Body Image and Social Media

Recently, many communities on internet platforms have been discussing drastic changes of female bodies in Hollywood/the performing industry in general. For example, a popular actress and singer who has lost a noticeable amount of weight is Arianna Grande since she filmed Wicked. Arianna Grande has always been very slim, as have most women in Hollywood, but ever since shooting began for Wicked, she has become almost scarily skinny. Another example of this is Emma Stone, like Arianna, she was always very slim but she was starting to look very different.

Stone claims her weight loss is due to stress and her genetics which have made it difficult for her to gain weight and keep it on. This article also delves into Jameela Jamil’s perspective not only on Emma Stone, but women everywhere who have been starving themselves to align with beauty standards. Jamil, known for her outspoken activism, went to her social media platforms and expressed her feelings about the almost unhealthy weight loss of actresses and singers. Jamil described these women’s appearances as “scarily thin” and that it was a “specifically fragile type of thin.” While some instances of weight loss among celebrities in Hollywood may very well be healthy, it is alleged that some celebrities have been utilizing weightloss drugs like ozempic to get skinnier. Some examples of celebrities accused of this are Lizzo, Jonah Hill, and Meghan Trainor. 

You may wonder, “How does this affect teenagers?” or “Not many teens are in Hollywood, so where is this pressure coming from?” The short answer is social media, a place that promotes connectivity and access to various perspectives. Almost 95% of teens ages 13-17 report using at least one social media platform, with more than a third claiming they use social media “almost constantly.” This evidence attests that a large population of teens are daily witnesses to things like hardcore fitness and dieting videos, or celebrities who have lost weight or changed their body in unnatural ways.

Fitness influencers are very open with their diets and frequently show and talk about their bodies. Many of them, women specifically, talk a lot about eating in a calorie deficit, which is when you burn more calories than you consume, there are several other aspects of a calorie deficit that may differ depending on the person. It is very easy for teenagers to be influenced by fitness tiktokers explaining what works for them, and automatically implement the things these influencers are doing. This is harmful because teens may not be educated enough to actually understand the implications of dieting practices done by these influencers. To take things a step further, these influencers could be blatantly lying about the ways they are losing weight which creates a false expectation that teens can easily fall victim to.