- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- preteenagers today articles
- preteenagers today q&a
- teenagers today articles
- teenagers today q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Making Up Your Mind About Makeup
Is She Old Enough to Wear It?
By Catrina Dickens
Paula Maldonado, of Evanston Ill., and mother of three girls, agrees. "I'm an old-fashioned mom," she says. "I don't let my 12-year-old wear makeup. She does use Chapstick. If she has a party or a dance, she can wear color lipstick. I want my 12-year-old to look like a 12-year-old. It's difficult for a kid to be a kid today." Her daughter, Mari, has accepted her mother's decision, although being the second girl certainly helps. Maldonado says her oldest daughter, Lani, "wanted to be all dolled up, she pushed the envelope, but Mari is pretty accepting of it."
But other parents see different sides to this issue. Several parents view wearing makeup as a girl's expression of her own personal sense of style, which really begins to change and take on a life of its own at this age. Other parents see wearing makeup as a way to increase their daughters' self-esteem. And yet other parents concede that the makeup issue is a bartering tool, allowing girls to wear makeup as long as they finish homework or stay out of trouble. And as Amanda Tarshis, 14, points out, a parent's rule on the makeup issue might not be enforceable. "Girls will just go to their friends' [homes] and ut it on," she says. "Girls wear makeup to look older, to seem more mature."