When I was little – maybe 5 or 6 years old – I loved rifling through my grandmother’s vanity in her bedroom.

It was one of those old-fashioned triptych set-ups with three mirrors of which two angled inwards for a full 180 degree view, a low middle shelf and a small rectangular stool to sit on while performing your “toilet.” (That was a word that profoundly confused me as a child mixing it up, as I did, with the other, more familiar, toilet function.)

Sitting there in front of those three mirrors, I felt very grown-up and special. Nanny had the usual array of products for a lady of her age and station in that era. There was a little pot of cheek rouge and a round brush to apply it. Lavender hand lotion. Yardley as I recall.

An ornate metal brush and comb set with a handle and a mirror that matched. Presumably so she could see the back of her hair in the mirror while brushing it. Various accounts back then said hair needed daily brushing of up to 100 strokes to keep it shiny and healthy. That practice likely did wonders for your biceps, too.

Nanny also had one or two bright red lipsticks I loved to try. Nanny allowed it for dressing up. But I still remember her wistfully saying: “My dear, your lips don’t need anything extra. They are red and naturally beautiful just as they are.”

Not that that observation cut any ice with a six year old. Everything grown up was exotic and desirable. I’d sport those bright red lips for as long as she would allow. Or until the next snack of freshly baked molasses cookies and milk wiped my lips clean again.

Healthy children usually enjoy a naturally fresh face, bright eyes, and lovely complexion. It is usually only when the ravages of puberty hit in adolescence that skin care concerns emerge. Hormones promote zits and are hell on skin texture.

Fast forward, sixty years or so. I was disturbed when I recently read and watched videos that were most disconcerting. North West, the issue and oldest daughter of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, is ten years old. She regularly posts videos documenting her “skin care routine.”

She beats most adults in her attentiveness to the process and product quality. Unsurprisingly, she uses her Mom Kim’s skincare line. “Why,” I ask myself, “is a beautiful child worrying about her skincare routine, much less promoting it online?”

This is so disturbing on so many levels. Sure, I am a devotee of self-care and go through the whole cleanse, tone, moisturize routine regularly. But I am an adult. I need all the help I can get in that department.

But a ten year old?? Really???

Apparently this is a huge social phenomenon these days. Ten year olds shopping for skin care products at Sephora and using high end skin products if their parents can afford them.

I can make the obvious argument that if pre-teens paid as much attention to their education as they do to their looks, they might benefit more in the long run. It sure looks like that insidious message to women about the primacy of their value being their looks and attractiveness is at work.

That little North West is promoting this behavior is even more disturbing for obvious reasons. By an accident of birth, she is a potential role model for other little girls. Other ten year olds might take her direction seriously and follow her lead. Apparently this “pre-teen skin care craze” is catching on.

It’s bad enough that females have been primarily judged on their attractiveness since time immemorial. Now it seems there is a push to get young females into the skin care game well before they are ready or there is any identifiable need.

Profoundly sad. It is hard enough for children to hold on to their innocence and enjoy the relatively carefree days of childhood in this information technology saturated world. Diabolically clever marketing push on someone’s part.

In North West’s case, very likely her famous bottomed mom and bottom line oriented family. And profoundly sad for little girls who do not have the funds to follow suit. And for the parents who have to argue with them about why that particular behavior and attendant financial outlay is premature and misdirected.

I am all for children flirting with the adult roles they will play one day. Playing dress-up and wearing their mother’s high heels for a couple of hours “to see what it’s like” is good fun.

But not this. This trend is something else all together and not a healthy one at that.