Teens Are Following Skincare Trends On TikTok. Some Dermatologists Are Wary

This episode delves into the growing trend of preteens following elaborate skincare routines from TikTok, raising concerns among dermatologists about potential skin damage.

1. The "glass skin" trend involves an extensive regimen that can harm preteen skin.
2. Misuse of adult skincare products by children can lead to severe skin reactions.
3. Simple skincare routines are recommended for younger individuals.
4. Awareness of the products' ingredients and their effects is crucial.
5. Engaging content from experts can help guide proper skincare practices.

1: Introduction to Skincare Trends

Discussion about the rising popularity of "glass skin" and its implications. Regina Barber: "It's all in this pursuit of this dewy, poreless and almost glowing complexion, clear as glass."

2: Dangers of Misusing Products

Insights on how improper use of skincare products can damage young skin. Carol Chang: "Patients as young as eight or nine are coming in with rashes or bad reactions to these products."

3: Recommended Practices

Advice from dermatologists on maintaining healthy skin for preteens. Elizabeth Hooshman: "Keep it simple, like a gentle cleanser, some moisturizer and sunscreen."

1. Start Simple: Use gentle cleansers and moisturizers suitable for young skin.
2. Sun Protection: Always include sunscreen in your daily routine.
3. Consult Professionals: Seek advice from dermatologists for skin concerns.
4. Educate on Ingredients: Learn about the ingredients in skincare products.
5. Monitor Skin Health: Keep an eye on how your skin reacts to new products.

TikTok is fuel for many trends, including a skin care craze among teens, pre-teens — okay, and us. The "glass skin" trend calls for a multi-step routine, often involving pricey products. It's all in pursuit of dewy, seemingly poreless, glowing complexion – like glass. But some dermatologists say these attempts can backfire, irritating, burning and even peeling sensitive pre-teen skin. As teens and tweens have become major consumers of skin care products, dermatologists are seeing more of these cases and are cautioning against these elaborate routines.

People

Regina Barber, Scott Destro, Carol Chang, Elizabeth Hooshman

Companies

UCLA

Books

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Guest Name(s):

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Content Warnings:

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Capital One
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NPR
You're listening to short wave from NPR.

Regina Barber
Hey, short waivers. Regina Barber here. And this time, we have a news roundup. First timer Scott Destro. Welcome. Are you nervous?

Scott Destro
I don't know which way this is gonna go. We'll see. Hi.

NPR
You're in good hands. Hello.

Regina Barber
And we have host extraordinaire Emily Kwong.

Capital One
Hey.

NPR
Hey.

Regina Barber
And as both of you know, we're gonna share three science stories in the news that have caught our attention recently.

Scott Destro
Including the fact that there are gassy planets out there that smell like rotten eggs.

Regina Barber
Yep. And a pair of lion brothers making a record breaking swim in Uganda.

NPR
And there's some preteens pursuing the glass skincare trend, and it's making dermatologists really nervous.

Regina Barber
All on this episode of short wave science podcast from NPR.

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Regina Barber
We want to make you feel welcome. So what topic should we talk about first?

Scott Destro
I am into all of these.

I think I most want to hear about the rotten eggs, but we will save that for later, okay?

NPR
Okay.

Capital One
Okay.

Scott Destro
Let's start with the record breaking lion swim. Where was this clocked?

NPR
Okay, so this swim was recorded in Queen Elizabeth National park in Uganda. It's a place just rich with different ecosystems, diverse wildlife. And these conservationists are tracking on animals all the time. And that's how they know about two lion brothers named Jacob and Tibu.

Regina Barber
And using heat detection cameras on drones, researchers spotted these lions making a record breaking swim nearly a mile long across a predator infested channel.

Scott Destro
I'm invested because who are predators to lions like? Tell me more, right right.

Regina Barber
One of the co authors of the study, Alex Braskowski, told us that the channel splits the national park in two, and it's filled with Nile crocodiles and hippos. And in video footage, Alex could see the lions make a few attempts to cross and then turn back when something started following them in the water.

Alex Braskowski
It's just incredible, like the sort of bravery in the. In the face of adversity that these lions show, you know, taking on these croc and hippo waters to try and make the swim.

Regina Barber
So, yeah. For context, previous water crossings by african lions have been recorded at most a couple hundred feet. Plus, the brothers have done this swim at least six times.

NPR
They're real pros.

Scott Destro
Seems like it, yeah.

NPR
And Jacob the lion is particularly famous among researchers because of all he has survived. Alex calls him probably the most interesting.

Alex Braskowski
Lion in Africa because he's probably the most resilient individual out of the whole population.

NPR
Jacob has gotten caught in a snare. Then he had one of his legs amputated in a poacher's trap. Then some of his family members got poisoned by poachers, and then he got gored by a buffalo.

Scott Destro
Do lions have the nine lives guarantee that smaller cats have? They're cats. Yeah.

NPR
Jacob might. Jacob might. Yeah.

Scott Destro
Though, I mean, this is clearly risky. Why were the lions making this swim?

NPR
Yeah.

Regina Barber
So, most likely to find a mate. Researchers think that because of, like, human wildlife conflict, poaching in the park, changes in the habitat. There are, like, fewer females than males. So males like Jacob and taboo are having to make, like, tough choices to try to reproduce.

NPR
We talked to an ecologist named Craig Packer about this. He led the Serengeti lion project for 35 years, and he said the lions swim was impressive, but unsurprising, given all that human and mating pressures these lions face in the park and everyone we talk to just ultimately wants a better relationship between scientists and local communities to protect the lions and other wildlife so they don't have to resort to journeys like this.

Scott Destro
That makes sense. So let's stick on Earth.

Regina Barber
Yeah, for now.

Scott Destro
Before we go to the smelly planet.

NPR
He's really excited about the smelly planet.

Regina Barber
I really am. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. As an astronomer, I am touched.

Scott Destro
But let's talk about this glass skin craze. I mean, you can tell based on my glowing skin?

Regina Barber
I can.

Scott Destro
I know what it is.

Regina Barber
I was hit by it as soon as you walked in.

Scott Destro
But for those of us who aren't radiating the way I am, what is it?

NPR
So, glass skin. Is this skincare trend from South Korea that is being copied all over TikTok.

Regina Barber
Yeah, it's all in this pursuit of this dewy, poreless and almost glowing complexion, clear as glass, that's achieved by apparently layering on multiple products.

Scott Destro
How many products are we talking about?

NPR
It varies, but starts with cleansers, then an exfoliant to clear dead skin, and then a whole slew of stuff, toner, essence serums, a lot of which have active ingredients. And preteens are following all of these steps. Unfortunately, that can backfire and cause them to be more irritated, so causing redness, peeling, flaking, burning.

Regina Barber
This is Carol Chang, a pediatric dermatologist at UCLA, speaking to our colleague Maria Godoy, who reported the story for the NPR Science desk. And Carol says that patients as young as eight or nine are coming in with rashes or bad reactions to these products.

Scott Destro
And is that because of the products themselves or the fact that these kids are so young and using them?

NPR
It's the fact that certain products, like chemical exfoliants or retinols, contain active ingredients that are just too harsh for people in this age group. Preteen skin is much thinner.

It is more sensitive to those chemicals. These products are designed ultimately for older people. So what can happen to these preteens is that their skin barrier, their stratum corneum gets compromised. So their skin is more sensitive and prone to irritation.

Scott Destro
So clearly, teens and preteens are going to stay interested in this, especially given these trends on TikTok. What is an appropriate skincare routine for a preteen?

Regina Barber
Yeah. So Maria asked Dallas based dermatologist Elizabeth Hooshman, and her advice was to keep it simple, like a gentle cleanser, some moisturizer and sunscreen. And that's it. That's what I do. Yeah.

NPR
And if you are battling acne like I did as a teenager, and you're listening to this story with your parents in the car, fear not. Like, over the counter products are fine ones with, say, benzoyl peroxide. Elizabeth just stresses that you talk to a pediatrician or a dermatologist if you're not sure. And then, of course, there's just taking care of yourself on the inside, too. Eating a balanced diet, exercising, getting a good night's sleep, all of that goodness will show up on your skin.

Scott Destro
All right, I'm just going to reveal the curtain here and say that the next line was written as such without my approval. Let's end with the fart smelling planet.

Regina Barber
Let's do it.

Scott Destro
Quote, as a gassy guy myself, I'm.

NPR
Very invested and me, skin and gassy hosting.

Capital One
Yeah.

NPR
Scotty Rose's story.

Regina Barber
What a brave thing to admit to millions of Americans. Scott, let's talk about this exoplanet, which means a planet found outside of our solar system. And in this case, this exoplanet is 64 light years away, which is actually pretty close in astronomical terms. And this swirly blue exoplanet is a gas giant just like Jupiter. And it's pretty close to the same size as Jupiter, but it's way closer to its own star. And it's so close to its own star that this planet's year is roughly 48 hours.

Scott Destro
That's wild.

Regina Barber
Yeah, totally.

NPR
Yeah. It's so close to its star that the surface temperature on this planet is 17,000 degrees fahrenheit, which is way hotter than any planet in our solar system.

Scott Destro
So, to recap, it smells like farts. It has very fast years, and it's 17. This does not sound like a pleasant planet.

NPR
It's so hot, it could melt your face off immediately.

Scott Destro
You don't need the skincare.

NPR
All skin care is rendered useless in this world. These kinds of exoplanets have a name. They're called hot Jupiters.

Scott Destro
If your nose could work for a.

NPR
Second before it melts, it will smell quite stinky.

Regina Barber
So that's Guang Weifu, and he's the lead author of the study that just published in Nature. And he and his team studied this planet's atmosphere using light from the star it's orbiting, memorably named HD 189733. And so we're looking at the star's light as it's passing through the planet's atmosphere, and that can tell us what the atmosphere is made out of, because different particles block different wavelengths of light.

Scott Destro
Okay.

Regina Barber
And here they could tell that carbon dioxide, water, and our smelly friend, hydrogen sulfide, are blocking some light.

Scott Destro
Why does the sulfur matter so much?

NPR
Yeah, it's just that this is the first time that this kind of hydrogen sulfide molecule has been detected outside our solar system. Like, before that, scientists had only confirmed it inside our solar system.

Regina Barber
Yeah. And so learning more about what's in exoplanet atmospheres can tell us more about how planets formed. Is it unique, or is maybe formation similar across our galaxy?

Scott, thank you so much for gossiping about science with us today. It has been awesome.

Scott Destro
This was more fun than all of the other news I've been dealing with this week. Aw, thank you.

Regina Barber
You're welcome.

NPR
We'll be back in two weeks.

Regina Barber
Before we head out, a quick shout out to our short wave listeners. We appreciate you and we thank you for supporting our show. Short wave plus helps support our show. And if you're a regular listener, we'd love for you to join so you can enjoy the show without sponsor interruptions. Find out more at plus dot npr.org shortwave.

NPR
This episode was produced by Mallory Yu and Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Tim beat Ermias.

Regina Barber
Emily, Rachel and I checked the facts, and the audio engineer was Tiffany Varicastro. I'm Regina Barber.

NPR
And I'm Emily Kwong.

Regina Barber
Thank you for listening to Short Wave.

NPR
The science podcast from NPR.

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