This 90s kid wanted an anti-aging routine: And it’s not all social media’s fault

Originally published on Medium

I’m a 90s kid. I didn’t grow up with social media but I worried about my appearance from a young age.

This worry was not social media’s fault (since it didn’t exist yet) and it wasn’t completely the media’s fault. I didn’t read beauty magazines or care about celebrities that much. They were rich people I didn’t know.

I worried because women around me taught me to worry about my appearance.

My mom gave me products to use on my already blemish-free child skin: facial scrubs and Sea Breeze applied with cotton rounds. She had spa days with me and my sisters. We cracked open eggs and brushed the egg white on our faces, then leaned over a bowl of hot water for a DIY steam treatment.

And, well, that wasn’t all negative. It was also fun and family time and self-care.

But you know what wasn’t fun?

Staring at my face in the bathroom mirror, worrying that a forehead wrinkle was too deep for a middle-schooler. I always heard women half-joke and fully complain about their own wrinkles. Wasn’t I too young for wrinkles?

And you know what else wasn’t fun?

Worrying about the vellum hairs that grew on my face and body. Older women talked frequently about their unwanted hairs and I added that to my growing worry list. In middle school, I started bleaching my face and arm hairs and then worried that the blonde on brown skin was even more noticeable.

There was so much to being a woman to worry about. I created mental wish lists for expensive improvements I couldn’t afford: laser hair removal, facial serums, injections.

There was no Instagram filters or YouTube stars. Social media didn’t make me worry like this.

I learned to do this from the women around me.