Skinny Tok: Does Skinny Equal Beautiful

Skinny Tok is a community on TikTok which discusses weight loss. This community is distinct from the fitness and nutrition communities because it's made up of "average" women who provide "realistic" and uncensored weight loss hacks which personally worked for them. I'm not a nutritionist so I'm not here to discuss their dieting tips, however, I find issue with the tone on skinny tok which tends to further perpetuate women's insecurities with their bodies while confining the definition of beauty to a dress size. This is done by shaming women who aren't thin by name calling and attributing beauty and happiness to thinness.

There seems to be an overarching theme that you will feel beautiful and happy with your appearance when you become thin, but this is false. I find that feeding into one insecurity breeds more insecurities; at least this was my experience. After consuming this kind of content, I found myself noticing things about my appearance that had never previously been an insecurity—one insecurity bred another, and another. It became exhausting trying to keep up. I realized I was falling victim to these beauty standards. I hate being enslaved to anything, so I knew I had to make changes to shield myself from the constant propaganda. To this day, I actively work on shielding myself from this. Below are some of the things I learned and implemented in my life to help me regain my power.

Here's what I learned:

Beauty is not one particular size or aesthetic. I may be considered beautiful in some communities and ugly in others and that's OK! I'm not everyone's cup of tea and honestly who cares? Everyone's not my cup of tea. If you want to be everyone's cup of tea, you will die trying.

Being a particular size may make you feel more comfortable in your body, sure, but it does not equate to how you will ultimately feel about yourself. Who cares how skinny I am if I can't truly experience what it's like to feel beautiful. You can be insecure and unhappy with yourself at a size 20 and at a size 0 alike, this is why size shouldn't be the focus. How many women do we see all around us who feel the constant need to change something about their appearance until they're unidentifiable or sick? It doesn't end at size if you don't heal the root issue.

I love beauty content, but I've had to actively unfollow people who triggered my insecurities. Does this mean I cannot follow thin women? Absolutely not. For me, this means following beauty content creators who look more like me or have a similar body type. Remember, there's still a little girl inside of you looking up to these images; don't make it harder for her to feel beautiful. If you're constantly being fed images of people that look nothing like you, it's natural to begin to feel inadequate. So, censor your feed!

Most importantly, ask yourself: who defines beauty for me? I decided to hand that authorship to God, and I'm glad I did because who better than the source of all creation? I had never felt physically inadequate until I exchanged God's definition of beauty for society's definition. God says you're created in his image and likeness, that everything he created is good and we are His workmanship. On the contrary, society's beauty standards are ever changing, vary from region to region, and will leave you wanting. God's definition has empowered me because it reminds me that I'm divine, so I don't need to reduce my definition of beauty to a size or an aesthetic set by others. Ultimately, I know that beauty is something you possess within and then radiate (but we won't get into that today).

These are the lessons I've embraced and woven into my own life, and my hope is that they empower you on your journey to feeling confident and radiant in your own skin—no matter what.

Biblical References on beauty:

Genesis 1:27

1 Samuel 16:7

Psalm 139: 14

Proverbs 31:30

1 Peter 3:3-4