Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the timing of the weight loss resurgence feels targeted and purposeful. In 2012, I was only 12 when I made an account on Tumblr.com. I wanted to run a blog dedicated to the bands I loved, and I did. But there was a much darker side of Tumblr. I didn’t participate, but I was an active observer.
Tumblr was well known for its glamorization of self-harm, addiction, and eating disorders. Real life issues that people struggled with were turned into aesthetic posts to be reblogged by hundreds and thousands of teenagers. Subconsciously, we were being taught that mental health struggle equates to beauty and recognition.
Around this time, there was a phrase tossed around by people I went to school with and people I followed on Tumblr. “Think skinny!” It was a rapid-fire quip, a reminder, to think about what we should eat to be skinny, fit into smaller clothes, shrink ourselves into smaller spaces.
Then in the late 2010s, between 2014ish and 2019ish, Tumblr started to die (out of the zeitgeist). Suddenly, body positivity was everywhere, especially following Meghan Trainor’s release of “All About That Bass” (other Trainor lore notwithstanding, the song was important for its time). Instagram saw an influx in people posting about body positivity. Plus-sized models were cast for roles that were previously filled by smaller models, and it became widely accepted to love yourself no matter what you looked like. Some countries, like France, even passed legislation prohibiting the use of excessively thin models to promote a specific image.
Growing up in the Tumblr era, and just being a teenaged girl once, taught me that it didn’t matter what my body looked like, I should never be happy with it. I’ve always worked hard to love myself and often fall short. I used to think that people who claimed to love their bodies were lying (spoiler alert: they weren’t!) because I couldn’t imagine it for myself.
So, imagine my dismay when I realized that being small was back in style. It started with the rise of GLP-1s, something that I thought was only for celebrities, and then it made its way to the hands of average people. GLP-1s are primarily used to help people with diabetes by lowering insulin levels in their body. But because of their off-label use for weight loss, they can be bought online, without proper physician oversight, as long as you have enough money.
With the rise in popularity of GLP-1s came the popularity of buccal fat removal. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, and Sydney Sweeny all have the same face structure now. The surgery narrows their face and gives them a drawn look. But overall, in my opinion, the biggest change is that it makes them look underweight.
How someone wants to look is none of my business but combined with the overwhelming number of ads pushing weight loss medications, I feel like there’s a clear message: skinny is back on trend.
And this isn’t an attempt to shame smaller people. Some people have no control over their weight and are predisposed to being thinner, and even they can feel as if their body image isn’t enough. If you choose to be small, that’s an individual choice, and is best done with doctor supervision. But I feel like this trend of no longer loving our bodies can’t be looked at in a vacuum.
While Hollywood is projecting an image of smaller, borderline skeletal celebrities, President Donald Trump is slaughtering public assistance programs. In his legislation called the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump is slashing funding to food stamps by $186 billion over the next 10 years, that’s a 20% decrease in funding. So now, low-income people are going to have a harder time accessing and affording food because their assistance programs are being shuttered. At the same time, grocery prices are up almost 37%. Food is more expensive and less accessible, especially for those already struggling.
To me it feels like pop culture is telling us that looking skinny and underfed is in, so that when the general public can’t afford to eat anymore, their appearance won’t be questioned. A safeguard is being built so that it isn’t seen as inhumane when people start to starve. Instead, it’ll be seen as trendy.
Loving your body is something that many people already struggle with. Now that weight loss assistance is being forced down our throats at a concerning speed, it’s feeling impossible to navigate. And while I go to the gym, it’s to build strength, not to lose weight. I have no desire to be underfed or underweight, something that I didn’t think would be controversial to say in 2026.
And I hope I’m wrong, that there’s not a sinister reason for the collective messaging that skinny is on trend. I hope that eventually, people get their public assistance funding back. But I’m not trying to be an alarmist. I’m just trying to be realistic.