AS A FATHER of a teenage daughter, a recent article highlighting a growing phenomenon known as cosmeticorexia caught my attention. The term refers to the increasing obsession among young girls with skincare routines, beauty products, and the pursuit of flawless skin.
Everyone in the article, dermatologists, psychologists, journalists, and parents from across society are recognising that something is deeply wrong when pre-teen girls are worrying about anti-ageing products, following complex skincare routines, and spending hours consuming beauty content online.
The question is: what does this trend reveal about the world our children are growing up in?
When Childhood Becomes a Marketplace
The article describes pre-teen influencers earning significant sums of money by creating beauty-related content. There is an obvious incentive at work.
The more attention a creator attracts, the more money can be earned through sponsorships, partnerships, affiliate links, and advertising revenue. Brands, platforms and influencers benefit.
But what about the children consuming the content?
Modern marketing is remarkably effective because it does not simply respond to demand. It creates demand.
A child who was previously content with her appearance can be persuaded that she has a problem she never knew existed. Normal skin becomes imperfect skin. Imperfections become flaws. Flaws become anxieties. Anxieties become sales.
This is not necessarily because individual influencers or companies are malicious. Many are simply operating within a system that rewards attention, engagement, and consumption.
Yet that raises a troubling question. If a business can increase profits by increasing insecurity, what incentive exists to stop?
The Commercialisation of Childhood
One of the defining characteristics of modern economics is its ability to transform almost every aspect of human life into commercial opportunity.
Our attention is monetised. Our personal data is monetised. Our fears are monetised. Increasingly, even our children’s insecurities are monetised.
The concern is not that people earn money. Islam has never condemned honest trade or legitimate profit. The Prophet ﷺ himself engaged in commerce, and Islamic civilisation has long recognised the importance of markets and entrepreneurship.
The concern is what happens when commercial success becomes detached from moral responsibility.
When profit becomes the dominant measure of success, children can begin to be viewed not as children, but as consumers. Our daughters become market segments. Not as young people developing their identities, but as future customers whose habits need to be shaped for years to come.
Many non-Muslims can see the problem. The challenge is that identifying a problem does not necessarily provide a solution.
The Missing Question
Most proposed solutions focus on limiting the damage. There are calls for greater regulation of influencers. There are demands for stricter advertising standards. There are discussions about digital wellbeing and media literacy.
Some of these measures may be beneficial. Yet they rarely address the deeper issue.
Why do new forms of exploitation emerge whenever new opportunities for profit appear? Why do commercial pressures continually push towards younger and more vulnerable audiences? Why are human insecurities so frequently treated as business opportunities?
These questions require us to think beyond individual products and individual companies. They require us to think about the values that underpin society itself.
Islam’s Alternative Vision
Islam offers a fundamentally different understanding of human life. In the modern world, people are viewed primarily as consumers, producers, workers, or economic units.
Islam begins elsewhere. Human beings are servants of Allah. Our purpose is not consumption. Our purpose is worship.
Allah says:
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me. (adh-Dhariyat 56)
Likewise, our value does not come from our appearance. It comes from our relationship with our Creator.
Allah also reminds us of the dignity He has already bestowed upon humanity:
وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ
And We have certainly honoured the children of Adam. (al-Isra 70)
Before any beauty brand tells a young girl what she should look like, Allah has already granted her dignity and honour.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah does not look at your appearance or your wealth, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds.” (Muslim)
This changes everything.
Commerce, wealth, and success are permitted. But none of them are supreme. All are subordinate to truth, justice, and accountability before Allah.
A Believer does not ask only, “Can I make money from this?” A Believer must also ask: Should I make money from this? Does this benefit people? Does this cause harm? Does this cultivate gratitude or dissatisfaction? Does this protect children or exploit them? Would Allah be pleased with this?
These questions introduce moral limits that modern economic systems struggle to provide.
Raising Daughters in an Age of Manufactured Insecurity
As Muslim parents, we cannot protect our daughters from every harmful message. We cannot control every algorithm. We cannot monitor every video.
But we can help them develop the tools to resist those messages.
We can teach them how advertising works and why companies spend billions trying to influence behaviour. We can encourage critical thinking about the content they consume. We can praise character, kindness, modesty, intelligence, and faith more than appearance. We can introduce them to female role models known for knowledge, service, courage, and piety rather than simply beauty or popularity.
As a father, I do not worry that my daughter will buy the wrong moisturiser. I worry about a culture that teaches young girls to view themselves as projects in constant need of improvement. I worry about a world that profits when children become dissatisfied with themselves.
Most importantly, we can teach them where their worth comes from.
A girl who believes her value comes from flawless skin will always be vulnerable to manipulation. There will always be another product. Another trend. Another influencer. Another insecurity waiting to be monetised.
But a girl who understands that her worth comes from being a servant of Allah possesses something the marketplace cannot sell and cannot take away.
She knows that her dignity was granted by her Creator, not by a beauty brand. She knows that she was created with purpose, not purchased through consumption. She knows that her value does not rise and fall with trends.
More Than a Skincare Story
The cosmeticorexia phenomenon is about far more than skincare. It is a window into the values of modern society.
It reveals a culture that is remarkably effective at identifying human vulnerabilities and transforming them into revenue streams. It reveals a world that increasingly struggles to place moral limits on commercial activity, even when children are involved.
Most importantly, it reminds us why Islam remains relevant.
Islam does not merely warn us about the consequences of placing wealth, consumption, and appearance at the centre of life. It offers an alternative vision rooted in worship, responsibility, and human dignity.
For Muslim parents, the goal is not simply to protect our daughters from a skincare trend. It is to raise young women who know who they are before the world tells them who they should be.
Trends will come and go. Products will be launched and forgotten. Algorithms will continue searching for new ways to capture attention.
But a daughter who knows her worth before Allah possesses something no advertiser can manufacture and no marketplace can take away.
