Drew Barrymore Calls Aging ‘A Privilege’ in Dove Campaign

In a new social video, Drew Barrymore bedazzles her face with glitter, jewels and stickers. But this isn’t a cosplay tutorial or a breezy promo for her daytime chat show.

It’s the launch of #TheFaceof10 campaign from Dove as the brand continues to address the ills of social media head-on, specifically the TikTok trend that has tweens snapping up anti-aging products for their elaborate skincare routines.

Barrymore, a child star who “grew up in a makeup chair,” says in her post that she’s aware how “obsessed” young girls are with their skin care regimens, but “when it comes to anything anti-aging, I don’t even know if that’s the exact messaging for adults—because you will never anti-age.

“If you’re lucky, you’ll actually get to age,” Barrymore says. “But young girls, they don’t need anything anti-aging.”

Path to anxiety

The campaign, the latest in Dove’s ongoing assault on the beauty industrial complex, sounds the alarm on the TikTok trend that has “children and tweens rushing to buy and use anti-aging skincare products at unprecedented rates.”

In its own social posts and press announcements, the brand calls the current craze “a gateway to increased anxiety around appearance with nearly 1 in 4 young girls (10-17 years old) feeling judged about how their skin looks.”

The brand has recruited Barrymore as a public spokeswoman of #TheFaceof10, also working with dermatologists, educators, creators and body image experts to create a free companion guide called The Gen A Anti-Aging Talk. The resource, in a turnabout-is-fair-play move, is available on TikTok, as well as other platforms.

Continuing to call out unrealistic standards and harmful imagery that surrounds young girls on social media, Dove’s latest work uses these and other taglines: “When did Retinol replace face paint?” and “Is it even possible to look 10 years younger at 10?”

Girls these days are “anti-aging before they’ve even started to grow up,” according to Firdaous El Honsali, global vice president at the brand.

“When did 10-year-olds start worrying about wrinkles and getting older?” El Honsali said in a statement. “It is time to speak up to highlight the absurdity and protect their self-esteem.”

Medical professionals and others involved in the effort blame the “toxic culture” of the digital environment, pointing out the potential consequences.

“If young girls feel pressure to use skincare products containing highly active anti-aging ingredients, it could be damaging to their body confidence and self-esteem in the long term, not to mention their skin health,” Phillippa Diedrichs, professor of psychology and a leading body image expert, said in a statement.

Cool mom cred

Barrymore, who has two pre-teen daughters of her own, says in her video that she always enjoyed expressing herself through embellishments like makeup, glitter and stickers when she was growing up in front of the camera.

“But by no means did I ever wear anti-aging skincare,” she says.

The actor-entrepreneur-media mogul, whose cool mom cred may carry considerable weight with the target demo, led with her trademark positivity in saying that “we have to figure out messaging that empowers women and also lets young girls know that they have so much road ahead of them.”

And speaking directly to Gen A, Barrymore said: “You’re already beautiful—let’s be playful, let’s never fear getting older because that is a privilege.”

The new work comes on the heels of a Super Bowl commercial featuring video clips of young female athletes taking spills to the tune of “It’s a Hard-Knock Life.” Adweek chose the lighthearted but poignant spot as one of the 13 best ads of the Big Game for its subtle metaphor for how body confidence can affect girls’ participation in sports.