Think back to when you were 10. Do loom bands, twilight and nickelodeon ring a bell?
They certainly do for me.Â
But now, if we focus on tween girls, all I can seem to notice is children who have outgrown their childhood before their childhood has outgrown them.Â
It begs the question: what changed in the last decade to drastically alter the magic of being a tween girl?
As the icon Britney Spears once sung, âIâm not a girl, not yet a womanâ. Whilst she may not have been specifically talking about those awkward years of 9-12, I believe her message about testing boundaries and developing into somebody new accurately sums up these pivotal years. Unfortunately, these years seem to be increasingly fast-forwarded by the youth of today.Â
We first must address the obvious: social media. From making music videos on video star (if you know, you know), to dancing on musical.ly, and now TikTok, girls have always utilised a platform to share fun video content. The difference is that girls today are downloading these apps prematurely, and are scrolling onto graphic content that a child ten years ago would have to actively seek out. Sources report there has been an approximate 50% increase in eating disorder referrals for children since 2016 (House of Commons, 2021). Itâs no wonder tweens are not interested in making slime, and are more interested in skincare when body image, self-harm and even pornographic content is shoved in their faces. This was the beauty of networks such as Disney Channel, where the entirety of the content shown was designed exactly for tweens: you couldnât stumble upon a girl showing you that she eats next to nothing in a day.Â
This is a psychological phenomenon known as emotional desensitisation, the process of reacting less intensely to stimuli due to repeated exposure. In young girls specifically, this is catalysed by fast-changing trends they feel obliged to follow, some of which are incredibly distressing.
Itâs important to discuss the other elephant in the room: the pandemic. The 12-year-olds of today wouldâve been in their formative years (around 5-8), where their days shouldâve consisted of chatting with friends, using their imagination and learning through play. Instead, they were spent inside, playing alone and learning on a screen.
As we grow, our imagination becomes much less vast. So how would children stuck in their four walls ever develop into tweens who pretend to be Hollywood stars like Miley Cyrus?
How can childhood exist if we donât give it a home?Â
As we all outgrew the parks and the shopping centres, they silently disappeared from our streets. Stores like Claireâs, once a rite of passage for a young girl, vanished from our high streets, along with the number of spaces for children to gather without the expectations of being an adult. So children resort to the online world, where they can be adults. In turn, they inherit the responsibilities and anxieties adults face, despite being in early emotional development.
From what I have observed, tween culture has died a slow, painful death, triggered by access to social media, an extreme amount of time spent isolated, and a lack of social spaces. Tweenhood goes far beyond the novelties of Disney Channel, clip-on earrings and flower crowns. It represents a unique stage of life where girls could be girls without the pressure, judgement or responsibility they may face later in life. The death of tween culture may not just be a nostalgic loss, but serves as evidence of a society placing adult pressure on children.Â