As someone born in the grand year of 2004, stores like Justice and Claire’s ran the scene of tween accessories and clothing like nobody’s business. The popular styles you’d see in the average middle school came straight from the racks of JCPenney and Justice, with girls repping neon graphics, multicolored leggings, and bows larger than the head wearing them. Barely there, glitter-packed makeup products from Claire’s haunted my days, a luxury that was just out of my (financial) reach. Where else could you find an assortment of stuffed animals, bedazzled headbands, and matte bubblegum nail polish? Claire’s was the place to be, but it is now at risk of closure across the United States.

According to popular interpretation, a “tween” is someone between the ages of 10-13, give or take a few years. Typically, a tween is right in the middle of that awkward phase of puberty in which you’re adapting to new social norms within school while also undergoing monumental physical changes. It’s a hard period to go through, normally filled with emotional rollercoasters and drama-fueled interactions. For me, my tween phase consisted of listening to Three Days Grace while crying off my heavily applied eyeliner in the bathroom while wearing the most “emo” outfit I could find (ripped skinny jeans and a graphic T-shirt that said “I’m purrrfect”). Clearly, this is not a universal experience, but I feel like everyone can agree that being a tween in 2016 came with a hefty amount of “cringey” moments and attire. If you weren’t desperately trying to be Gerard Way like I was, you might have been into equally damning media such as whatever anime was popular at the time (Attack on Titan, I’m looking at you). If you weren’t into media, perhaps you were into sports and rocking the Justice Activewear Collection. If you were an entrepreneur, maybe you were running a DIY slime business out of your locker in between classes. Either way, there was a common culture of tween activities and interests that seemed unique to the age group. Although some of these interests weren’t always popular or looked upon positively, at least they existed.

So…what happened? I no longer see girls begging their mothers to go into Claire’s to buy a pack of fake earrings, or boys roaming the aisles housing dinosaurs and action figures. Now, parents are being dragged into Sephora for the newest skin care product, because God forbid a 13-year-old doesn’t start anti-aging routines as soon as possible. I have seen children pleading for retinol, of all things, a popular anti-aging product. I can’t comprehend what age a tween is trying to revert back to other than that of a literal infant. A gentle cleanser (soap) and some SPF are all a child might need, and even the cleanser is pushing it. However, there has been such a rise in pushing an anti-aging, meticulously perfected, “clean” lifestyle onto young women. This has almost always been the case, but with tweens’ growing access to social media, this narrative is exacerbated in their minds.

Suddenly, Lululemon has replaced Justice Activewear. Stanley cups invade the classrooms of your average middle school, clean girl makeup inspo videos ring throughout the hall while students converse over the latest Love Island episode. Imagine my shock when my 13-year-old cousin showed me the lash clusters she had installed and the eyebrow wax she had performed on herself. While impressive, at 13, I was slathering my mother’s (way too orange) Maybelline powder foundation all over my face and using mascara to darken my eyebrows. Not to say that young girls shouldn’t experiment with makeup, as that’s a common experience around that age, but there’s a dangerous emphasis placed on the necessity of makeup that harms the youth’s impressionable minds.

This brings us back to the question: what in the world happened to tween culture? At the risk of sounding like an old geezer…it really is these darn phones. Social media algorithmically pushes content towards young girls that is specifically designed to target their insecurities and encourage the capitalist cycle of consumerism. Not enough people buying products leads companies to prey on vulnerable communities, encouraging and manipulating them into believing they need their products. We can’t place all the blame on companies, as influencers play a large part in shaping young girls’ self-perception. Girls no longer find their idols in famous movie stars, but instead in influencers pandering to whatever company is paying them to promote their product. With the inevitable progression of body image issues and invisible rules on what it means to be a woman, shame and embarrassment prevent a lot of children in the tween range from developing individuality. We live in a society that promotes uniformity and demeans the idea of being unique. My lasting advice to anyone reading this, not just tween girls, is to go against the status quo if you want to. If you feel a contrarian spirit in your bones, then by God, unleash it upon the world.

For fun, I’ve tracked down a video showcasing some of the Justice clothing from 2016. Shoutout to SevenSuperGirls!