JO HO
Rainbow Loom Bracelets. One Direction. Claire’s 10 for $10 sales. The Fault in Our Stars. British YouTubers. The word “weird” which I used to describe everything.
These were some of the things that defined my tween years and, arguably, the best years of my life. Tweens are youth between the ages of 8-12 who are not old enough to be considered teenagers but not young enough to be children either. I remember turning 13 and thinking that I was officially a teenager. I could finally hang out at the mall with my friends and go to the neighborhood recreation center where they held “Teen Night” every Friday night. I even remember fighting with my mom over Maybelline’s Baby Lips lip balms when I was 13 because she thought I was not old enough to be wearing “big girl” makeup. While I wanted to do grown-up things at this age, the reality was that I was only a day older than yesterday when I was still considered a tween. As much as I wanted to act like the teenagers in the tv shows I watched, deep down I still saw myself as a child and acted like one.
Tween culture is becoming less defined, and kids are moving from children to adults without experiencing this “in-between” period. People have often referred to this period as the “ugly phase” because youth begin puberty around this age and start experimenting with their identities through clothing and hair choices. In the past, tv shows and movies were the only universal sign of what is trending and cool. Our main source of inspiration normally comes from the older kids around us like our siblings who show us what is popular among their peers. As younger kids, we try to copy them by stealing their clothes, using their slang, or imitating their body language. The act of mimicking the behaviors of older kids is still a common occurrence, but with the introduction of social media, it has become a lot easier for a pre-teen to absorb the behaviors of people who are in their twenties and thirties. The things we used to associate with teenagers such as acne and braces are hidden behind filters and make-up. It has also become much more difficult for youth to act their age as the pressure to keep up with appearances and social media increases. The younger generation is maturing much faster than any other generation before them and are spending the most carefree years of their life pretending to be an influencer or celebrity.
As its own cultural group, tweens have always had their own market with stores like Claire’s, ivivva, and Justice to cater to their every bedazzled need. Every Christmas I would ask for something from these stores and I would save up my allowance so I could buy a pair of cherry earrings or polka-dot leggings. The stores that bankrupt 10-year-old me have now either filed for bankruptcy or shut down altogether. And you might have noticed that brands previously marketed to teenagers are selling clothes that are smaller and smaller to expand to this demographic. It is almost impossible to walk into a Garage or Brandy Melville store and buy a full-length shirt. Companies have shifted their marketing to target individuals ages 10-24 and are now viewed as one demographic group because the interests and behaviors of adults and pre-teens have become identical.
When I was younger, I was always told to enjoy those years because they would be the best years of my life. While I still wanted to grow up faster and be treated like an adult, I knew that the only thing that brought me more joy than hanging out at the mall without my parents was re-reading Divergent. I am happy that I got to live out some of my formative years away from edited Instagram photos and Snapchat scores because those are the things that would consume my teenage years later.
VOLTA 