As the weather gets warmer and clothes get tinier, diet culture schemes and the promotion of disordered eating behaviors in the media are on the rise yet again. 

In the 1990s, famous supermodel, Kate Moss, became wildly popular through her mantra “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Moss was the face of a popular trend at the time called “heroin chic.” This was a phenomenon led by supermodels who had admitted to doing heroin to keep their skeletal figures. This clan of ultra thin models influenced an influx of young girls to starve themselves, throw up their food (also known as purging) and create toxic motivation on platforms like Tumblr to “motivate” each other to not eat to achieve a skeletal figure.  

This seemed to calm down in the late 2010s with the new “in” female body type being one with curves. In the past year, however, scarily thin bodies are being pushed yet again. Tiktok’s “skinnytok” being a huge contributor to this. Skinnytok is a section of tiktok that has been curated to share weight loss tips and motivation. Creators make content about their 1200 calorie deficits and post toxic reminders like “you’re not hungry you’re just thirsty.” Gaunt and malnourished bodies are being glamorized, and are quickly becoming the female body standard again.    

Alongside influencers, celebrities are also perpetrating this revived beauty standard. Largely televised events such as the Oscars, the Grammys and the Met Gala are typically celebrations of art but this year the bodies displayed on the red carpets seemed to get more attention than the awards. 

Former Disney star Ariana Grande has fans wondering how she lost weight as she displays her visible rib cage in her pink, “Galinda” inspired dresses during the Wicked press tour. Jenna Ortega, famous for her role as Wednesday Adams in hit series Wednesday, also styled her protruding collarbones with a white, lace dress with a mesh back at the Actor Awards. 

Visible rib cages, collar bones that stick out of the shoulders and sunken in temples are all visual signs of malnutrition according to the Cleveland Clinic, yet these actors sport them as if they are the fashion of the season.  

The abuse of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy is only adding to the problem, and drugs such as these are becoming increasingly common with 1 in 8 adults having tried a form of the drug, Hollywood being no exception to that. Even tennis Olympic gold medalist, Serena Williams, has admitted to using and endorsing a weightloss drug brand called Ro, that her husband is an investor in. The abuse of weight loss drugs and severe caloric restriction among celebrities and influencers is incredibly evident and increasingly concerning.  

This becomes even more problematic because young girls look for ways to achieve the same physique as the celebrities and influencers they look up to, and find no shortage of content carefully curated so they know exactly how to do so. 

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 51.7% of girls with social media accounts had significant eating behavior changes such as restriction of caloric intake, overexercising and purging. One study found that 49% of youth following “health and fitness” influencers showed signs of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is characterized by intense fear of gaining weight, restriction of energy intake for 3 months or longer, and intense disturbance of one’s weight or shape. Anorexia is the most fatal mental illness, causing over 10,000 deaths each year, and it is imperative to prevent and not promote these behaviors. The revamp in glamorization of starving bodies and restrictive eating habits in the media is incredibly dangerous and needs to be stopped.