Jennifer Garner's 13-year-old daughter Violet knows that her mom is likely going to "make [her] take this lip off" before she leaves the house
At 13, Jennifer Garner‘s daughter Violet Anne is a newly minted teenager — and like many girls her age, she’s starting to experiment with makeup.
In an exclusive chat with PEOPLE for this week’s issue, Garner reveals that her oldest child with ex-husband Ben Affleck “likes to explore and play with makeup,” but she knows her limits.
“She’s really smart about, ‘Okay, now I’m leaving the house, now I need to check with my mom because chances are she’s gonna make me take this lip off,’ ” says the actress, 46. “Which, I do.”
“So that’s kind of where we are with it,” Garner adds. “It’s a process. Growing up is a process.”
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Garner — who also shares son Samuel Garner, 7, and daughter Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, 10, with Affleck — realizes the “tricky” nature of being her daughter’s age, noting, “It’s just hard to be an adolescent.”
And there’s a whole new layer when it comes to the actress and Neutrogena brand ambassador’s children, given their mom’s career.
“I think it’s probably extra complicated when you literally were nursed in the makeup chair as an infant, and have grown up sitting in your mom’s lap while she got her makeup done your whole life,” Garner tells PEOPLE. “My kids know two versions of me: They know the version that I see in the mirror right now that looks crazy, and it’s what they see 90 percent of the time.”
“Other times, they see a version of me that I never saw with my mom or anything, where I’m done up, my hair’s done, my makeup is done, so I wonder what that puts in her mind,” she shares. “Not to put words in her mouth, but I do wonder what it does to an adolescent brain.”
Garner hopes that her three children — who regularly sport Neutrogena Beach Defense SPF 70 while their mama opts for the brand’s Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch SPF 100+ — “see that I’m the happiest and most comfortable when I just look like myself,” she tells PEOPLE.
“I think whatever version of growing up they need to do around that, if they can come back to this in the end, we’re good to go,” she says of the example she strives to set.
For more from Jennifer Garner, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.