World News

The Skinny Epidemic

By Rani Haddad ‘28 in Spring 2026

Scroll though TikTok or Instagram for a few minutes, and this statement becomes pretty apparent. The “skinniness epidemic" is not a medical term, but rather a cultural and social trend of unhealthy skinniness, typically in women. Whether it is being on what some call “skinny tok” or watching your favorite influencers like Alix Earle or Liv Schmidt, unhealthy eating habits such as skipping meals, restricting food intake, or not eating enough in a day show up almost everywhere on social media. 

Though it is very present out in the world, the concept of normalized eating disorders and just unhealthy eating habits are most visible online. Tiktok and Instagram, two of the largest social media platforms on the planet, are extremely targeted towards young people, specifically teenagers. Most content from the algorithm consistently pushes a similar body type, reinforcing and only representing a narrow body standard. This shows up in different forms, whether it is “what I eat in a day” videos that seem to only total to 500 calories when a normal daily intake is almost quadruple, or fitness lifestyle content that frames restriction as discipline and wellness. 

Some experts and studies have linked low bone density or “weak bones” directly in relation to insufficient diets and anorexia. While adolescence is a critical time for bone development, there has been a specific uprise in low bone density in young girls. This seemingly unharmful choice of eating less, is setting them up for premature osteoporosis; a condition where bones become weak and fragile, and are far more likely to break, heavily increasing the risk of fractures and long term bone problems.

At the same time, some would say that this current concern is not new. The idea of skinniness being the ideal “beautiful” body type has been around for decades, but it is more recent that it has been called out. It is hard to say if this is a new “skinny epidemic" or or just beauty standards being repeated, but social media plays a major role in amplifying it, making these ideals more visible and influential than ever before. It is very obviously affecting how young people view body image.