‘kidpreneur’ Jayden Wallis (Picture: Gemma Wallis)

Gemma, who is the founder of the lifestyle blog The Sussex Mum and head of customer services while working for local government, says she doesn’t have any worries about Jayden being involved in social media at a young age, since she monitors his account. She would let her children become cosmetic ‘kidpreneurs’ and would encourage other parents to follow suit.

‘No [I’m not worried], as I truly believe it is a valuable tool, when used correctly. However, I do monitor their accounts, have safety steps in place like running our youngest son’s social media accounts for him whilst he creates the content and having open family discussions around the dangers of social media and how to stay safe online,’ she says.

For other parents in a similar boat, she says: ‘Go for it! Ask yourself, what is stopping you?’

‘You can start any business with a minimal start-up budget – investment from mum and dad usually – if you have a good idea, enough passion and are prepared to put the work in.

‘Plus, and this is the biggest part for our family and kidpreneurs, is to have fun. Work should be fun and that’s a great lesson to be passing on to the next generation.’

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Parents of children under 13 are sharing their concerns about Gen Alpha possibly becoming the next beauty influencers on social media.