Mommy Greenest

I had the recent honor of speaking on a panel at the Teens Turning Green Summit this weekend. I was so incredibly, ridiculously, tear-jerkingly, awesomely inspired by the 200 women—many of them teens and tweens—who gathered in Marin, CA to talk about environmental awareness.

Now my kids are a little young to appreciate the value of a bunch of girls kissing a petition to legislate for lead-free lipstick. My son is 10 and lipstick, to him, is ludicrous; my daughter is seven and I’m trying to limit her to petro-free lip balm. The Barnacle (read: baby) just thinks it’s food.

But the whole experience made me think of my niece, an amazing Gen Y-er whom I watched come into the world and who is on the tail end of “tween,” the generation of eight-to-12-year-olds who are 20 million strong today and projected to hit 23 million by 2020, according to the U.S. Census. With 10-year-old Malia and eight-year-old Sasha Obama currently our Washington tweens-in-residence, all eyes are upon this potentially powerful group—especially beauty marketers.

Being naturally gorgeous herself (and no, it’s not just me who thinks so), C, as we’ll call my niece (because she’d kill me if I used her full name), has not yet begun to rely on the pancake-base-powder-blush-eyeliner-mascara-lip-gloss makeup routine that many teenagers turn to each morning, “putting on their faces” in a way that I haven’t seen since my grandmother refused to leave the house without her blue eye shadow.

But C has developed a serious penchant for perfume. Not just any perfume, but the heavy, yummy-sweet stuff that you can only get from synthetic fragrances. Now this totally makes sense, as these are the scents that are marketed to her in the stores where she shops (Forever 21, Claire’s, the Gap), the magazines and books that she reads (all currently related to “Twilight”), the websites she frequents (see previous), and the television and movies she watches (Disney, Nick, and the aforementioned vampires).

Remember Edward’s obsession with Bella’s scent? That’s the objective. Minus the blood.

The marketing experts who work with these companies to sell perfume to teens and tweens prey on two factors: first, that these girls are incredibly insecure about how they smell as their body chemistries shift and change, and second, the fact that, to them, makeup is typically verboten, while fragrance is an acceptable step towards womanhood that won’t raise eyebrows among their Gen X parents.

Perfume is just the tip of the iceberg. Once makeup is in the approved category, teen girls typically use more personal care products than women—an average of 17 as opposed to 12—because they’re experimenting with what they do and don’t like. And because they’re on limited budgets, typically these products are the least inexpensive in the category—think Bonnie Bell, Wet ‘n Wild, Maybelline. Unfortunately, these cheap products are manufactured from the cheapest chemical ingredients.

In fact, the Environmental Working Group found that most American girls typically have 13 different hormone-altering chemicals in their bodies at any given time. Overwhelmingly, tests of a small sample of girls detected paraben preservatives—typically “methylparaben” and “propylparaben”—in their blood and urine. Parabens have been linked to an increase in prostate and breast cancer, genital abnormalities in male babies, a decline in semen quality in men and early onset of puberty in girls.

They’re also in perfume.

The EWG’s study used a small sample group—only 20 girls. Obviously tests need to be done on a larger scale. But bigger studies have linked these chemicals to cancer and hormone disruption—both problems that have spiked in children in recent years. Childhood cancer rates are up 30% in the last 30 years, according to the Progressive Policy Institute. Girls today are menstruating as early as eight. And scientists like New York doctor Frank Lipman are starting to look at the links between health risks and chemicals in personal care products. Although each product might have a low level of potentially dangerous chemicals, the 17 mixed together can pack a potent toxic punch.

How is it possible that beauty companies manufacturing teen products create them with ingredients that have been linked to serious health problems–even cancer? Because–newsflash–the beauty industry is unregulated:

• Companies are not required to test products or ingredients for safety before they’re sold, manufacturers can use whatever chemicals they want in their products, and are not required to disclose their ingredients.
• The Toxic Substances Control Act was passed over 30 years ago and takes as its premise that chemicals are safe until they have been proven unsafe.
• A recent article (from which I “borrowed” the frightening picture above),reports that the industry-funded panel of scientists that make up the self-policing Cosmetic Ingredient Review has looked at only 11% of all ingredients in cosmetic products, and has ignored studies linking ingredients to cancer, birth defects and hormonal disruption.

It’s hard to prove an ingredient is unsafe when your review board is paid by the companies that use it.

Other countries are a little better at regulating. The EU outlawed dibutyl phthalate in nail polish because it causes birth defects; in response, one American manufacturer who shall remain nameless produced a version for American distribution in the same factory as a DBP-free version destined for the European market, rather than making one that’s safer for all. And last month, Canada banned lead in lipstick, something the Teens Turning Green group is advocating for in the U.S. with the clever “kiss a petition” campaign.

Now teenagers aren’t known for worrying about safety. They’re just trying to get through the day without too much anxiety about fitting in. And much of that fitting in involves identifying with their peers—through makeup and fragrance.

But as my niece’s perfume affinity increases, so have her frequent headaches. And although I’ve avoided getting all heavy on her with talk about cancer and early onset menstruation, I did gently suggest that she might consider cold-turkeying her perfume habit in an effort to ascertain if the synthetic perfumes might be contributing to a fragrance allergy manifesting itself in headaches.

She just as politely ignored me.

So my activism on behalf of C has taken another turn. I’m sending her a full set of Teens Going Green chemical-free beauty products for her birthday this year. I’m founding the Los Angeles chapter of the organization this spring. And the next time a petition makes it to New Orleans, I’m going to send her some lead-free lipstick to kiss it with.

Because there’s no reason why she should be hurt by an industry that cares more about her money than her welfare. And the only way to convince her otherwise is to show her that products which don’t contain chemicals work just as well.

Now if Teens Turning Green would  just come out with a perfume.