Greening Your Teen

I think it is hard for my teenage daughter to have a Mom who is so aware of chemicals and toxins in products.

I do my best not to choke when she puts on the body sprays from the smelly stores at the mall. I try not to get insulted when she chooses a make-up that is not organic.  When she says no to my green smoothie while her friends beg for them when they come over, I try to let it go.

She has taught me to allow the process of being green to happen, not to force it.  In middle school she was influenced by my likes and dislikes and only used organic products. Her skin was just beautiful. As her friends started buying products at body stores she would tag along and want the same. Most of the time I moaned about the chemicals but undoubtedly she would end up with something “smelly and artificial” in her section of the bathroom. She noticed that these products that claimed to clean her skin and keep it blemish free actually gave her blemishes.

On her terms she came to me and asked me to get her my organic products once again. I stuffed my “I told you so” into my back pocket and pretended like I wasn’t thrilled to pieces!

To tell a teenage girl all of the chemicals within her beauty bag and what it might do to her growing body is somewhat useless. They are bombarded by products and friends with cool things; don’t even get me going on the self-tanning creams! Bit by bit our education and subtle prodding just might help natural beauty come from truly natural beauty products.

Maybe I am making some headway with her. Just yesterday she got a detention (bad) but got pulled out of detention to help with recycling (good). Life with a teen is highly unpredictable, because of that detention she has decided to join the recycling committee at school. I won’t tell her but she made her mother very happy! 

Please check out the following websites to learn more about what is in your teen’s products:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

http://safecosmetics.org/