Ariana Grande’s recent weight loss has stirred conversations on social media and among fans as she prepares for the highly anticipated release of Wicked on November 22, 2024.
Grande’s noticeably thinner appearance has drawn both admiration and concern, leading up to the premiere. While some fans have praised her dedication to the role, attributing her physical transformation to embodying Glinda’s iconic look, others have expressed worry, suggesting she looks “unwell” or “too thin” in recent photos.
Grande herself has addressed public concerns about her appearance, urging followers to avoid commenting on others’ bodies, regardless of intent.
In a TikTok video from April 2023, she candidly explained that her current physique reflects a healthier phase, contrasting with earlier periods of personal and health struggles when she looked physically different.
Her transformation has reignited discussions around the resurgence of the “skinny chic” aesthetic, a trend noted for extreme thinness, reminiscent of the early 2000s ‘heroin chic’ aesthetic.
This trend rose to prominence in 2022, with a New York Times article highlighting the change and suggesting a cultural shift away from body inclusivity.
Although Kim Kardashian lost weight to wear Marilyn Monroe’s iconic dress at the 2022 Met Gala, celebrities like Lizzo and Jameela Jamil have criticized the trend and encouraged fans to prioritize mental health over aesthetics.
A recent review by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reveals a disturbing rise in eating disorders among teens, linked to increased social media use that promotes unattainable beauty ideals.
The report points out that social media trends, such as “thinspo”—thin inspiration—and “fitspo”—fitness inspiration, which glorify extreme thinness and strict dieting, are creating a toxic online culture.
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Mental health professionals worry that this shift could heighten body image issues and contribute to eating disorders, especially among young women.
In response, Newsweek reached out to media experts and psychologists to gain insights into the potential impact of this trend on mental health and body image.
Marcelle Rose, Emotional & Disordered Eating Specialist
I’ve observed that the “skinny chic” trend can trigger or worsen disordered eating behaviors in people who are already vulnerable. Significant changes in eating habits could be a big indicator that somebody is unhealthily trying to lose weight. Other harmful behaviour includes restricting food intake, skipping meals, avoiding social eating, and becoming more fixated on body weight, shape, or size.
Signs of this might include frequent mirror-checking, drastic changes in exercise patterns, or withdrawal from social situations where food is involved. The person who is struggling might also show sudden mood swings, irritability, or a change in their daily interactions.
The cultural conversation around beauty standards must shift towards embracing a more inclusive view of appearance and health.
Nicola Chan, Body Confidence Coach
As a body confidence coach who teaches fitness, the warning signs to look out for when somebody is developing an eating disorder are the following: over-exercising and obsessing with calorie-counting apps and gadgets. Many people get excited about new devices and trends, but if they have to follow a specific diet and trend without ever taking a break, or “a day off”, this may indicate early warning signs.
Julie M. Albright, Digital Sociologist, University of Southern California
Young people live their lives online now; most teens say they are online almost constantly, connected to algorithmic-driven apps like TikTok. With the skinny trend resurfacing, the issue is that what a person watches and engages with through likes, saves, replays, etc., they get served more of. So, watching videos with hashtags like #skinny or #skinnygirl triggers an endless diet of videos trumpeting how great it is to be skinny and the ways they got there—from “what I eat in a day” to exercise routines. In this environment, as young people get served more “skinny” content, it begins to normalize the skinny aesthetic, as they get trapped in a funhouse mirror of body dysmorphia.
For somebody struggling with their body image, red flags to look for include changes in diet, changes in exercise routine, unhealthy eating patterns—including not wanting to eat at all—and significant weight loss.
Dr. Robyn Goodman, Associate Professor of Advertising, University of Florida
Bodies should not be fashion trends, but in the past 50+ years, fashion trends and ideal beauty go hand-in-hand. Each ideal is often elusive for the average woman to attain with extreme measures like dieting and exercise, purging, weight loss supplements, or cosmetic surgery.
One of the biggest ways these aesthetics are spread is through social media, which can serve as both poison and panacea. Social media makes the ideal easier to disseminate, for women to socially compare with the ideal, and for women to learn how to achieve the ideal through unhealthy means. However, social media can also be the antidote because it provides a readily available platform for alternative voices and images and social support.
Diana York Blaine, Ph.D., Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, California
With the resurgence of the skinny aesthetic, we ignore the fact that excess body fat has never been embraced in mainstream American culture—not by the media and not by women. As girls, we are taught from early childhood that we are valuable for what we look like, not for any “masculine” power we might be able to develop and wield.
Just look at the popularity of the Barbie movie. For all its attempts to suggest a diverse set of Barbies are all equally valued, the conformist, thin, white, blond, feminine Barbie was literally the star of the show—message received. And now, with semaglutides being advertised as quick fixes for our female bodies, anyone attempting to defy the norm is destined to lose out to larger market and social forces.
The female body has been—and is—a project that we are expected to obsess about and ultimately master, right along with our face, which must be constantly scrutinized and altered. Third-wave feminism provided a gloss of dignity to all of this, the idea that we ‘choose’ to make ourselves into sex objects, but the cold reality is that a sexism which has never gone away actually determines the rules of the game.