- Text Lauren Niles
- Design Tyler Yee
Culture has a lot to say about the girls of Gen Alpha. The consensus is that they spend big at Sephora, have traded play for smartphones and are changing the face of retail one #GRWM at a time. Their buying power is growing, and the potential effects of social media on mental health are an alarming, yet inconclusive, issue. But we’re getting the “why” of how young girls make purchasing decisions wrong. It’s not excessive screen time or unrealistic beauty standards. It’s the landscape of brand discovery that’s driving a never-before-seen evolution of tween marketing, not an evolution of girlhood itself.
What it means to grow up remains largely unchanged. It’s still rooted in experimentation, self-expression and connection. But coming of age in the era of social media has made adults and marketers alike uncomfortable because there’s a notion that girls are growing up faster than ever before. Tweendom has never been more nuanced (or visible), so understanding the intricacies of how and why girls interact with brands will help unlock the loyalty of the next generation.
A New Way to Play
From the aisles of Sephora to the deep library of day in the life, hauls and unboxing YouTube content, at first glance it looks as if consumerism has taken over childhood. Young girls look to high school influencers like Noelle Kate and Sophie Yates to inspire them with morning routines, makeup tutorials, things to wear and products to try. The sentiment? Generally negative. Social conversation shows concern about kids using adult skincare products, frustration with kids in makeup stores and an assertion that kids these days are simply rude. Adults have gone viral with stories of encounters with tweens spending lavishly and by creating spooftoks of #SephoraKids, in which adults dramatically reenact in-store tween behavior or kid-created #GRWM content featuring a deep bench of Sephora products. These videos typically characterize tweens as unsupervised, greedy and inappropriately mature.
@vlogswnoelle grwm for school again! 🤗 these are my fav yap sesh vids to film 🔥🔥 #fyp #foryou #makeup #grwm #vlog #aesthetic ♬ original sound - noelle kate
Skincare products see a boom in demand.
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 9, 2024
Ask many tweens what’s at the top of their wish list and there’s a good chance the answer will be skincare.@crampell reports on the growth and some of the concerns around this boom. pic.twitter.com/MzdH0Gcr9S
But, what if trying (and filming) new routines is akin to playing house? Or a new skincare smoothie is just a slightly more grown up version of dress up? What if this unabashed take on finding fun at stores, nail salons and online isn’t about materialism, next gen narcissism or a premature fear of aging at all? What if it’s simply a new way for growing girls to engage with their evolving sense of play in their expanding world?
Brands like Glow Recipe know that experimentation engages their youngest consumers. They’re leaning into minis, which are rebranded travel-sized products at budget-friendly price points, designed with tween-friendly packaging. “Fruit Babies,” “Back to School Glow Essentials” and a “Get Glowing with Me” kit in partnership with Gen A-favorite influencer, Katie Fang, are just a few examples of how the brand’s driving loyalty by tapping into variety and experimentation. The colorful, whimsical packaging design is meant to resonate with their youngest set of buyers without labeling it specifically as a product for kids. Young users can even take a Skin Care Quiz or create their own Travel and Trial Kit.
But what stands out is the subtlety of how Glow Recipe markets to Gen Alpha. Unlike other brands, they don't feature young faces in branding or market their products as made-for-tweens. Instead they earn social conversation through product innovation and gifting to Gen A-favorite influencers timed to key selling periods — like this Back to School package gifted to Noelle Kate and the ultimate product for unboxing content, a holiday advent calendar. This kind of covert marketing is exactly what resonates with young girls. Instead of talking down to them, it’s making room for their interests and showing up in their spaces.
Connecting URL and IRL
The online world is fueling brand discovery and even premium brands like Coach are getting in on the race for Gen A by building a presence in virtual worlds like Fashion Famous. But building brand loyalty takes time, and that deeper connection is happening in the physical world. It turns out kids do look beyond their scroll.
In fact, Gen Alpha and the youngest set of Gen Z are credited with “reviving in-store shopping.” Take a short walk through Soho on a weekend and you’ll see block-long lines of tweens looking to get into Brandy Melville and Edikted. Meanwhile, brands like Justice and Limited Too have joined forces with massive retailers like Walmart and Kohl’s to save their brick and mortar footprint. The brands that are succeeding with driving loyalty in an evolving landscape of discovery are those that build brand worlds bridging URL and IRL.
One example of a brand that does this well is Sol de Janeiro. They took their viral product, the TikTok-famous Bum Bum Cream, and spun its entire product line into a Gen Alpha empire by leveraging the power of in-person experiences. Starting with a strong retail presence at Sephora, the brand uses interactive spaces to drive conversation at scale online. Earlier this year, they popped up in NYC’s Meatpacking District during public school’s winter break. Cue: Gen Alpha. The lines were around the block, with kids hoping to score free samples, hand massages and hot chocolate. This popup strategy has delivered millions of social media views and almost 4,000 pieces of media coverage this year alone.
What This Means for Brands
Tween girls have more options than ever before — an endless variety of products to try, content to engage with and places to go — both online and off. It’s not easy for brands to break through. It takes nuanced communications, brand stories that encourage a bold step into self-discovery, that don’t demand attention but work for it instead. It takes a commitment to product innovation, the kind that lowers the barrier to entry and sparks their sense of play. And finally, it takes fully immersive marketing, the kind that invites the girls of Gen Alpha into a brand world where it’s safe to take up space as they search for where they belong and define who they are becoming.
