We often ask, “When is it okay to let kids wear makeup?” But maybe the better question is: “When is it okay to make beauty decisions for someone who doesn’t yet know what beauty is?”
In many cultures, piercing a baby’s ears is a rite of passage—sometimes done within days of birth, even before leaving the hospital. It’s often seen as harmless, beautiful, even expected. The ethical knot: the baby has no awareness, no choice, no say.
We debate the appropriate age for makeup because we understand makeup as both a tool of expression and a mirror of identity. But a baby? A baby doesn’t know it’s being seen, styled, or signified.
And yet, exposure still has an effect. Early beauty decisions made on us can become part of the unspoken messages within us. What counts as “normal”? What’s expected of me? What do I need to look like to belong?
It’s not about villainizing the act. It’s about asking the harder question: when does beauty stop being a celebration and start becoming a script? And who gets to write the first line?