I’m Losing It: The Effect of Social Media and Fashion on Body Image
Living in LA can feel like being on a set - there are actors passing you on the left and influencers rushing around on the right. With so much one-frame exposure to these superstars, online viewers may accept their extravagant reality as the norm, and not the exception. The seductive standards set by social influencers can be damaging for their followers and themselves. With the emergence of worldwide phenomena like TikTok and Instagram, young girls are exposed to an unprecedented amount of idealized images. While there is potential to promote the vast and beautiful variety of the human form, according to NPR, algorithms typically favor content from stereotypically pretty and thin users. Young women may begin to internalize the idea that the creator reflected back on their screen is the beauty standard, taking unhealthy strides to look like them.
This is inflamed by certain fashion trends taking place on social media, such as “body checking,” in which a creator shares an outfit with the intention of highlighting how skinny they are. A trend, “Is it a Fit or Is She Just Thin?” emerged in response to body checking in an attempt to showcase the ways in which some people use fashion as an excuse to “skinny check.” These issues are exacerbated by diets and workout routines promoted by “health-conscious” creators who use apparel as motivators, including claims that a person can only wear low-rise jeans or crop tops if they are “slender enough”. All types of clothing should be for everyone, so why does it not feel that way? Here to answer some of these questions are two anonymous LA-based influencers.
Credit @hollymarstonn
Declining to have their name included, this “thinspo” fashion influencer has 80,000 Instagram followers and 55,000 TikTok followers. She reportedly makes upwards of two thousand dollars a month through brand endorsements and designer gifts. Amy, as she’ll be referred to, began her social media journey during the Covid-19 pandemic. She describes her experiences and growth on social media:
Q: How does fashion tie into your identity as a person and as an influencer?
Amy: “Fashion is a huge part of who I am, both personally and as an ‘influencer’. It's my way of expressing myself, showing my followers who I am in my own way. Except, I do talk on TikTok so that’s different… But like every outfit I post shares a bit of my personality with my followers and helps me feel known by them I guess. It's not just about looking good for others, but feeling confident in myself.”
Q: In promoting uncommonly thin images on social media, do you consider the potential influence on your followers' body image perceptions, and how do you navigate that responsibility?
Amy: “I totally get that being in the public eye, especially in fashion, means that I can have a big influence on how people see themselves and I do try to be mindful of that… Anyone who’s been following me for a while knows that I try to promote self-love and body positivity. I always try to remind my followers that what you see on social media isn't the whole story, and that there are a lot of factors that contribute to why people have the bodies they have. That’s part of why I don’t post anything about exercise or diet. Everyone should try to be happy with themselves. I'm all for fashion being inclusive and for everyone.”
In her expansion of this question she raised, though did not directly name, the concept of set-point theory. This theory posits, according to the National Institute of Health, that the human body has a predetermined weight range that it fluctuates between. This to say, one person may naturally always hover around 140 pounds and another around 170. Though these people can deliberately work to change their weight, their bodies will always want to return to their set point. Amy explained that she didn’t want to post about her exercise or exact diet because she worries that if people follow her routines and do not end up looking like her, their mental health may be negatively affected.
In recusing herself from all straight discussions of achieving goal weights, Amy feels that she is not directly responsible for her followers' related actions. However, try as one might to skirt responsibility, influencers are culpable, to a degree, for how their content affects others. Amy’s response read as a proactive way to avoid criticism for her content rather than a sincere effort to protect her followers.
Q: Do you feel a sense of comfort and freedom in wearing the clothes you want to, regardless of societal body-image expectations?
Amy: “Absolutely, how I dress is a huge source of comfort and freedom. I love being able to wear what I want and post what I’m proud of. Not to overuse empowering, but its empowering, you know? Sure, there are always body-image pressures, but I've learned to not let them control me.”
Q: Can you speak to the strategies or messages you try to convey when posting petite modeling content to ensure a positive impact on your followers' self-esteem and body image?
Amy: “When I post content where weight is more noticeable, like a lot of my posts are at the beach or in bikinis, I try to be aware of how it could be perceived… I try to be careful with my captions so it focuses more on the environment than on body [sic]. For pictures like that I don’t take them against a blank wall… It's usually in a pretty background or something so that the post is more about the art of it rather than just ‘look at my body’. I want my followers to just enjoy the posts or maybe feel inspired by my content, not pressured to look exactly like me.”
Interesting to note from this response, in my independent research of Amy’s account, I did not find this to be entirely true. Of her last ten posts that include her personage, four of them are taken in front of blank backgrounds. It is important to note that she is wearing “winter” outfits in these four, and the other six that are in bathing suits do include a captivating and colorful background that draws attention away.
Images: @ellieegar (Instagram)
Q: Have you personally experienced any challenges or concerns related to the portrayal of ultra-skinny models in the media?
Amy: “Yeah, it's definitely had an effect on me. Even though I'm naturally thin, seeing other influencers who are super skinny can create this weird pressure. Sometimes, I catch myself comparing myself to other influencers and wondering if I should look more like them… which is totally not healthy. Even for someone who doesn’t seem like they would have insecurities, I still get jealous of other people. But… Instead of getting hung up on comparisons, I try to appreciate myself for who I am. I've learned to remind myself that everyone's body is different, and that's totally okay.”
It was fascinating to hear her note that she might seem like “someone who doesn't… have insecurities”. This implied to me a self-awareness of her online presence that had been lacking in previous answers. Say what you will about posting in the name of self-love and positivity, but the aim of most influencer's content is to boast some aspect of themselves. Whether it is their money, their kindness, or their body, everybody is selling themselves through something. Amy is selling the vision of what you could be. You could have clear skin, white teeth, and the perfect body just like her if you would just buy the perfume she’s endorsing. She presents herself on social media in a very particular way - she wants to seem like someone with nothing to be insecure about. In acknowledging this, she accidentally dismantled much of what she had claimed. How can you be posting for the sake of self-love while also trying to seem impossibly flawless?
Also declining to be identified, LA-based influencer “Katy” has had a different experience of body expectations on social media than Amy. Katy boasts about 250,000 followers on Instagram as well as nearly 700,000 on TikTok. She is known as a body-positive fashion influencer, making several thousand dollars a month through endorsements as well as appearing in the occasional runway show. She describes her experiences and growth on social media:
Q: How does fashion tie into your identity as a person and as an influencer?
Katy: “Fashion is my biggest creative outlet. It allows me to express myself and to show off designs and brands that I find beautiful, and I am so lucky to be able to share these looks with a platform so I can inspire other people’s fashion too. Personally, I’m happiest when I get to work with or wear brands that support women… or just my other values.”
Katy described her values broadly as supporting women, minorities, and small businesses. She named a few of her value-aligned brands: Glossier (women-owned), Kulfi (women-owned), and Telfar (minority-owned).
Q: Can you share your thoughts on the impact of your body-positive modeling content on followers' self-esteem and body image perceptions, and whether you actively consider these factors when posting on social media?
Katy: “I have certain limitations when it comes to posting on social media because I’ve been labeled a ‘body-positive’ model. I feel a responsibility to post minimally edited content and I avoid photoshopping my body because of the kind of message that would sent to my followers. I love them all and would never want to give them any wrong impression or encourage them to alter images of their own body on social media in order to like their photos… All bodies are beautiful and everyone should feel more comfortable posting what they choose to.”
Q: As a body-positive model, how do you navigate the balance between promoting body positivity and addressing societal expectations, particularly on social media where body image can be a sensitive topic?
Katy: “Social media can put immense pressure on people to portray themselves a certain way, and admittedly I did struggle at first with social media comments and I worried about how people would judge me on future posts, but comments do not define you. Beauty comes in different sizes, shapes, ages, colors, and all and that is amazing in itself… Body positivity means to me expressing yourself and loving yourself, and not letting anyone take that away from you. It is easier said than done to ignore like really heavy pressure to look a certain way, but I try to post unphotoshopped, real content to promote pride in self love and not trying to change yourself for other peoples completely fake expectations.”
Katy was not willing to talk in detail about photoshopping but firmly stated that she does not alter her body in her photographs. However, much like the vast majority of influencers or models, other parts of the photos (such as color or background) are edited. I do not call into question Katy’s integrity but it is important to remember to take everything online you see with a grain of salt. For example, Khloe Kardashian, caught red-handed photoshopping her posts several times, claims to this day that she does not edit them.
Photo editing is in itself a completely separate sector of this discussion. While influencers who do not edit their bodies in online posts may feel more absolved of responsibility for their viewers’ self-esteem, can chronic Facetune users say the same? Much of what we see online is already the extremes of the human body, but how can we tell where these images begin to blur into impossibility? It is generally irresponsible for influencers to post heavily edited pictures of themselves on social media and present them as reality. This may encourage a young or impressionable audience to go to great lengths to try to replicate their idols.
Q: Do you feel a sense of comfort and freedom in wearing the clothes you want to, regardless of societal body-image expectations?
Katy: “It’s been so liberating to just say ‘screw it’ to society’s expectations for how a body should look or how a woman should present herself… It’s exhausting to worry about covering up parts of myself that aren’t… celebrated in mainstream media. I truly love what I wear, clothes that accentuate the parts of my body that I personally think are beautiful and unique.”
It is all too easy to pigeon-hole people, especially ones we see on our phones or on the big screen. What Katy and Amy have revealed through their interviews is a simple and real truth: we must accept that weight is not everything, and fashion should not be defined by it. It can be all too easy to tie your self worth and mental health to how you look, that you only get to be happy once you’re perfect. We so often tell ourselves that we can only wear a crop top if our stomachs are flat; we can only wear sweats if they aren’t. However, this body-centric ideology is an impossible standard; even the people who we hail as having the “ideal” body aren’t satisfied. Any person of any body type should be allowed to feel comfortable wearing the clothes that make them feel beautiful, and that is what Katy and Amy really want you to know.
Image: @theraisareyes (TikTok)
In 2013, a research paper came out of Harvard by Tamir and Mitchell on how the human brain is almost completely self-focused. Their paper posited the idea of “anchoring”, which they describe as the concept of “[individuals] invoking their own experiences as a guide for inferring the experiences of another person”. The paper describes that when the human brain is at rest, the medial prefrontal cortex lights up in the same way it does when we are made to consciously think about ourselves. We spend the majority of the time with our brain largely at rest, therefore largely thinking of ourselves. We spend so much time thinking about ourselves, criticizing ourselves, and judging our own bodies - all under the “anchoring” expectation that other people do too. What I urge you all to remember is this; you are not wrong for being self-conscious, you are not evil for wishing you are different, and most importantly, nobody else is thinking those things besides you. There is no audience and the stage lights are off. Wear that skirt that might be a little short, and rock that top you think is too tight! All those eyes you feel on you are simply your own, so why not look out with kindness?