There’s something about the holidays that brings out the worst in me. It feels like a never-ending race, where no matter how fast I run, someone else is always ahead. I’ve felt this pressure since high school, when we’d spend hours FaceTiming just to flaunt our Christmas gifts. No matter how much I had, someone else always had something better. And that feeling? It stuck with me.
Now, as I babysit 11-year-old girls, I see the same cycle—but darker. It’s no longer just about fashion; they’re raiding Sephora, convinced that the right face serum will make them lovable. These girls are caught in a culture that teaches them their worth is tied to what they own.
Influencers have become these “big sisters,” making beauty products feel like essentials, not luxuries. What’s terrifying is how effective this message is. But influencers are just a symptom—the real issue is the beauty industry’s long history of exploiting women’s insecurities, convincing us that we’re never enough.
This has always been the case, but now it’s everywhere. The beauty industry thrives on making us feel incomplete. Society has commodified the pressure to be “more”—more beautiful, more perfect, more successful. We’ve become so conditioned to measure our value by what we buy and how we look, that it’s hard to even question it anymore. Watching this unfold, I can’t help but wonder: Is this really what success looks like?
As I’ve gotten older, the obsession with keeping up has faded and been replaced by a desire to feel free and purposeful. Somewhere along the way, I realized that all of that felt empty. I can’t even bring myself to write a Christmas wish list anymore. What could I ask for that I don’t already have? Sure, there are things I want, but they no longer carry the weight they once did. I crave things that can only be lived, not bought.
While I know this sounds like an obvious way of living, so many of us are buried under the pressure to constantly prove our worth through consumerism.
The pursuit of validation through trends disconnects us from what truly matters: curiosity, exploration, and the joy of simply existing. We’re so caught up in what’s “in” that we forget to ask ourselves, What do we actually care about? Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of the simple joy in experiencing things for ourselves. It’s as if we’ve forgotten how to be curious—how to travel not to show off or prove something, but because we genuinely want to learn and discover.
We’re too busy chasing the next big thing to realize that true happiness comes from the moments we create, not the things we accumulate. We’ve lost sight of the power in living authentically and following our own curiosities. And while I’m not immune to this, the need for validation—whether through a product or a social media post—leaves us disconnected from what truly matters. We’ve forgotten how much deeper fulfillment runs. It’s the moments we experience, the people we connect with, and the memories we create that truly define us.
That’s what I want to remember—and what I hope to remind the girls I babysit.
By Olivia Nichols