In 2025, the pressure to be thin isn’t just back—it’s repackaged, rebranded, and algorithmically amplified. On social media, we’re watching a familiar aesthetic re-emerge, embedded in appearance-focused content and often disguised as health or lifestyle advice.
Add to that the rise of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy—marketed and memed into the mainstream—and it’s hard not to notice how quickly the digital landscape is shifting.
The return of thinness as a cultural ideal isn’t new. But the speed, scale, and subtlety of how it’s showing up again—especially in the context of social media—raises new concerns about the impact on body image, disordered eating, and recovery culture. This blog looks at the renewed influence of social media on eating disorders: how we’re seeing old patterns resurface in new formats, who’s most vulnerable, and what we can do to push back.
We’ve talked about the broader link between social media and eating disorders before—for an overview of the basics, you can read our previous blog here. This time, we’re digging deeper into the evolution of these trends and what they signal about where we’re headed.
Is Social Media Fueling Eating Disorders… Again?
The connection between social media and eating disorders has been discussed for years, but the content we’re seeing now is showing up in faster, more subtle ways. What once came in the form of edited “thinspo” photos has become a constant stream of short videos that blend aesthetic pressure with language about health, wellness, and productivity. TikTok has become a central platform for these shifts.
#SkinnyTok continues to trend, often promoting shrinking the body and glorifying discipline. The #WhatIEatInADay format encourages comparison and frames restrictive eating as personal achievement. More recent trends like The Winter Arc extend this messaging into colder seasons, reframing year-round body pressure through a curated mix of fitness, food, and appearance-based routines.
At the same time, GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have entered the social media conversation in full force. The hashtag #Ozempic has surpassed a billion views, and while some videos discuss clinical use, many focus on visible results and rapid body transformation. Seeing public figures reshape themselves to match shifting standards—often amid speculation about these medications—only intensifies the pressure.
These messages rarely appear dangerous on the surface. They’re packaged as motivation, discipline, or routine. But for people vulnerable to eating disorders, the message underneath is clear: thinness is still the goal, and changing your body is a measure of success.
Eating Disorders, Social Media, and Youth Vulnerability
Adolescents are especially vulnerable to the influence of social media, not just because of the volume of content they’re exposed to, but because of how their brains are still developing. The prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate judgment, impulse control, and long-term decision-making, doesn’t fully mature until the mid-20s. This makes it harder for teens to pause, assess, or question the underlying messages they’re absorbing. What registers instead is immediacy: likes, algorithms, comparison, and perceived standards.
Unlike adults who may remember the rise and fall of previous beauty trends, many teens are encountering this version of the thin ideal for the first time. Without that historical context, it doesn’t feel like a trend; it feels like the baseline. Thinness, discipline, and curated perfection aren’t new expectations, they’re simply the default.
Eating disorders among adolescents are rising, and the influence of digital culture is impossible to separate from that trend. Social platforms don’t cause eating disorders outright, but they create a feedback loop: exposure, normalization, reinforcement. For young people still forming their identities and relationships with food and body image, that loop can become hard to break.
Media Literacy, Weight Stigma, and the Fight for Prevention, Recognition, and Early Intervention
The harm caused by social media’s influence on body image and disordered eating is real, but it’s not irreversible. There are concrete steps we can take—as clinicians, caregivers, educators, and community members—to interrupt harmful messaging and support a culture that resists thinness as a standard of worth.
1. Stay Informed: Media Literacy Needs to Keep Evolving
Years ago, digital literacy efforts focused on helping young people identify when images had been digitally altered—Photoshop, airbrushing, filters. Today, the challenge is recognizing misinformation. The pressure to conform is no longer just visual, it’s ideological. Harm now spreads through algorithmically boosted “wellness” content, vague or distorted health advice, and diet culture repackaged as self-discipline. Being media literate today means learning to question not just what you see, but what you’re being told—and why it’s being promoted in the first place.
Trends like #WhatIEatInADay now trigger warnings and link to eating disorder resources on platforms like TikTok, but that doesn’t erase the message. Harmful content is often subtle, appearing under the guise of productivity, self-discipline, or health. Recognizing these patterns requires vigilance. Keeping our fingers on the pulse of what’s trending can help us stay one step ahead in preventing its normalization.
2. Advocate for Body Diversity and Fight Weight Stigma
Challenging weight stigma is more important than ever. The push for thinness is no longer limited to fashion magazines or fitness culture, it’s embedded in medicine, social media, and everyday conversation. We need to actively challenge myths about what causes higher weight and promote education that reflects current research.
A 2023 meta-analysis found no increased mortality risk for people in larger bodies. In fact, those in the so-called “overweight” BMI range often had better outcomes than those in the “normal” range. This research challenges the core assumption that fatness equals poor health and reinforces the importance of shifting from weight-based to health-centered care.
Support for body diversity needs to extend into healthcare, schools, and family systems. Language matters. So does modeling respect for all body sizes, especially in front of children and teens.
3. Prioritize Early Intervention and Engaging Adolescents
The adolescent mental health crisis that worsened during the pandemic hasn’t gone away. Eating disorders are appearing earlier and more often, but outcomes are significantly improved with early care. The earlier we catch the signs, the better the chances of interrupting the cycle before it becomes entrenched.
Early intervention doesn’t just happen in therapy offices. It happens in pediatricians’ visits, school nurse conversations, and in the way coaches and teachers talk about bodies, health, and discipline. We need more providers trained to recognize the signs, and more creative ways of engaging teens that don’t rely on shame or fear. Centering curiosity, connection, and agency makes a difference.
Where We Go From Here
The resurgence of thinness as an ideal, fueled by social media trends and the normalization of weight loss drugs, reminds us how quickly harmful narratives can take hold. For adolescents, especially, the risks are real. But so are the opportunities for intervention. Staying informed, advocating for body diversity, and pushing for early recognition can help us shift the conversation toward something more honest, inclusive, and protective.
If you or someone you know is seeking compassionate and effective treatment, reach out and contact ‘Ai Pono Hawaii to discuss the diverse options available and start the journey to recovery today.
*At ʻAi Pono, we recognize that there are many reasons someone may be prescribed or choose to take GLP-1 medications. We take a nonjudgmental, collaborative approach that honors each client’s health, recovery goals, and individual context. This article is intended to reflect on current social, medical, and cultural trends—not to shame or discourage those navigating complex decisions in a weight-stigmatizing world.
