Beauty & the Tweet

In episode 6 of series 11, our star guest Ellie Goulding states in response to a question about body image “before it was the pressure to be skinny and now it is to have curves”.

Throughout the decade’s people have been influenced by external factors but with the rise of social media we are exposed to many more of these every day. We are influenced, exposed and open to more critics than ever before, with inescapable comments on how we look in comparison to someone else.

In my opinion young teens are being bombarded by pressure to imitate celebrities who trend on social media, and using make up, clothes and sometimes extreme measures to achieve the same look. An example of one of those celebrities is ‘Kylie Jenner’ who posts vigorously and has millions of followers achieving millions of views every day. When she had her lips filled and posted selfies it became a thing to achieve the same look which spawned the ‘Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge’ which in some cases ended in disaster.

Editors note: Kylie Jenners fuller lips (centre) inspired the KylieJennerLipChallenge which required suction around the lips to create a fuller look

Personally, I feel the consequence of social media greatly impacts the younger generation and leads them to replicate superficial images that do not truly represent the age they are.

Writing as a 23-year-old what concerned me, as a teenager was what I could find on the high street and shopping with my friends. During that time social media was still in its infancy and not dictating how I lead my life. Our interests were to discover our own identities not that which is driven by the rise of reality stars, social media and the consistent evolving platforms.

As Ellie Goulding pointed out body trends are ever changing, which raises the question is social media with the help of reality stars creating an image that is so unattainable and fleeting that in an effort to achieve it, part of growing up is being missed?

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See Ellie Goulding talking about body image and more on What's Up TV, series 6 TX Feb 18th 2017 on Sky 1.