With an influx of social media hashtags such as #summer body, #weightlossgoals, and #skinnylegend, it’s easy to get sucked into the idea that a summer without perfectly tanned skin and a flat stomach is not sufficient. The constant upsurge of social media’s presence in our lives has made it possible for harmful trends such as these to arise and rapidly gain popularity. Many content creators have championed the “summer body” trend for the past few years, creating a collective mindset that a body that doesn’t check off certain boxes is a body that could never be loved. The “summer body” trend refers to the documentation of diet and workout regimens to create the “most appealing” body for being seen in summer clothes. This mindset is especially detrimental for teens who are already faced with many social pressures, unrealistic expectations, and possible mental health issues. As summer is approaching, it is becoming increasingly important to highlight the issues that these toxic beauty trends create.

Large social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can easily create false perceptions of what we should look like. These platforms’ sole purpose is to keep users scrolling for as long as possible, because the ads that pop up every once in a while create revenue for the company. Unfortunately, this leads to people, especially young women and girls, coming across videos and posts that encourage people to shave off weight before the summer and enter the season prepared to rock a bikini.

Why should a random content creator on the internet get to dictate who can and can’t wear a certain type of swimsuit? This random content creator is likely following the ever-changing beauty standards that are so prevalent in today’s society. The Kardashians, Bella Hadid, and other such celebrities are quick to deny having had plastic surgery procedures done, but the repercussions of these denials are massive. These actions cause the emergence of unrealistic standards in the beauty world as the lines between plastic surgery and natural features are muddled, and the usage of social media filters and photoshop intensify. With these quite literally impossible standards set, online influencers feel the need to conform to a certain body type, and may even believe that without achieving their goal, they could never be content.

This constant circulation of the so-called perfect body type creates a mindset that eventually leads to a higher likelihood of people developing mental health problems. When a person compares their own body to someone else’s, they become more likely to develop body dysmorphia and eventually even eating disorders. Evidently, the whole theme that lies at the heart of the “summer body” trend on social media is the idea of comparison, jealousy,

When many people active on social media are already dealing with body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, this feeling of forced conformity and a need to change in order to fit impossible beauty standards only increases the pain and the burden on their mental health.

It is also important to consider that for teens and young people, this issue may be even worse. For one, young people make up the largest demographic of Instagram users. In 2023, Statista, a German company that specializes in gathering data, found that almost 70 percent of Instagram users globally are 34 years old or younger. It is also true that young people are much more susceptible to social influence and pressure, so when they view a certain look or body type as the standard, they likely feel the need to conform to it. With the added pressure of adhering to the “summer body” trend or other such social influences, young individuals who are already struggling face even more pressure and harmful criticism.

The “summer body” trend on social media and other tags like it create more insecurities, more mental health problems, and more hatred towards one’s own self-image. The time to eradicate all such terrible messaging is now; far too many people on social media have felt the need to look slimmer, tanner, and more “perfect,” just because an influencer on Instagram said they must do so before the summer. It is so important to remember that the “summer body” is not a real thing because perfection is such a varied construct. It is absolutely imperative that we vocally defy these terrible standards and put an end to these damaging, detrimental trends.