Mom Defends Taking 10-Year-Old Daughter to Buy Makeup at Sephora, Asserts They Did Nothing Wrong

A Florida mom is defending her decision to let her 10-year-old daughter and a friend go shopping for makeup at Sephora.

After a Sephora employee recently went viral on TikTok for sharing a story about a 10-year-old girl being disrespectful and spending hundreds of dollars at the makeup store, Stefanie Eadie tells PEOPLE she wants to remind others that not all preteens act this way.

Earlier this month, Eadie’s daughter Blaire and her friend Carly asked Eadie if she could drive them to Sephora, where they bought makeup with money they had saved up from chores and dog sitting.

“My daughter and her friends all love Sephora. They love makeup, and they always want to go. I happened to just take them that day, and I had no idea what the drama was with Sephora. It was just a coincidence that I posted that video,” Eadie shares. “I got a lot of pretty negative comments about 10 year olds in Sephora, so after doing the research on what it was, I looked back at the videos I took, and I actually had videos of the girls putting stuff back and being polite, and I was like, ‘You know what? Not all 10-year-old girls are like that.’ “

“My girls didn’t do anything wrong, so I just wanted to put it in a better light that not all girls at Sephora are tearing up displays and being rude,” she adds.

@stefanieanneadie Replying to @4KidsCallMeDad ♬ original sound – Stefanie Eadie

After sharing a video on TikTok of their trip to Sephora, Eadie says she received backlash for allowing her preteens to buy more upscale makeup — which included multiple products from Charlotte Tilbury, which Eadie later showed in a haul video.

“There’s a lot of people assuming that they were purchasing things like retinol and harsh skin care products, but they actually weren’t interested in any skin care products,” she says. “I just try to make sure that the makeup is something that’s not going to harm their skin. I just look at the ingredients if I’m not familiar with it.”

Eadie adds that her daughter isn’t wearing makeup every day, it’s “just something they’re experimenting with and that they like to do.”

“Times change, things are different. We all had our own interests when we were 10, but now we have the internet, and we have social media. I personally don’t let my kids have social media, but they do watch approved YouTube channels. And what’s trendy right now is get-ready-with-me’s and hauls, whether it’s clothing or makeup or whatever,” she says. “That’s what people are into, and that’s something that they wanted to do.”

While Eadie says she agrees with many commenters that “kids shouldn’t be going into stores and tearing up products or being rude to employees,” she hopes people realize there are plenty of 10-year-olds who are showing respect.

“If they want to go again in a month or two, I will gladly take them again,” she says. “I know kids are watching my content, and that’s why, my husband does this, too, we’ve always kept our content very positive and wholesome. So as long as we keep things wholesome and positive, then we’ll keep sharing our life, whether we’re going to any store. I expect my kids to be respectful anywhere we go.”