What Glow-Up Means On TikTok

Throughout the pandemic, TikTok grew as an organization with 75% extra customers than pre-2020 (through Forbes). This was additionally a time when toxic positivity throughout the context of the pandemic was rising — memes about staying constructive, utilizing quarantine to study one thing new or higher ourselves have been continuously circulating (through Evening Standard). This elevated the stress for folks, specifically teenage women and girls, to have a lockdown glow-up: look gorgeous on the finish of quarantine, each time that was going to occur (through Refinery29).

All of us wish to manifest our greatest selves and the attraction of being any person “higher” is comprehensible. Nevertheless, the way in which TikTok and different social media platforms have outlined “higher” is problematic. Many of those glow-ups characteristic younger ladies going by way of dramatic weight losses, typically touted as a post-breakup “revenge our bodies.” Whereas just a few additionally showcase different methods they’ve grown — their improved psychological well being, the variety of books they’ve learn — nearly all of the highest movies in the hashtag present us weight reduction or magnificence glow-ups. The pattern is very damaging for girls who’re already fighting society’s fatphobia or disdain for marginalized our bodies. So, whereas the pattern seems to be a innocent self-improvement scheme, it perpetuates superb physique sorts and requirements of magnificence. A glow-up must be a private achievement that you simply perceive greatest about your self.