Every parent braces for certain awkward but necessary conversations. The “birds and the bees” talk has long been the gold standard — a dreaded rite of passage. You put it off, swallow hard, and finally sit down to answer your kid’s questions without squirming too much. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also sacred. That talk belongs to parents — not to culture, not to corporations, and certainly not to a marketing executive at Ulta Beauty.

But thanks to Ulta, I had a different conversation recently — one I never saw coming, and definitely not before we’d covered the birds and the bees.

It’s time to remind corporations: You may sell products, but you don’t get to sell souls — especially not our children’s.

I was watching news coverage of Ulta’s latest ad campaign when my preteen daughter

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