Who Is Glow Up Culture Really Serving?

Glow-up culture is everywhere right now—but is the quest for being the ‘best version’ yourself as empowering as it’s made out to be?
Published October 4, 2024

(Image: Getty Images)

If I had a dollar for every TikTok that told me I’m only a few game changing products or practices away from being hotter, smarter and richer, well … I’d certainly be wealthy enough for my algorithm to know as much. Then again, even if I was certifiably monied or model hot, it also stands to reason that I’d still be served such videos, so great is our collective obsession with transformation.

It’s not a new thing, by any stretch—women’s magazines falsely sold us ‘5 ways to tone up by tonight’ for decades, and we all grew up watching a makeover montage in most movies—but social media has amplified all instructional transformation content and given it a rebrand: now it’s called ‘glowing up’, and it’s found modern relevance on TikTok as an aspirational avenue to being the best possible version of yourself.

With the 15 million posts alone containing the #glowup hashtag, the platform has emerged as a veritable new frontier of self- reinvention. When you consider the fact that there are 7.5 million Australians now swiping through the FYP each day, it’s hard to imagine that most of us haven’t encountered a post on the topic at least once—particularly as it pertains to our physical appearances. It makes sense when you consider all the videos that detail how to ‘become That Girl’, which entails becoming someone else.

The majority of the videos position a personal glow-up to be the ultimate form of empowerment, a way to take control of your looks and, as a result, take control of your life. They tell the viewer to treat the pursuit of ultimate hotness as a noble quest that’s actually a form of self-love. If that’s the case, however, then can it really be classified as healthy when successful results always seem to involve conforming to a traditional (or trendy) beauty standard? And is there ever really an end point if the ‘before’ is always deemed unworthy?

If you asked the creators of glow up videos why they make that kind of content, you’d likely be met with responses that suggest these bite-sized snapshots of aspiration help viewers to refocus their time and efforts on themselves. It’s true that looking after yourself can often be the key to feeling confident and self assured, and platforms like TikTok have democratised access to strategies for self-improvement.

"There are 15 million posts alone containing the #glowup hashtag"

From experts providing free skincare advice and recommendations for makeup products that actually work, to yoga teachers offering access to a full-body stretching routine, minus the hefty studio membership, it’s never been easier to learn new ways to feel good. For those that can take a quick tip from a video that genuinely improves their happiness and sense of self, it can be a great resource for fun life hacks.

There’s the argument to be made, however, that watching transformation-based videos that highlight others’ flaws in a ‘before’ to then glorify the ‘after’ can create feelings about our own perceived physical failings. Then any sense of achievement usually will come from adopting a look that closer aligns with beauty norms, which can make those who physically relate to the ‘before’ feel bad about themselves.

Recent studies have indicated that a significant portion of young Australian social media users feel pressured to alter their appearance based on the content they consume. While exact figures vary, researchers from Australian universities have found this trend to be particularly pronounced among TikTok users. Research from Monash University and the University of Queensland has also drawn unsettling correlations between excessive TikTok use and elevated levels of anxiety and depression—particularly as it relates to shame about their appearance.

There’s real concern that such relentless displays of digital perfection generate unrealistic expectations about the way we should look. In a report by the ABC, Dr Veya Seekis from Griffith University revealed that preliminary findings of her research on young people’s body image showed it took just seven minutes of watching beauty content videos on TikTok or Instagram for users to be “significantly impacted”. As she told the publication, “We found really that the beauty videos were the ones that were triggering the problems.”

With the most dramatic transformations often gaining the most viral exposure, experts warn that glow-up videos may be rewiring our perception of what can be considered normal and achievable, which is in turn damaging our mental health. So how can we engage with self- improvement in the digital age, without feeling like we’re not ‘doing enough’… to be enough?

"glow-up videos may be rewiring our perception of what can be considered normal and achievable"

TikTok, to its credit, has introduced features aimed at digital wellbeing, including break reminders and feed diversification options. However, Dr Jasmine Fardouly, a research fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, believes platforms could be doing more to promote diversity in our algorithms. “They can choose to put more body-positive content into people’s feeds and promote it more prominently,” she told Refinery29.

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A study conducted by Dr Fardouly demonstrated that being regularly served content that focuses on body positivity, rather than transformation, can be an effective circuit breaker. “We see this strategy as a micro-intervention—a small change we can make to improve people’s experiences on social media and how they feel about themselves in everyday life,” she told the outlet. “In the current study, just one post a day was potentially enough to induce positive effects. More exposure may be even
more effective.”

If the pressure to glow up is starting to get you down, try to retrain your algorithm by seeking out and engaging with videos that champion body neutrality, a healthy mindset or anything else that makes you feel good (animal friendship videos are absolutely included). Says Dr Fardouly, “Social media isn’t going away. But as we’ve shown, it’s also not really the time you spend on it, it’s what you’re doing when you’re on it.”

This article originally appeared in Issue 02 of Cosmopolitan Australia. Get your copy and subscribe to future issues here.

Kate Lancaster
Kate Lancaster is the Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan Australia. She has spent the better part of a decade covering beauty, lifestyle and wellness across print and digital for Australian and international titles such as ELLE, Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE Decor, Vogue Living and GRAZIA. She is also the co-founder of Dollface Agency, publishes weekly beauty newsletter The Vanity, and can pinpoint exactly where get the best facial within a 1km radius.
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