By Ineza Merci
Sunglasses belong on our face, right? Well, for Love Island star, Olandria, they can also be worn around her waist.
In a TikTok video, now deleted, Olandria participated in an online challenge where she was supposed to wear sunglasses on her waist. As she obtained over 14 million views, it appears that she won. She effortlessly placed not one but two sunglasses on her waist. While a handful of fans were stunned and applauded Olandria’s success, others critiqued the influencer of “promoting unrealistic beauty standards”.
A fan took to X and expressed her dislike for Olandria’s video writing, “I love Olandria but fuck her for posting that video. Now everybody who is already skinny is upset they aren’t skinny enough because they can’t put sunglasses on their waist”.
In contrast, another user commented on a TikTok video saying, “I don’t see anything wrong with this trend. We don’t all have the same body type but this trend is for those types of people and we should let people admire themselves.”
Some women dislike Olandria’s decision to make a “body checking” video–being a bad influence–while other women believe that it is not her, or anyone else’s, fault that women are feeling bad about their bodies, especially as adults.
In a clip of her TikTok live, posted on X, Olandria had this to say in response: “I love all body types. I’m not encouraging nobody to look a certain way. I always encourage people to be the best versions of themselves.”
In a TikTok by user Mia Douglas, Douglas shares a different view where she doesn’t agree with villainizing Olandria, but instead believes that the trend is just simply the main issue. Captioned on screen, Douglas writes, in part, “This trend and any trend about bodies being smaller…has been weird and it’s disingenuous to only speak up about that now because you want to use it for some weird agenda you have against Olandria.”
While a challenge like this one may seem like a case of a harmless flex of one’s natural physique, it’s important to note that it appears as body checking to many people. In fact, if the words “Olandria sunglasses” is looked up on TikTok’s search bar, users get a “You are not alone” message and phone number for the eating disorder hotline.
As this trend dies down, the conversations surrounding this topic deserve to remain constant. Whether Olandria deleted or made the video private, its digital footprint remains visible and memorable to those that witnessed it.