Young Girls and Makeup: 5-Year-Old Becomes Online Makeup Star
June 22, 2011 -- Madison Hohrine of Hurst, Texas, is an expert at applying lipstick, applying blush to the contours of her cheeks and applying mascara to her eyes.
She is such an expert, in fact, that millions of people are logging online every day to watch and learn from one of Madison's makeup tutorials.
What they see when one of Madison's videos pops up may surprise them.
Madison is just 5-years-old.
Despite her youth, Madison is a makeup applying, Internet sensation.
Her tutorials on the video-sharing site YouTube, in which she covers everything from her favorite lipsticks, to what beauty products to buy, to how to bring out the colors in your eye with shadow, have generated over 1.2 million clicks.
Hervideo tutorial on the intricacies of makeup brushes alone was viewed more than 700,000 times.
Madison became fascinated by makeup as so many little girls do, by watching her mom.
"I started watching the YouTube videos and she would watch them with me," Madison's mother, Mary Hohrine, told "Good Morning America." "And one day she just asked me if she could record herself just to see what she would look like doing the video."
A few brushes of blush and rehearsals in front of the camera later, and Madison was hooked.
"Some people don't know how to put makeup on," Madison explained to "GMA," of her fascination with cosmetics. "You can put it on your eyes, your cheeks, your mouth -- it's so much fun."
What may surprise viewers of Madison's videos even more than her age, is the fact that the 5-year-old is not the only young makeup guru turned Internet star.
Popping up more and more frequently next to Madison's videos on YouTube are those of other young girls, ages 3 to 11, who, like Madison, are just as well-versed in mascara as they are the fairytales and alphabet letters more familiar to childhood.
That young girls are both using grown-up cosmetics and airing their makeup tips online has some parenting experts raising their eyebrows.
It's weird for a little girl to know about contouring and makeup and angles," Dr. Logan Levkoff, author of the book "Third Base Ain't What it Used to Be," said to "GMA."
"We have a society where we sexualize little girls, almost from birth on," she said.
In an age where celebrities, makeover shows and beauty pageants are all the rage, the trend is putting back in focus the question of whether little girls and makeup is too cute, or too much too soon.
Experts such as Levkofk believe the young girls offering makeup tips online, and the public's fascination with them, are the result of today's pressure-filled, beauty-obsessed society.
"The fact is all these 'Toddlers & Tiaras' shows, the products, whether it's push-up bras for tween girls or shapeups for girls to firm their butts, all of this sends the message that our girls aren't good enough," said the New York City-based psychologist.
"It's the message that our girls aren't valued."
But that is a message Mary Hohrine feels confident her daughter is not receiving.
"She is a normal 5-year-old," said Mary. "It's the same thing as if she's playing dress-up."
Mary says that does not mean she is not aware of the dangers of letting her daughter grow up too fast and so enforces strict rules when it comes to allowing Madison free reign with the blush, eyeshadow and lipstick she flaunts online.
Though makeup made her famous, Madison is not allowed to use products or wear any makeup on a daily basis.
"When she asks to be putting makeup on every day, then I'll be getting worried," said Mary.
