I think tweenhood has been erased from childhood developmental stages. Tweenhood is the gap between being a child and being a teenager. Typically the ages of 10 through 12 are considered the “tween years.”
These are the ages when puberty starts to develop, and with that comes the awkward phase of trying to decipher when you move from the children’s clothing section to the junior’s. It also means many different eras of self-expression through makeup, hairstyles, clothing and more.
I feel like every generation has gone through this stage of child development. Everyone has embarrassing photos of them as tweens. It’s almost like a rite of passage. But I fear that this tweenhood stage no longer exists. And I blame many things for that.
For starters, there are not a lot of places for tweens to hang out anymore. I know when I was a tween, many tweens hung out in roller rinks and skate parks. As well as staying after school for sports and other hobbies. But in today’s time, these places aren’t really safe anymore.
If I had a tween, I would not feel okay with letting my child be in these places without supervision. The world has become a very scary place recently and I understand why places like parks, neighborhoods, malls, libraries and parking lots no longer are filled with tweens or teens.
Another big factor is that adults no longer like children. Or anyone under 18 at that. If tweens and teens hang out in parking lots, malls or parks and they happen to be a little too loud and rowdy, they get the police called on them. Loitering is what they would be considered doing.
With the decay of safe places for tweens to physically hang out in, they have had to resort to hanging out online. Social media has influenced the younger generation drastically. They have easier and quicker access to the newest trends. With TikTok’s algorithm, the lines of which content is marketed towards what demographic have been blurred.
Tweens can see more clearly the trends that teenagers are doing, and therefore copy what teens do. This has led to the death of the tweenhood stage of life. Tweens are dressing and acting like teenagers because there is no longer the need to go through the awkward stage of tweenhood.
This social media influence has also led to a rise in tween consumerism. Although I do acknowledge that tween consumerism has always been a thing, I believe it has ramped up recently due to TikTok. Especially with TikTok Shop selling items for insanely low prices.
When I was a tween, it was cool to have Nike socks, EOS lip balms and Jansport backpacks. But despite the high demand for these items, they were quite affordable. In today’s day and age, the tween items of interest are more expensive.
Sol de Janeiro, Drunk Elephant, Rare Beauty and Uggs are some of the new popular tween items. These items tend to be pretty pricey. A Sol de Janeiro perfume spray costs about $40. And a one ounce anti-aging facial serum from Drunk Elephant costs about $90.
I think this is only adding to children “growing up” faster. Over the years there has been a serious shift in the ages in which certain developmental stages happen. As younger kids get into trying “trendier” clothing, music or products, the older they appear to be.
Although it weirds me out how the younger generation is deleting the tween phase, I understand why it happened in the first place.
They were forced out of hangout spaces and were sort of forced to spend most of their formative years online. It only makes sense that they learned how to be teenagers ahead of time from teenage influencers.