Urgent powder bronzer underneath my cheekbones, alongside my jawline and throughout my brow earlier than mixing (badly) grew to become a part of my on a regular basis make-up routine. Nearly 10 years later, I’m considerably embarrassed to say it nonetheless is. Although I write a column about physique acceptance, my internalised fatphobia signifies that I nonetheless attempt to slim my face with bronzer each day.
Millennials grew up absorbing a societal worry of fats by osmosis. Quick ahead to 2024, and ask any Gen Z-er in the event that they contour, and so they’ll have a look at you as if you’ve stated Clean Avenue Espresso is overrated or that Elon Musk is misunderstood. This fervently progressive technology of tweens and twenty-somethings problem unrealistic magnificence requirements and embrace their so-called ‘flaws’. TikTokers, fairly rightly, put up movies mocking how we did our make-up again then, with basis lips and streaks of tangerine contour. Pure make-up tendencies reign supreme, and a few even function an antidote to the inauthentic, synthetic contouring of yesteryear. Make-up artist Mary Phillips just lately popularised ‘underpainting’, a method of evenly contouring earlier than making use of basis on prime for a extra pure look, feeding into the ‘clear woman’ minimal make-up aesthetic most popular by her shoppers Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner (and 200 million individuals on TikTok).
TikTok content material
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After all, it isn’t simply millennials who’re affected by society’s obsession with thinness. Even the TikTok technology aren’t immune. There are Uncover pages stuffed with movies on ‘The right way to lose face fats’, ‘POV: you lastly learn the way to do away with your face fats’, ‘Me: hating my spherical chubby face’, ‘Getting a leaner face is the quickest and best option to get extra engaging and assured’. A few of these pages have lots of of tens of millions of associated posts.
So, given our fatphobic tradition, is it any surprise a slew of rich celebrities with entry to the world’s most esteemed beauty docs have chosen to have their buccal fats surgically sucked out? If I’m being completely sincere, I’m positive I’d be tempted. And I think about the tens of millions of individuals consuming ‘methods to lose face fats’ content material on TikTok can be, too.
Most just lately, Sophie Turner denied rumours of buccal fats removing. In an interview with Vogue, the 28-year-old actor shared how the hyper-fixation on her physique when she first hit the mainstream – and the merciless feedback on-line if her weight fluctuated even barely – brought about harsh self-criticism. “Once you’re bulimic, your face tends to bloat,” she stated. “So after I lastly did get higher in my early 20s, my face went again to regular. Then, all of the sudden, all of the feedback have been about whether or not I’d had buccal fats removing or not. You’ll be able to by no means win.”
Sialadenosis, or ‘bulimia face’, happens when the salivary glands turn out to be swollen from repeated publicity to abdomen acid on account of purging. The parotid glands – which sit behind our buccal fats pads – swell, inflicting puffy cheeks. As somebody who, like Sophie, had bulimia on account of poor physique picture, it makes me unhappy to consider 21-year-old me, desperately making an attempt to slim down a face which can have been extra-bloated on account of the consuming dysfunction she was preserving a secret from everybody round her.
After a decade of desperately making an attempt to bronze, buff and mix my buccal fats away, maybe it’s time I took a leaf out of the Gen Z e-book of progressive magnificence. Extra importantly, I hope the tens of millions of girls and ladies consuming content material on ‘getting a thinner face’ know that the scale of their buccal fats pads doesn’t outline them. Identical to it doesn’t outline me.
For extra from GLAMOUR’s Web site Director and Physique Discuss columnist, Ali Pantony, comply with her on Instagram @alipantony.
For recommendation or data on the matters talked about on this article, contact Beat, the UK’s main consuming dysfunction charity, on 0808 801 0677.