“Looksmaxxing” and Toxic Beauty Standards

By Colin Wu, high school junior, California.

Earlier this year, one of my close friends got very wrapped up in the looksmaxxing community, a growing online community that strives for the ideal body and flawless face. He started calling people out that he didn’t find attractive, bullying and fat-shaming them. He shunned and looked down on his peers who didn’t have the “perfect body”—6’ 0” tall, six-pack abs and huge biceps. The looksmaxxing community targets young males and females and influences their ideas about beauty in a toxic way. Looksmaxxers are part of an online community that has gotten inside our heads and inside our homes and it needs to be stopped before more people get hurt.

Social media has had a huge effect on younger people’s feelings about their appearance. In a New York Times op-ed titled, “Toxic Beauty Standards Can Be Passed Down”, Alexandra D’Amour writes, “There’s a nickname for tweens and teenagers who have been influenced by social media to get into skin care: Sephora Kids. Johanna Almstead, a fashion industry friend, tells me that in her local mothers group chat, nearly every mom had “Skincare, skincare, skincare!” on the holiday gift lists they were given—by their fifth graders.”

Younger children requesting skincare products as gifts is alarming. It suggests that they have a problem with their appearance and are using skincare to fix it. It also shows the influence social media has on the youth now, whereas, when I was in fifth grade, I wanted video games and Legos. D’Amour also says, “A recent video on TikTok that has garnered more than eight million views features a 28-year-old woman showing her “raw,” procedure-free face, meaning no Botox or fillers. As some women and girls cheered on her bravery, others were left horrified. “Praying I’ll never look like that,” one comment reads. This comment shows the ways in which social media has defined beauty for future generations. While sharing their “raw” face makes some people proud, others are disgusted by its imperfections.

Parents, who also contribute to the focus on skincare in young people, can make this situation better. D’Amour writes, “And yet, if a mother’s insecurity can fuel her daughter’s own self-loathing, a mother’s radical self-love might just protect and even heal her daughter from a toxic culture.” D’Amour believes the influence that parents can have on their children can be more positive than negative. Parents who are able to teach their kids to love their appearance may help their children stay away from bad communities. D’Amour says, “When I ask the few friends who haven’t gotten Botox why they haven’t, they tell me it’s because they love how their mothers are aging and how they embrace it. They don’t fear aging because their mothers don’t (or didn’t).” Older generations of mothers who are secure about their appearance influence younger generations by making them realize it’s best to accept and love themselves for who they are. Coming from a family in which no one had any kind of procedure, my parents and grandparents have taught me self-worth and have made me love myself for who I am.

People today are growing up in toxic cultures that lead them to accept unnatural beauty standards. D’Amour warns us that, “Gen Z-ers are being introduced to the idea of starting treatments early as preventive treatment. They are growing up in a culture of social media that promotes the endless pursuit of maintaining youth—and at home, some of them are watching their mothers reject aging with every injectable and serum they can find.” Gen Z-ers are still growing and many are still in puberty. By attempting to slow or stop the natural aging process, young people seek out treatments that could alter and change the way they look when they’re fully grown. While it can physically harm Gen Z-ers, the mental effects can also cause significant harm. They are oblivious to the ways in which buying treatments connects their self-worth to their beauty. The consequences of children being influenced by skincare culture could mirror the harm caused by previous toxic cultures. D’Amour points out that “The anti-aging craze comes with the same toxicity as diet culture does.” Diet culture influenced people to want to be skinnier. Anorexia was a large issue and resulted in many people hurting themselves to obtain the ideal body image. Similar to diet culture, the anti-aging culture puts pressure on young people to strive for unhealthy and unattainable beauty.

My friend was too invested in the looksmaxxing community. As he tried to achieve his ideal body image, his obsession led to him putting down and hurting others. While there are positive aspects of social media, these negative parts harm younger people who are vulnerable when it comes to their appearance. Even though my friend was putting others down, this community was also harming him, by ruining friendships. Some unlucky teens have to deal with crazy parents, who put their own insecurities on their children and reaffirm toxic cultures that enforce unrealistic beauty standards. Other teens can be affected in positive ways, if parents or role models teach them to accept themselves. In the future, if we want to feel good about ourselves, we must embrace our natural appearance and develop self-worth that is grounded in loving ourselves.

—Colin Wu, h.s. junior, California. Colin adds: “I am a Chinese and Burmese American, whose first language is English, and I am currently learning to speak and write Mandarin. My family, education, health, and religious beliefs are most important to me. I am very interested in environmental sciences and engineering. I was inspired to write this essay because of the harm this community has done to friends of mine.”