Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – if you’ll pay 20 dollars for an anti-aging cream. Walk up and down the aisles of any store with a cosmetics section, and you’ll see big bold letters jump out at you from the shelf yelling “AGE REWIND” and “wrinkle reducing” or “youthful radiance.” But It doesn’t stop there, as people all over social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram are delivering tips on “10 ways to reduce wrinkles and aging” which are actually 10 ways to waste your youthful years with torturous tactics to prevent a smile line here and there. The cosmetics industry has never been concerned with making you the best version of yourself, it has always aimed to profit off of your insecurities. 

On average, the cosmetics industry makes about 571 billion dollars a year according to statista.com. Americans spend $313 a month on cosmetics alone. That’s around 3,756 dollars a year. From foundation to face tape, this industry finds a way to profit off of what you don’t like about yourself. Do you have dark circles? Use concealer. Or maybe you have an uneven skin tone? Try a color corrector. Use mascara to make your lashes appear fuller, fill in your brows but don’t make them too bushy. Apply blush to the apples of your cheeks for a natural redness even though your face already had its own natural redness before you covered it up. For some, makeup is used as a confidence booster, but sometimes, once you start you can’t stop. For junior Keilani Cruz, her lashes are what she spends the most time on. Applying and reapplying layers of the mascara, brushing them left and right, up and down to make them appear the way she wants them. Sometimes, she will even prioritize them on the bumpy bus ride to school. Cruz recalls times when she had shown up to school or events not wearing makeup, and her peers have fed into a teenagers common, yet silent insecurity, by pointing it out. 

“I get told I look tired or that they can see my eye bags,” Cruz said. “It does tear down my self confidence when I don’t wear mascara.”

Living in a tech-driven world, the access to thousands of people and their content is just a click away. Cruz knows first-hand how easy access to content like that has shaped the way she views herself and her beauty. 

“You see these influencers in glam and really put together and you want to feel that way too,” Cruz said. “You want to feel the same way they are portrayed.”

The influence that social media stars have doesn’t just stop at what makeup they wear. Some influencers take it as far to share their extensive tips to reduce wrinkles. One Tik-Tok influencer, Isabelle.lux, shares her extensive habits for having a more youthful face. In a featured video of hers she describes how she has avoided wrinkles by not smiling with certain muscles or allowing herself to use certain facial expressions. Isabelle is 31 and is fighting the inevitable. By not allowing yourself to smile, to laugh, frown or furrow your brows, you strip yourself from experiencing all that is beautiful about life. When looking in the mirror, a wrinkle is representative of every laugh you had with your best friend, every smile you share with a stranger, every feeling you’ve ever had. It is not some hideous monster that should be shunned away or filled with Botox to erase that memory. 

Social media has given us unique access to the world. With just a press of a button, you can share your content with millions of people. But this content is pushing a fearful narrative that needs to be stopped. Wear makeup because you want to and not because you feel like you need to. You are going to get old, and you are going to get wrinkles, and that is okay. That is just a part of life.