“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” is the message you’ll find if you fall into the dark hole of “skinnytok” on TikTok. Influencers have been spreading the message that skinny is the only way to be. The leader of this? Liv Schmidt.
Liv Schmidt built a following of nearly 670,000 on TikTok, sharing her devotion to being thin and her tips and tricks on how to get there. This was until TikTok banned her account in September of last year because she broke the body image community guidelines. The guidelines state, “We want TikTok to be a place that encourages self-esteem and does not promote negative social comparisons. We do not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors.”
Schmidt responded to the ban by creating a new account, where her profile bio said, “It’s not a sin to want to be thin, saving America from obesity 1 person at a time.” This message is harmful because wanting to be healthy is different than wanting to be skinny. You can be healthy without having to be ultra-thin, but that’s not what followers of “SkinnyTok” believe.
A USA Today article says Schmdit “markets thinness as an essential part of being an ‘it girl.’” Being thin is not an essential part of being an “it girl.” Personality and talent is what makes someone popular for a good reason. When did this change and why is society going back in time?
The body positivity movement was on the rise over the past few years, promoting the acceptance of all bodies, no matter the shape or size, but recently, there has been a turn away from this. “SkinnyTok” says the body positivity movement is just gaslighting us into accepting that we’re fat and unhealthy. Forbes also wrote in an article that mainstream media is saying the body positivity movement contributed to the obesity crisis.
In that same article, Forbes proved that was incorrect by explaining the movement was spreading a message that everyone should have confidence in themselves. Professional model Stephanie Viada and photographer Veronica Sams are on a mission to spread the idea that “self-acceptance and learning what is healthy specifically for you” is the true meaning to being body positive.
The rise in skinny content is harmful for many reasons. It promotes body image issues because it’s insinuating your current body is unacceptable. It can cause eating disorders because it promotes unrealistic body standards and an obsession with being skinny. Mental health issues are also a concern because if someone doesn’t look how they think they should, they can develop depression, anxiety and a low self-esteem.
A supporter of the “SkinnyTok” movement, Lia Soprano, posted a TikTok saying, “Don’t reward yourself with food, you’re not a dog.” and “You need to walk like a skinny girl walks and act like a skinny girl acts.” Soprano said the “skinny girl method” is a mindset shift, but really it’s just toxic.
Self-comparing to a dog makes it seem like someone is a ravenous animal that eats too much. And what does walking or acting like a “skinny girl” even mean? How does being skinny mean walking any differently than a plus size woman? How does a skinny girl act differently than anyone else? These statements might as well be saying if a person doesn't think this way, then they will always be fat.
Schmidt has responded to the “SkinnyTok” hate by posting on Instagram that she’s not problematic and if anyone don’t agree with her, they’re too sensitive. The biggest problem with this whole movement is the way things are said. It feels like an attack if someone doesn’t agree with “SkinnyTok’s” ideas and if they don’t use advice to be skinny then they must not care about their body.
“SkinnyTok” is also adding to the bigger problem of weight loss and diet culture spreading on social media. “What I eat in a day” or “workout with me” videos have always been popular, and they can be helpful for someone needing advice on healthy recipes or a new workout routine, but the tone of these videos has changed due to weight loss drugs like Ozempic or Semaglutide. People now question if those healthy recipes and workouts are the reason the person lost weight, or did they use weight loss drugs for a quick fix.
Teen Vogue stated, “The prevalence of those medications has also ushered in a shift in how we talk about weight, now naming it as an easily solvable problem…” For example, a popular plus-size content creator on TikTok, Remi Bader, used to advocate for being a “bigger” girl by doing "realistic clothing haulsshowing clothes are inherently made to fit “smaller” girls. Recently, she lost an excessive amount of weight and speculations of how she lost the weight are trending all over TikTok.
It’s strange to be so obsessed with someone else's weight loss journey that society scrutinizes the person for how they lost the weight. Seeing a content creator that was so relatable for looking like so many other women and making them feel included suddenly become skinny made her followers think they all needed to be skinny now too.
Being skinny has become an obsession in our society. From “how to be skinny” content creators to weight loss drugs now making every celebrity and even average people skinny, the battle to be accepted based on thinness is worse now more than ever. As a society, I thought we were past these thoughts, but it feels like a step back to the early 2000s, where the only acceptable thing to be is skinny. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy by eating sustainably and working out. In fact, I encourage it. But being extremely thin to fit in is not healthy.
Kendall Timms is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Kendall Timms about her column? Email her at kt353720@ohio.edu.
