TikTok just made a move aimed to help protect teen girls’ mental health — but it feels like too little, too late. The social media app announced that they banned the hashtag “SkinnyTok” from being searched worldwide after pressure from European policymakers.
What Is SkinnyTok?
According to Politico, the TikTok ban happened because of the popularity of “SkinnyTok,” with young women promoting extreme diets and weight loss tips. “[We] have blocked search results for #skinnytok since it has become linked to unhealthy weight loss content,” TikTok spokesperson Paolo Ganino said in a statement Monday.
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SheKnows Teen Council Member Juliet wrote an essay about how SkinnyTok has had an influence on her and her friends. Like ahead of prom, when a friend told her she was “prepping” by running daily and eating only a protein bar and small dinner.
“I asked her how she got this idea, and she showed me a video on SkinnyTok,” Juliet wrote. “After watching the video that inspired my friend, I was hooked on this account. I scrolled through for an hour, looking at all this woman’s tips and tricks. And when I got up to look in the mirror afterwards, I was about twenty pounds heavier than I was twenty minutes earlier — or at least, that’s how it felt.”
It’s great that TikTok is making a move to discourage this behavior, but it’s not enough.
Diet Culture
As a survivor of the early 2000s-diet culture, I am intimately familiar with the harm an obsession with weight can do to teen and tween girls. We’ve had a run of body positivity that was encouraging for a time in the late 2010s, but it seems like society has made a full 360 turn back to promoting skinniness above all else.
This has been pushed largely by the popularity of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic that is being touted by celebrities — Megan Trainor even changed the lyrics of her positive “All About That Bass” lyrics change now that she more closely resembles the “stick-figure, silicone Barbie doll” standard that she once spoke out against. But outside of the celebrity world, real teens (and even grown women) are promoting the skinny standard online, especially on video-sharing platforms like TikTok.
A 2024 study found that it takes just 8 minutes for young women to be negatively affected by eating disorder content on TikTok. Eight minutes!? I’m shocked, but I’m not surprised. Seeing your friends and influencers talk about their obsessive health routines, the “toxic” foods they cut out from their lives, and the importance of fasting or doing extreme exercise routines — it’s hard to ignore that or not compare yourself to those impossible standards.
“Diet culture is a multi-billion dollar industry,” Sammi Farber, a psychotherapist, coach, and TikToker who specializes in helping clients recover from eating disorders, previously told SheKnows. “Children, young adults, and teens don’t realize that what they’re watching is quite literally brainwashing them in a matter of seconds.”
Now What?
Search “SkinnyTok” now, and you’ll be directed to resources like the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, per Teen Vogue. But something else will surely take its place, like when “suicide” was banned from searches, so people started writing and searched “unalived” instead.
What we need is a larger cultural shift away from “skinny is the golden standard” mindset. We need more diverse body representation, a bigger push on body acceptance, and conversations that call out harmful advice or ideas in the name of “health” or “wellness.” No, it’s not OK to drink coffee all day instead of eating. It’s not healthy or cute to starve yourself, and it definitely shouldn’t be normalized.
One 2024 study found that individuals with eating disorders were pushed an astonishing 4343% more toxic disordered eating videos than others, including 335% more dieting videos and 142% more exercise videos. Even though SkinnyTok is no longer allowed, the mindset behind it is, so it’s only a matter of time before a new trend takes its place. It’s like a game of whack-a-mole; as soon as you squash one thing, another pops up.
TikTokers are posting health or fitness “inspo” that basically glamorizes disordered eating. Like when they post about everything they eat in a day, or when they asked followers to share “their most unhinged diet tips” that include harmful behavior and tips on eating less to achieve a certain look. (I saw one that recommended you eat all your meals in a bikini to motivate you to eat less.) It’s scary. I’m not nearly as impressionable as a teen, but even I am susceptible to obsessing over the way my body looks and feeling shamed for eating whatever food is deemed unhealthy this week after being on TikTok.
It’s important for parents to talk to their teens and tween about body positivity, the dangers of eating disorders, and learning how to recognize (and call out!) toxic dieting trends. If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Alliance for Eating Disorders confidential helpline at 866-662-1235.
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