By: Jane Wilde

Culture Editor

It’s no secret that aging is a difficult part of life. Your energy diminishes and health issues develop; however, the beautiful side of getting older is rarely talked about. Lately, instead of appreciating the blessing that is aging, society is turning it into something negative and “fixable.”

This concept has been prevalent on TikTok and Instagram with various anti-aging beauty trends rising to popularity. Influencers discuss methods as simple as the Gua Sha (a traditional Chinese tool used for anti-inflammatory purposes), and frequent application of sunscreen, to anti-aging straws. These videos include a fixation on refraining from sucking on straws, laughing too hard, and squinting too much — all in order to prevent wrinkles. These influencers also preach that you should never sleep on your side because it creates face wrinkles and unevens your bone structure over time. 

Other creators implore that you can train your face muscles into complete and utter stillness in order to achieve a youthful appearance. They give instructions on how to eliminate any exaggerated emotion from your face, whether that be smiling too hard, a look of confusion, or laughing with a little bit too much happiness for their liking; to train your face not to utilize those muscles. It is also suggested you refrain from looking down too often to avoid potential neck rolls. 

All of this delivers a harmful message to impressionable audiences, especially its targeted audience, young girls on Tiktok, that you must impair your living quality in order to prevent aging. Additionally, none of these “fixes” have ever been proven to work. As the main source of this content comes from influencers, not doctors, the information shouldn’t be deemed reliable as it isn’t even medically certified; however many continue to endorse and believe it. 

Along with ridiculous anti-aging methods, the new terms fox pretty, deer pretty, and rat pretty have found popularity online after videos came out comparing celebrities, addressing whether or not they fit the criteria. Rat pretty means your features are more defined, while deer and fox pretty entail softer features. To describe the celebrities, many say things like, “they aged like milk,” insinuating that they aged rapidly and poorly. These terms, along with the “clean girl” phenomenon, go hand in hand with the hatred against aging as they all imply that youth is physically more favorable than old age. 

As if the beauty standards for women are not high enough already, society is giving women yet another reason to hate themselves. This causes young girls to use skincare prematurely just for the “clean girl aesthetic” and purpose of anti aging, another trend where members of generation-alpha raid Sephora for their skincare products. It can also give older viewers the idea that they have lost all their beauty and worth to society. 

For many people, it can be difficult to grasp the inevitability of aging, beauty related or not. However, the first step to acceptance is to start living authentically and let go of useless anti-aging trends, especially if you’re a young girl. After all, aging shows you have lived and what’s more important in life than experience itself.