The Body Care Category Ripe for Gen Alpha

Chantel Powell recalls a summer day when her sports-loving oldest son was six. After basketball camp in the morning and football practice in the afternoon, he caused Powell to experience a sensory overload. “He got in my car that evening and literally knocked my socks off. He was smelly!” she said, laughing.

Powell remembered that her grandmother had put baking soda under her arms when she was a girl, so she mixed up a concoction of coconut oil, cornstarch, baking soda and citrus essential oil in her kitchen and applied it on her son. Soon other parents in Atlanta, where she lives, clamoured for it. Powell, who previously worked as a costumer and wardrobe shopper for film and TV at Tyler Perry Studios and MTV Films, found a lab, and with bootstrapped funds and $200,000 in small grants, she launched kids’ deodorant brand Play Pits in 2018.

The brand entered Target in 2022, where it’s now in 400 stores, and debuted at 1100 CVS doors this year.

“I definitely think I was ahead of the curve on this,” Powell said. When a cheery Dove Teen deodorant line showed up on shelves near her own colourful brand a few years ago, she was annoyed, but saw the competition coming. Since Play Pits launched, indie kid personal care brands like Fresh Monster and Tubby Todd have debuted their own deodorants; the Colgate-Palmolive-owned Hello sells a kid-coded “Unicorn” option that claims to quell smell for 72 hours.

The tween deodorant market is ripe for innovation, as a big chunk of the generation born since 2010 is experiencing puberty and the body odour that comes with it. Now that Gen Alpha has solidified both its influence and spending power in beauty, as well as its love of fragrance, more indie brands and mass players alike are focusing on this utilitarian category, as is currently happening with bathtime products. Evereden, one of the two Gen Alpha-focused brands at Sephora, just launched a prestige kids’ deodorant.

According to data from Mintel, US deodorant sales reached almost $6 billion in 2025, up 6 percent year-over-year. Forty percent of kids ages 12 to 17 are spending their own money on personal care, and over half of girls age 12 and boys over age 15 wear deodorant.

But just because kids need deodorant doesn’t mean their parents want to buy it at any price point. Premiumised deodorants have helped brands like Salt & Stone and Evolvetogether grow, though it remains to be seen if the category will help Gen Alpha brands in the same way. They’re up against the industry giants who can offer attractive pricing and have name recognition.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to enter the space right now,” said Carson Kitzmiller, senior analyst of beauty and personal care at Mintel. Still, she cautions that it’s a niche category with potential minefields around gaining trust with parents via both the price and the ingredient story. “We saw all the backlash of the ‘Sephora kids,’ but brands that do it right can actually win in the space.”

Selling to Parents and Kids

Unlike sheet masks for four-year-olds, deodorant is a category a lot of kids might need at a younger age than expected. Puberty starts between eight and 13, and body odour can be one of the earliest signs that it’s beginning, said Dr. Katie Lockwood, a paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It can catch parents off guard, because they’re not really thinking about puberty yet. There’s not really an age when it’s too young to use deodorant.”

Lockwood says the biggest risk of deodorants for kids is as rash-inducing skin irritants. She recommends avoiding too much fragrance and baking soda formulas for kids with sensitive skin. (Play Pits offers a baking soda-free option.) Aluminium, the main ingredient in anti-perspirants, has been demonised for decades, with fears it can cause Alzheimer’s or breast cancer. Being “aluminium-free” is a big part of the marketing for kids’ brands, which perpetuates some safety myths around the ingredient.

“There’s really no evidence that aluminium has any harm or danger when it’s used in deodorants,” said Lockwood. Those concerns have largely been debunked by medical organisations, but parents that don’t want to take a chance often turn to their most-trusted resource for product advice: other mums.

Tracey Schmitz, a breast cancer survivor and mother whose daughters are nine and 12, was focused on finding a “safe” deodorant formula for them. The Long Island, New York resident has multiple mom group chats, calling them her “village.”

“If someone’s going to do the legwork for me and save me time and make a recommendation that is safe and it works, I will take their recommendation,” she said. Someone suggested the Procter & Gamble-owned Native, and it’s now what her family and many families she knows use.

Native doesn’t market to kids or teens specifically, though collaborations with entities like Dunkin’ and the Girl Scouts would suggest it’s thinking about the demographic. Other brands wink and nod at the demo this way too. Dr. Squatch does frequent pop culture tie-in collaborations, most recently with the “Toy Story” franchise, while Unilever-owned Dove found viral success with a collaboration with Crumbl Cookies last year.

Dove launched its teen sub-brand in 2022, but discontinued it recently. Because the brand leans into the “care” its products provide and already focuses on ingredients that are “culled down and not harsh on skin,” it didn’t need the teen-differentiated product, said Kevin Tolson, head of Dove deodorants & Shea Moisture personal care, US. It’s striving to be universal, applying its offerings across all ages, modernising its fragrance profile and looking at more partnerships like Crumbl.

“We really look at different cohorts and fandoms. We want to be relevant to culture, and we know that teens have moved the needle on culture,” said Tolson. He notes that while adults still drive most sales, the brand “over-indexes” with teens. “But we are looking to serve everyone under the sun.”

Playtime, Made Premium

Shannon Dauenhauer, a mom of two daughters, eight and 11, buys Dove deodorant in bulk for herself. When her daughter needed a deodorant, Dauenhauer gave her a Dove because she trusts the brand. It’s also affordable.

Dove deodorants cost about $7 to $8, while Play Pits and Native are about $14. Evereden just launched a kids’ deodorant, available DTC and on Amazon, which will enter US Sephora stores July 17. It retails for $19 — a dollar more than Sol de Janeiro’s deodorant and a dollar less than Salt & Stone’s. Mintel’s Kitzmiller notes that affordability, effectiveness and then safety are the top three priorities for parents shopping for personal care for their kids.

“$19 for a deodorant, that’s a ton of money,” said Dauenhauer. Schmitz said she would consider a brand at that price if she felt comfortable with its ingredients.

The premiumisation of deodorants and the success of Salt & Stone has inspired Evereden’s new launch, as has parent demand, said Evereden founder Kimberley Ho. Fragrances became a bestseller for the brand when they launched last year, so this was a natural extension. “Sephora is extremely excited about this launch as well,” said Ho. (Sephora declined to comment.)

The marketing, while meant to appeal to kids, also will assuage parent concerns, with wording like “gentle” and “nasties-free.” The deodorants are available in two fragrances, Darling, a flowery sweet scent popular in Evereden’s fragrance portfolio, and Ace, a woodsy “clean aqua” scent. They’re housed in eye-catching silver and neon-coloured sticks. Ho calls them “elevated but age-appropriate.”

“Like many categories that have seen a lot of change and been disrupted because of Gen Alpha’s changing consumer behaviour, I think body care and deodorant is next,” said Ho.

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