Abstract 

This paper explores the app TikTok, with over 1 billion monthly users, a large portion of these users are only children. Although there is a plethora of fun and light-hearted content, TikTok is known for its addictive tendencies where users can get stuck in a rabbit role of content that can be misleading and harmful for young girls. The content of many fitness influencers promotes mature topics like eating habits and exercise and due to the app’s algorithmic nature these communities of young girls are being exposed to an abnormal amount of content around eating and exercise which can influence their body image and encourage the adoption of unhealthy eating behaviours. We take a deeper look into two specific examples including the trend #WhatIEatInADay which has 16.1 billion views on TikTok and the trend #Fitspiration which when exposed to, corresponded with body dissatisfaction, and increased negative mood. The paper concluded that these trends, that are pushed by influencers on TikTok’s for you page are negatively impacting young girls body image and encouraging them to adopt unhealthy eating habits.

 

TikTok is a popular social media platform with over 1 billion monthly users (Davis et al., 2023), well known for its quick 15 second videos, endless sharing, and discovery features. TikTok is a platform considered “less serious” than other social media platforms, where users tend to share fun, more light-hearted content. However, as the platform grows, and the rise of influencers takes over, the content on the app can pose risks for young girls as it often features micro celebrities promoting mature subjects like eating habits and exercise without a complete understanding of these topics. There are multiple harmful trends that circulate on TikTok every day, but two that really stick out and have grown significantly in popularity are the hashtags #WhatIEatInADay and #Fitspiration. Due to the algorithmic nature of the platform, and with the rise of female fitness and beauty influencers, these trends are reshaping the body image of young girls and encouraging the adoption of unhealthy eating behaviours.

 

The algorithmic nature of TikTok is reshaping the body image of young girls and encouraging the adoption of unhealthy eating habits. TikTok is the most regularly used app on social media (Davis et al., 2023). Research has shown that out of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, the most time has been spent on TikTok (Davis et al., 2023). All these platforms are driven by algorithms which are designed to uphold viewer engagement by showing content similar to what has previously been viewed and liked, along with the popular videos based on the views and likes from other users (Davis et al., 2023). The TikTok algorithm differs from the other platforms because it provides more personalised content and is often more extreme and less monitored, it’s designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible (Harriger et al., 2022). Users of TikTok have described using the app as “addictive,” resulting in increased and extended usage (Harriger et al., 2022). In the US one third of users on the app are between 10 and 19 years old, meaning that these users are only children. Due to the way the “for you page” is designed, these young users are put at risk of getting sucked into rabbit holes of depressive and harmful content (Harriger et al., 2022).

Although TikTok allows users to select what accounts they want to follow, the algorithm often influences the content they scroll through unknowingly (Harriger et al., 2022).  The consequence of this is that even if users are trying to select positive and uplifting accounts, or steer clear of specific harmful content, they are not always protected (Harriger et al., 2022). This can be very damaging for young users, especially when it comes to body image and eating habits.

There is a large amount of eating related content on TikTok, from sharing diets and recipes to eating disorder recovery videos (Davis et al., 2023). All of this content is grouped together, through hashtags like #WhatIEatInADay or #Fitspiration (Harriger et al., 2022). For example, one video might feature a qualified nutritionist discussing the importance of the five essential food groups, while the next could show a Victoria’s Secret model promoting her breakfast of black coffee and five almonds as healthy and satisfying. This can be very confusing for young girls looking for guidance on these matters. Simply double tapping on a harmful video like the one posted by the Victoria Secret Model is enough to fill someone’s feed with similar content and encourage viewers to emulate these behaviours. The use of these algorithms is sophisticated and can be hard to steer clear of, their sole purpose is to suck users in and keep them engaged so they can improve viewership and make a profit (Harriger et al., 2022). Unfortunately, this leads to the unintended consequence of altering the body image of young girls and promoting the adoption of unhealthy eating habits.

 

Influencers have become a big part of social media and are utilized by brands to promote products to their large followings. Many fitness and beauty influencers have won the genetic lottery and often promote an unrealistic portrayal of beauty and health which can have a serious impact on young girls eating habits and the ways they view their bodies. Many influencers who “specialise” in health and wellness promote the idea of controlling diet and exercise to achieve body perfection. Through the endorsement of dietary supplements and the display of branded sportswear, influencers offer a simplified approach to enhancing one’s appearance as a pathway to happiness (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019). Their communication largely revolves around direct and subtle advertising of industry-specific products (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019). Simultaneously, viewers relate to and admire influencers, fulfilling various needs which helps to foster a relationship between influencers and their followers (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019).

Many TikTok creators establish communities of followers who engage with their content and draw inspiration from their lives. These communities are easily formed due to TikTok’s accessibility anytime and anywhere, offering youngsters a quick sense of belonging (Boursier et al., 2020). However, when these creators feature workouts like weightlifting or treadmill running, alongside discussions of restrictive diets and aspirations to resemble thin celebrities such as Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid, it fosters a harmful environment where individuals encourage each other to pursue even thinner bodies or consume even fewer calories (Davis et al., 2023). Some videos even include calorie and/or macronutrient counts, with total calorie intake often remaining low, sometimes below 1500 calories consumed throughout the entire day (Davis et al., 2023). Exposing young individuals to such strict lifestyles portrayed by individuals whose biggest priority is their appearance, can have harmful effects on their mental well-being and body image perception.

A national panel in Germany revealed that a significant majority (85%) of 12- to 17-year-olds spend nearly 3 hours (166 minutes) daily on social media platforms (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019). Additionally, over one-third of 14- to 17-year-olds actively seek products and services promoted by influencers (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019). The fact that such a large portion of youth are spending this extreme amount of time on social media is concerning. Studies show that an excessive amount of time on social media apps like TikTok is associated with users’ body dissatisfaction and social comparison which consequently results in unhealthy eating habits where young individuals are undereating to try look as “beautiful” or as “fit” as the influencers they follow (Marks et al., 2020). These micro celebrities have significant power when it comes to influencing their followers and research has proven that their influence can contribute to negative body image and disordered eating habits.

 

Fitspiration is popular trend circulating on TikTok that’s had a huge influence on young girls’ body perceptions and can lead to unhealthy eating habits. The Fitspiration trend started on Instagram, where users would share photos of themselves in the gym or on a beach in a bikini with an extremely “fit” body (DiBisceglie & Arigo, 2019). On Instagram today, there are roughly 17.7 million posts that have the hashtag fitspiration and 66.1 million posts with the hashtag fitspo (Marks et al., 2020). Due to the trend’s huge popularity, it was destined to make its way to other social media platforms like TikTok.

The fitspiration tag usually involves content like “before and after” pictures of the transformation’s individuals have had from exercising and eating less (Carrotte et al., 2017). The initial intention of the trend was to promote a healthier lifestyle, however, the contents of these videos can be really distressing for viewers and can contribute to unhealthy thoughts and behaviours like negative body image, eating disorders, excessive exercise, and the misuse of dietary supplements like protein powders and pre-workout drinks (Cataldo et al., 2021).

Before fitspiration came along there was a trend called “thinspiration.” This trend primarily focused on extreme thinness and was very prevalent among female users (Talbot et al., 2017). In 2012, the thinspiration trend ended up being banned from all social media platforms because it was sending particularly unhealthy messages to young woman about their bodies and was promoting eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia (Marks et al., 2020). As an alternative, the fitspiration tag came along, which tried to encourage fitness and health not thinness and illness. However, #fitspiration ended up being very similar to the #thinspiration trend because it was still promoting an abnormally strict lifestyle.

Research has shown that the exposure to fitspiration trends has had a significant impact on users’ body perceptions and therefore might influence the eating behaviours of young woman (Marks et al., 2020). Prichard et al. (2018) found that among a group of young female participants, the increased exposure to fitspiration content correlated to body dissatisfaction and increased negative mood. The data sample suggested that women are more vulnerable to the negative psychological effects that come along with fitspiration than men are (DiBisceglie & Arigo, 2019). The research also showed that users with low self-esteem, obsessive tendencies or perfectionist traits were the ones who are affected most by these trends (Pilgrim and Bohnet-Joschko, 2019). Sadly, many young girls have these tendencies especially when growing up and experiencing bodily changes, so they are an easy target.

When the trend fitspiration made its way from Instagram to TikTok, it was worsened because of the platforms primarily video-based nature. Instagram is a platform typically for posting images, whereas TikTok is known for the sharing of videos. The format of TikTok allows users to watch longer video content that often captivates the viewers for extended periods of time. The “For You” page is controlled meticulously by an algorithm and encourages viewers to deep dive into topics that could be potentially harmful and foster addictive behaviour (Harriger et al., 2022). It’s becoming so hard for young girls to avoid overexposure to fitspiration content, and it’s harmful because a lot of this content is full of misinformation and false promises. Many creators spread “fake” information, for example, promising their followers a fit body if they eat a carnivore diet or teaching individuals that oatmeal is bad for you and if you’re eating it, you’ll become overweight. These are just two examples of the many false claims that have been made by influencers under the #fitspiration tag. The rise of the fitspiration trend, intensified by TikTok’s “For You” page, is encouraging body dissatisfaction in young girls and promoting the adoption of disordered eating habits.

 

The #WhatIEatInADay trend is another popular hashtag that has been circulating TikTok lately and is having harmful effects on young female users, convincing them that undereating is needed for beauty. The whole idea behind these videos is for creators to take their followers through a day in the life, showing everyone what they eat throughout the day to stay fit and healthy. Many of these videos have a specific focus on weight loss (Sandal, 2018). Often, you’ll see meal preparation, food shopping, calories counts and cooking videos (Pfender et al., 2023). The hashtag #WhatIEatInADay now has 16.1 billion views on TikTok (Davis et al., 2023), emphasising how significant these videos really are in promoting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Research has shown that 15.3% of these videos were found within content tagged #EatingDisorderRecovery. Therefore, this huge amount of content around eating is being posted by sick individuals who have distorted views around food.

Despite some positive outcomes in popular media, most narratives remain negative, often suggesting that creators are promoting unrealistic body standards and privileged lifestyles (Marson & Kennan-Miller, 2022). Many of these influencers, typically white, thin, and able-bodied, live their lives centred around healthy eating, which is a lifestyle unattainable for many due to time and resource constraints (Pilgrim & Bohnet-Joschko, 2019; Chen, 2021). The central concern lies in the message these videos convey – “if you eat like me, you can look like me” which unfortunately, is never the case because every individual has different nutritional needs (Seow, 2021). For young girls, unaware of this fact, these messages are harmful, reshaping their body perceptions and encouraging the adoption of unhealthy eating habits.

 

Social media platforms like TikTok have had a profound impact on shaping the beliefs and behaviours of young girls regarding body image and eating habits. Influencers with large followings on TikTok regularly engage in trends such as #WhatIEatInADay and #Fitspiration, where they promote unrealistic beauty standards and encourage potentially harmful dietary practices to their online communities, who often admire and imitate their behaviour. Despite these trends offering insights into healthy living and meal preparation, they can also contribute to the spread of misinformation and distorted views about food and body image, particularly among young, vulnerable followers. The algorithmic nature of TikTok worsens these issues by grouping content and repeatedly exposing it to users, often leading them into prolonged exposure to potentially harmful or distressing content. To conclude, the evidence presented supports the idea that TikTok feeds are reshaping the body image of young girls and encouraging the adoption of unhealthy eating behaviours.