Ciara Kelly: Toxic femininity is real and dangerous. So why is there no moral panic about the influencers who target girls rather than boys?

"We need to hold beauty influencers to account for undermining girls' self-esteem in what could be deemed 'toxic femininity'"

"A leading Irish psychiatrist has said online beauty influencers are as harmful for adolescent girls as Andrew Tate is for boys. Professor Matthew Sadlier said: "I think beauty influencers are just as toxic as Andrew Tate, they're just toxic to a different population." And he's right. We hear a huge amount about Tate and his ilk causing an upsurge in toxic masculinity. Well, we should call this what it is: toxic femininity."

"Toxic femininity that reportedly sees girls as young as six asking Santa for anti-ageing creams. That sees schoolgirls seeking to go on sunbeds before they make their confirmation. That has girls starving themselves again, in a throwback to the heroin chic of the 1990s and calling it #thinspiration."

Online beauty influencers promote narrow beauty ideals that damage adolescent girls' self‑esteem in ways comparable to influential toxic male figures for boys. Young girls are reportedly requesting anti‑ageing products and pursuing harmful practices such as sunbed use before important milestones. Social media trends are reviving dangerous body‑image norms, including disordered eating and the glamorization of extreme thinness under tags like #thinspiration, echoing 1990s heroin chic. Accountability for beauty influencers is necessary to address the gendered spread of harmful beauty standards and prevent normalization of risky behaviors among impressionable children and teenagers.

Read at Independent