Mediacology

USA writes about an interesting new youth media phenomenon: age compression. The article states:

Jill Brown almost cried the day her 9-year-old daughter sold several American Girl dolls at a yard sale so she could buy a Juicy Couture sweat suit.

It was a painful reminder that the emotional and psychological distance between childhood and the teen years is far shorter than ever.

“It was such an indication of her moving to a different place,” says Brown, a marketing consultant in Northbrook, Ill. “It was also a little bit of an indication that she was starting to solve things for herself.”

Chalk it up to “age compression,” which many marketers call “kids getting older younger” or KGOY. Retail consultant Ken Nisch says it shouldn’t be a surprise or an outrage that kids are tired of toys and kid clothes by 8, considering that they are exposed to outside influences so much earlier. They are in preschool at 3 and on computers at 6.

One of the sad by-products of this trend has been the increasing sexualization of younger and younger kids, as evidenced by the controversy around Bratz dolls. There has also been much written about the “disappearance of childhood.” For me the jury is out. I think often times it’s the parents who act more like kids, and the problem is not that childhood is disappearing, it is that responsible adulthood no longer exists.

You can read more here:
As kids get savvy, marketers move down the age scale - USATODAY.com:

Generation Y, those between about 8 and 26, are considered the most important generation for retailers and marketers because of their spending power and the influence they have over what their parents buy. But just as the 8- to 12-year-old “tweens” are pitched with a dizzying array of music, movie and cellphone choices, the nearly 10 million tween girls also are getting more attention from fashion, skin care and makeup businesses. Last year, NPD Group says 7- to 14-year-old girls spent $11.5 billion on apparel, up from $10.5 billion in 2004.

With their keen but shifting senses of style, tween girls present some of the biggest rewards and challenges for retailers and brands. What’s called for: a delicate marketing dance that tunes in tween girls without turning off their parents, who control both the purse strings and the car. Retailers to tween girls also must stay in close touch with the fashion pulse, because being “out” is even more painful for girls who haven’t hit the teen years, say retailers and their consultants. They’ll drop a brand faster than you can say Hannah Montana if the clothes become anything close to dorky.