As a parent of a young tween, I’ve had the privilege of observing these budding creatures up close. It’s around this age that young women start to sort themselves into groups and categories. Sure, we could sort in terms of hobbies like theatre or soccer or band, but in my experience at least there’s an even broader divide that happens. And being a jock or a nerd or a cheerleader is outdated!
I have a theory that’s made it easy to figure out birthdays, friendships and how to relate: you’ve either got a Dragon Girl or a Sephora Girl. As a mother of a Dragon Girl who often co-mingles with Sephora Girls, I can tell you, it’s real.
Dragon Girls, you can guess by the name, like dragons. That means actual dragons, 3D dragons, things about dragons, dragon-adjacent mythical creatures or metaphorical dragons. And by metaphorical dragons, I mean cats. They love cats. Actual cats, cat videos, cat stickers, cat keychains, you name it. At some point between the ages of 10 and 12, they will ask you to foster cats. Do not give in. The Dragon Girl will throw research at you about how cats will help them regulate their emotions. And how they are so cute. And it’s just temporary. And she will take care of them. If you do not want cats, you must resist or you will have these furry dragons until your Dragon Girl is 30. Take it from me. I did not resist. Can I introduce you to Sticky and Reynie who will prevent me from ever buying a nice rug?
Dragon Girls will often be found hunched on chairs, curled in balls, and sitting on the toilet for too long reading their dragon books. Dragon Girls love to read. So. Much. A Dragon Girl’s parent winces every time they have to yell “Put down the book, we have to go to the movies!” You’ll catch a Dragon Girl in the wild reading books like “Wings of Fire” “His Majesty’s Dragon,” “Warriors,” “Skandar,” “The Time Dragon” and “Impossible Creatures” — one of those is made up. Your Dragon Girl will immediately identify it, roll her eyes and shake her head as mine is doing right now.
Dragon Girls get into hyper specific crafts that will — I repeat, will — take over your life and be abandoned in a month. A simple cat mask craft will quickly turn into buying yards of felt, fur, fleece, foam, eye mesh, and 3D printed teeth. It will eventually spiral into a small business plan that involves making hundreds of masks to sell but, as I mentioned before, will be abandoned in a month. And now you’re the house with a pile of unsold cat masks – and by you, I mean me. See you at the WinterFest craft fair.
And then there are the Sephora Girls. If you find yourself on a family trip to London visiting every Sephora between tourist attractions, you probably have a Sephora Girl. And by you, I mean my friend and my daughter’s BFF.
You can guess by the name, Sephora Girls like… Ulta. I kid! But yes, they like Ulta and Sephora and Korean beauty and whatever TikTok 12-step beauty regime trend everyone is talking about. They don’t technically have TikTok, yet they still somehow know everything.
Your Sephora Girl will demand products from brands like Sunnyside, Color Mango, Sparkle Juice and Roar Beauty. All of these are fake, and your Sephora Girl knows this and she is embarrassed that you don’t know that. My kid’s BFF is literally cringing in a corner.
Sephora Girls have more serums than you do and in fact, they are nicer serums than yours. Why? Because their aunties love that your girlie loves skin care and give her gift cards that require you to take her to the mall and watch her replenish her $50 Summer Fridays sheer skin tint while you smear on your 17-month-old expired retinal cream. But skin care is fun for her! It’s her hobby! A hobby that costs only slightly less than horseback riding lessons.
Sephora Girls get hyper obsessed with putting stuff on their face. I’m not just talking about the peptides and serums. I’m talking about the Marilyn Monroe beauty mark of 2026: fake freckles. A Sephora Girl will painstakingly apply freckles in various shades of autumn brown or burnt sienna. It’s like a constellation of fake sun exposure. Speaking of constellations, let’s not forget the hottest face accessory of them all: pimple patches.
YES they wear them in public;
YES at school;
YES they think they look good;
YES Hailey Bieber makes them;
HAILEY BIEBER IS YOUR GOD NOW. BOW DOWN TO HER.
By the way, if you have real freckles, prepare to cover them up.
You will smell a Sephora Girl before you see a Sephora Girl. If it’s not the Jolly Rancher-smelling glow cream, it’s the designer perfume that uses descriptors that have nothing to do with smells: “sparkly” “vibes” or “cherish.” Or it’s the new shampoo and conditioner she got to get that trendy “glass hair” lewk — NOT “jellyfish hair” GEEZ MOM. The smells that emanate from your Sephora Girl post shower can only be described as FlowersCandyChemical…Cherish?
Your Sephora Girl’s nails are always on point. In a literal and metaphorical way. Long pointy nails are in, but they are also out because short, natural nails are in. Her 13-year old nail tech knows all of this. And now you do too because your entire algorithm is nail tutorials after you let your Sephora Girl scroll on your phone while you were having a glass of wine with your bestie.
The one thing Dragon Girls and Sephora Girls share in common is that they love the early 2000s aesthetic. Basically, everything that made you cringe about yourself in the early 2000s is again beloved and held sacred by the Sephora Girls and Dragon Girls alike. For Sephora Girls, Britney Spears is going to be blasting while they window shop for Adidas sneakers. For Dragon Girls, you’ll be running to Hot Topic to grab an oversized T-shirt and a chain to go with your baggie black jeans and fingerless gloves.
So, whether you’ve got yourself a Dragon Girl or a Sephora Girl or a mix of both, they are gonna change the world for the better, be fierce entrepreneurs and no matter what, they all smell terrible at the end of the day as they approach puberty. But I’m here for the ride and so excited to see my darling Dragon Girl grow.
Kimmy Gatewood is an Emmy Award–winning TV and film director, writer, and actress, best known for her role as Stacey on Netflix’s GLOW. She began her career in improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, where she co-created and starred in the award-winning musical comedy trio The Apple Sisters. She most recently directed Descendants: Wicked Wonderland for Disney+. It debuted number one on the platform globally. As a director, her credits include Girls5Eva, Survival of the Thickest, Ghosts, Up Here, Welcome to Flatch, The Muppets Mayhem, Going Dutch, The Baby-Sitters Club, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Single Drunk Female, Sesame Street, and The Big Leap. Her feature debut, Good on Paper, starring Iliza Shlesinger, premiered in Netflix’s Top 10 in 2021. She resides in Los Angeles, California with her family.
