Mom defends taking 10-year-old daughter to Sephora

Mom takes tween girls into Sephora
stefanieandadie/TikTok

As the online debate over whether tweens and young teens should shop for high-end makeup and skin care products at Sephora rages on, one mom is defending her decision to take her 10-year-old on a Sephora shopping trip — and documenting it online.

Stefanie Eadie posted a video to TikTok that showed her daughter and a friend shopping at Sephora, where they bought makeup with money they earned doing chores and dog sitting.

“My daughter and her friends all love Sephora. They love makeup, and they always want to go. I happened to just take them that day, and I had no idea what the drama was with Sephora. It was just a coincidence that I posted that video,” Eadie told People. “I got a lot of pretty negative comments about 10 year olds in Sephora, so after doing the research on what it was, I looked back at the videos I took, and I actually had videos of the girls putting stuff back and being polite, and I was like, ‘You know what? Not all 10-year-old girls are like that.'”

She added, “My girls didn’t do anything wrong, so I just wanted to put it in a better light that not all girls at Sephora are tearing up displays and being rude.”

In the comments, the response was mixed. Eadie definitely got some backlash from people who judged her for allowing preteens to buy high-end makeup.

“When I was ten it was either claires or barbies.. what was sephora,” one commenter wrote.

But as Eadie pointed out, children’s makeup from stores like Claire’s is still expensive — and can contain harsh chemicals and dyes that can harm their skin. High-end makeup, on the other hand, is more likely to be made with safe ingredients, which she was able to check as the girls shopped.

“I just try to make sure that the makeup is something that’s not going to harm their skin,” she said. “I just look at the ingredients if I’m not familiar with it.”

She also noted that her daughter doesn’t wear makeup daily, but just likes to experiment with it as something fun to do.

“Times change, things are different. We all had our own interests when we were 10, but now we have the internet, and we have social media. I personally don’t let my kids have social media, but they do watch approved YouTube channels. And what’s trendy right now is get-ready-with-me’s and hauls, whether it’s clothing or makeup or whatever,” she explained. “That’s what people are into, and that’s something that they wanted to do.”