Teenagers exposed to unrealistic beauty standards are aware that they cannot achieve this ideal, but they continue to desire it. Videos with perfect faces don’t make them feel insecure, but they worry that other colleagues might feel that way.
Teenagers aged 13 to 19 are widely exposed to beauty content that promotes products that are unsuitable for young skin, even when they don’t look actively information related to beauty.
Furthermore, they believe that other girls (and not themselves) can become insecure as a result of these videos, according to a new study, conducted by communication scientist Serena Daalmans and by his colleagues at Radboud University.
The results were presented in an article published last week in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
One of Daalmans’ master’s students, Ela van Duffelenworked in a store belonging to a national beauty products chain, where mothers often asked her to explain to your 12 year old daughters that certain day creams are harmful to young skin.
“She had to tell these young girls that these creams are not intended for such young and can even cause considerable damage. These girls had seen influencers demonstrating products on social media and wanted to try them themselves,” Daalmans tells .
These experiences, together with the growing media attention from dermatologists concerned with this type of content, led van Duffelen to choose this topic for her final course research, in which she was guided by Daalmans.
Changing beauty standards and social media
It has long been known that young girls are confronted with images of ideal body on social media.
“What is relatively new,” says Daalmans, “is that current videos show how it is allegedly possible create a ‘perfect’ face. This also creates unattainable expectations.”
“The young women who participated in the study are aware that they cannot achieve this ideal, but they still want it“, note to researcher.
Although the girls interviewed stated that videos with perfect faces didn’t make them feel insecurethey feared that other colleagues could feel that way.
For the study, researchers interviewed sixteen girls aged 13 to 19 about the content they find online and their thoughts when viewing beauty videos.
“We discovered that even when they are not actively looking this type of content, continue to be exposed to facial beauty videosin particular on TikTok. They end up, without realizing it, in an algorithm focused on beauty.”
Once exposed, the girls generally enjoyed the videoss. “They enjoyed looking at them, describing them as beautiful, interesting and sometimes just plain fun.”
As reviews of girls in relation to the videos were divergent. A large part believed that the creators made the videos mainly to help viewers.
At the same time, they recognized that the expectations portrayed were unattainable and they didn’t believe they could ever look like their creators.
They also thought that other girls could become insecure and feel compelled to imitate influencers. Additionally, after watching the videos, the girls reported feel more inclined to buy certain products and trying out beauty routines.
“In general, I find this quite worrying — both as a researcher and as a mother. THE beauty algorithm is so omnipresent that it is almost impossible to escape it, and the image of the perfect face is extremely homogeneous. All creators look the same, without a scratch or imperfection — completely unattainable,” says Daalmans.
“The girls can’t avoid this contento and they feel pressured to strive for the same perfect face they see in these videos, despite the standard presented being entirely unrealistic”, concludes the researcher.
