January, 2025
After the body positive movement, we are now seeing a return to the 2000s fashion trend that saw increasingly thin bodies on the runway and in the media. Many celebrities today think nothing of praising their recent weight loss thanks to dangerous diets or medications. As for social media, TikTok recently started offering its users a new filter that shows them what they would look like if they were 100 pounds lighter with just a few clicks.
As a parent, this can be a cause for concern, especially as summer approaches and some teens may be worried about showing more of their bodies.
After the early 2000s, when being extremely thin was glorified by celebrities like Kate Moss or Paris Hilton, more generous body types were put in the spotlight with the rise of Kim Kardashian and fitness influencers. Unfortunately, the goal remained the same: to control your body so that it is thin and firm. The idealization of thinness thus gave way to a new concept of a highly gendered, unrealistically proportioned body. Plastic surgery exploded during this period, as people struggled to live up to heavily edited photos from influencers who proudly showed off tiny waists, athletic silhouettes, and thigh gaps (in the case of women).
However, the advent of the body positive movement has helped develop a more sincere and friendly view of the body. Although very inclusive, this movement has been the subject of many debates. For example, it clashed with certain prejudices about obesity, such as the idea that overweight people should not be in the spotlight because it glorifies a bad lifestyle. Yet it has been shown that some overweight people are still healthy and can engage in intensive exercise. Despite these conflicting voices, the success of this movement among young people has raised awareness about body diversity and promoted self-acceptance.
But was this the end of the glorification of thinness? Unfortunately, platforms that are heavily visited by teenagers, such as TikTok, have continued to glorify extremely thin bodies by sharing massively edited images with sophisticated filters.
In addition, the phenomenon of “That girl” on social media promotes a “healthy” lifestyle with a strictly controlled diet and daily athletic discipline. This phenomenon has confused teenagers about the concept of “well-being”. In fact, “That girl” is the girl everyone envies because she is thin, athletic, rich, happy and in control of herself. Thinness has therefore evolved from a purely aesthetic goal to a model of success that creates an unhealthy hierarchy of people based on their ability to control themselves. This confusion reached its peak during the pandemic when many young people wanted to control their bodies, leading to an increase in body image issues and eating disorders.
But was this the end of the glorification of thinness? Unfortunately, platforms that are heavily visited by teenagers, such as TikTok, have continued to glorify extremely thin bodies by sharing massively edited images with sophisticated filters.
In addition, the phenomenon of “That girl” on social media promotes a “healthy” lifestyle with a strictly controlled diet and daily athletic discipline. This phenomenon has confused teenagers about the concept of “well-being”. In fact, “That girl” is the girl everyone envies because she is thin, athletic, rich, happy and in control of herself. Thinness has therefore evolved from a purely aesthetic goal to a model of success that creates an unhealthy hierarchy of people based on their ability to control themselves. This confusion reached its peak during the pandemic when many young people wanted to control their bodies, leading to an increase in body image issues and eating disorders.
If we follow the thread of fashion, we can put the impact of the “return of thinness” into perspective, as it has never really disappeared from the media, despite the body positive movement. So young people have more or less learned to live with these aesthetic rules and have sometimes even been made more aware of body diversity. However, they remain very aware of the pressure these trends put on them.