Beauty Kidfluencers and Locking In
“girls gone mild”
Welcome back to After School Monday Edition, a not-so-brief trends debrief for paid subscribers. 🫶
In today’s letter:
The fifteen-year-old YouTuber who launched a Sephora beauty line for her 7-year-old fanbase
The “Great Lock In” goes viral
Hailey Bieber’s Gap jeans have taken over TikTok
Can Nike’s new slogan really win over young people?
Depop read that Substack taste essay you can’t escape
Track pants to outpace leggings this fall
The “LOL” debate divides Gen Z, millennials
“Girls Gone Mild” bachelorette trend
Gen Z puts ice in beer
And so much more, plus everything I’m buying, reading, and listening to. But first, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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This week, the biggest news on my FYP was Rhode’s long-awaited debut at Sephora. Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand generated $212 million in net sales in 12 months without any retail partners or any in-person presence beyond the occasional pop-up; now consumers can test out products and buy $20 lip glosses without paying $7 in shipping at more than 500 Sephora locations across North America.
The launch drew lines of young fans outside the Times Square store, where students from as far as New Zealand showed up to buy Rhode’s cult favorites and pose in a branded photo booth.
But Rhode wasn’t the only big Sephora launch this week. The beauty retailer just made its first direct play for Gen Alpha wallets with Sincerely Yours, a skincare brand co-founded by 15-year-old influencer Salish Matter and her YouTube-famous father, Jordan Matter. The brand was purportedly built with input from over 30 teen advisors and 60,000 young community members, who helped shape everything from formulas to packaging.
The product line — Kindly Clean Hydrating Cleanser ($22), Hit Fresh Soothing Serum Mist ($24), So Soft Lightweight Moisturizer ($26), and Sunny Side Up Mineral Sunscreen ($28) — is dermatologist-developed, designed to be both safe for young skin and aesthetically appealing: “not babyish,” as Salish put it.
Before this week, I’d never heard of Salish, even though she has 3 million YouTube subscribers and her dad, who mostly posts about his daughter, has another 32 million. That’s because I am not her target audience. Who is her target audience? Based on my research, 7-year-olds.
Salish and her dad have taken the MrBeast playbook (eye-catching thumbnails, over-the-top challenges, click-driven storytelling) and tailored it to a Gen Alpha girl audience. Instead of million-dollar stunts and bro humor, their videos center on wholesome dares, tween friendship drama, and “shipping” sagas (“ARE THEY DATING?”).
