These days, everything is online. We use social media every day to talk to our friends, follow celebrities, and find entertainment. There are so many different types of content creators, with so many different types of content. TikTok is so popular that there are one billion videos uploaded every day.

Some content creators, called influencers, make a living through apps such as YouTube and TikTok. A good portion of the content creators focus on makeup, skincare, and haircare. A lot of these people use filters and blurring tools, creating unfair beauty standards that can’t ever be reached naturally. As a lot of the viewers are teenagers and kids, this can impact on their ability to feel beautiful in their own skin, their confidence and their mental health. These kids are going through puberty while also juggling school and the struggles of adolescence. While you are going through adolescence, you are very vulnerable, as you are struggling to maintain mental health, to feel good about your body, and with your hormones being all over the place you will probably be very stressed. This is particularly the case in girls as when they start puberty and their periods, that they might get cramps and mood swings, which will add to their already surging hormones.

A 2021 leak of a Facebook study into Instagram showed that body image issues in young women were worse for one in three teenage girls. Further studies have shown that among teenagers who reported suicidal thoughts, 6 percent in the U.S. can be traced back to Instagram. This, coupled with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report, shows that the number of suicides in females aged 15-24 increased 87 percent over the past 20 years. These influencers who are trying to make themselves look amazing are making viewers feel horrible about their own appearance, causing some to fall into depression and have suicidal thoughts. 

However, some influencers have realised the impact this has on their followers and have decided not to continue these unrealistic beauty standards anymore. They have chosen to stop using digital enhancements on their media – filters such as “the skinny filter” from TikTok, and the “perfect face filter” from Instagram. 

One example of this, is the 25-year-old English influencer Rikki Sandhu (@Rikkisandhuu), who became famous for posting her makeup tutorials and “hacks” on TikTok and YouTube. For over a year, Rikki has been rejecting these unrealistic beauty standards and revealing her natural skin. This has helped women and girls become confident in their own bodies as well as feel better about their insecurities, as someone is finally showing them what their insecurities look like on camera.