KGOY

Photo (C) Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

Good Morning America did a piece this morning on little girls who regulars at their local spas. Services usually reserved for grown women now begin as young as age three.

It’s a trend called “KGOY” -- Kids Getting Older Younger -- and it’s everywhere.

Move over Millennials. Meet Generation Z, history's first 21st Century generation and although they may resemble the kids of our past, they are very different.

The oldest Generation Zers were in 1994, making them the ripe old age of 14. The youngest are yet to be born. They come from smaller families with over-indulgent parents who want their kids to experience it all. Statistics show Gen Z to be the most empowered generation of children our world has ever known.

They are also the most technological. Gen Zers were digital in diapers, introduced to computers at age three and surfing the web by age six. Today, five year olds have their own cell phones – with texting, e-mail and voice mail. Technology is as familiar to them as an Erector Set is to a Baby Boomer.

Kids are getting older more quickly than ever before. The same old, same old kids classes and projects aren’t always enough for them anymore. Marketers call it “Age Compression”.

You’ve seen Gen Z at Build-a-Bear designing bears to go with their outfits. You’ve seen them at Club Libby Lu getting “Hanna Montana Makeovers”, and you’ve seen them at Disney’s Bippity Boppity Boutiques where a Fairy Godmother and her Fairy Godmothers-in-training “magically” turn them in Disney princesses. Hannah Montana or Cinderella, what often emerges are little girls with big hair wearing more make-up than the performers at the Rivera’s La Cage in Las Vegas. (Look Honey! Jenny looks just like Joan Rivers!)

KGOY is a big deal, and a big money maker, for retailers. Remember how much fun it was to take your daughter to the cosmetic counter at Macy's so she could try blusher for the first time? Now, that’s no longer good enough: today’s Z’s are hitting the spas with mommy for brow shaping, pedicures and manicures, and wait for it … bikini waxing.

A recent New York Times article said “cosmetic companies and retailers increasingly aim their sophisticated products and service packages squarely at 6- to 9-year-olds, who are being transformed into savvy beauty consumers before they’re out of elementary school.”

Before you can attract them to your store or your product you need to know who they are. That’s why at CHA Summer we’re doing a LIVE and lively panel discussion completely comprised of the kids from Generation Z. We’ll get the inside scoop on what our panelists love about stores and what they hate; what kinds of crafts they enjoy; what you can do to make your store and your product Gen Z friendly; and whatever else is on their little minds.

And BTW … if you don’t know what BTW means, and if you don’t know who Kevin, Nick, and Joe are, then you definitely need to attend “Meet Generation Z”.

Join us at CHA Summer for "Live from CHA: Meet Generation Z! What Kids Have to Say about Crafts" on Friday, July 18th from 2:00 PM -- 3:00 PM; and "Generation Z: It's party time! Draw Families and Kids to Your Stores with Targeted Events" on Saturday, July 19th from 12:00 PM -- 1:00 PM.

Click here to read Good Morning America’s piece “Bikini Waxing for Tweens! Have Spas Gone Too Far?”

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/BeautySecrets/story?id=4881675&page=1