Lifestyle
13 Things Beauty And Lifestyle Influencers Pushed Onto Teenagers In The 2010s That Are Kind Of Wild To Look Back On
This article discusses aspects of toxic diet culture and calorie counting/restriction.
If you’re anything like me, you grew up obsessed with beauty and lifestyle YouTubers in the 2010s. Recently, I found myself (no longer an impressionable 14-year-old) rewatching clips from said YouTubers through a very different lens. So with that said, let’s look back on some of the totally “normal” things that were pushed onto teenagers throughout the 2010s that were actually not so normal:
1. Bethany Mota’s “sick day” routine involved her putting on a load of makeup, curling her hair, throwing on accessories, and then heading out to the store to grab some froyo.
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2. Similarly, her post-gym routine entailed putting on lipstick, mascara, and blush right after a PE session and before heading to her next class.
3. And her “running late for school” morning routine also involved a ton of makeup and braiding her hair.
I can’t quite say that my late days looked the same.
4. Meanwhile, Bethany shared a bunch of DIY room decor hacks, too — one of her most memorable to me being the camera-style prop she crafted using recycled cans of Arizona iced tea. Points for creativity, although several fans have admitted that cutting open the aluminium cans to piece the cameras together left them with some injuries.
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5. Twins Niki and Gabi DeMartino once memorably shared their weight loss “tips,” which included eating just half a slice of pizza (instead of two) whenever they had a craving for it. “Instead of having two slices of pizza, which I used to always have, it’s literally going from having two slices to one half of a slice to fulfill that craving, and then having something else healthy on the side. Instead of filling yourself with two slices of pizza, which isn’t good for you,” said Niki.
6. And as if we needed more proof that diet culture was rampant at the time, MyLifeAsEva — aka Eva Gutowski — was one of many YouTubers sharing tutorials on how to make a salad that has since been described as nothing but “leaves in a jar.” “Leaves in a jar salad… No wonder we were leaving lunch hungrier than we entered,” one TikTok user said as they reshared the old footage recently.
7. YouTuber Wengie also shared a bunch of “lazy hacks” for weight loss. One of these “hacks” involved turning down her thermostat by a few degrees because the body supposedly burns more calories in the cold. “Obviously, don’t turn your temperature down so much that you’re shivering, but a few degrees probably won’t be too noticeable. But actually, shivering burns a lot of calories, but it’s very uncomfortable, and I really don’t recommend it,” she said.
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8. What’s more, Wengie encouraged followers to eat off of smaller plates if they wanted to lose weight in order to “trick” their brains into thinking that they were eating more.
9. Wengie also said that watching funny videos would help burn calories, too, as well as strengthen abdominal muscles. “Studies have shown that laughing intensely for an hour can burn as many as a hundred calories,” she said.
10. She also stated, “Watching a scary movie can help you lose weight. The scarier it is, the more calories you burn. Studies have shown that one viewing of The Shining can burn 180 calories.”
11. Beauty “hacks” were also all the rage across the 2010s, especially when it came to Rclbeauty — aka Rachel Levin — who once shared a “DIY” video on how to make bronzer from cocoa powder.
12. She also taught her followers how to make “mascara” from blueberries.
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13. And how to use colored pencils as a substitute for eyeliner.
I do have to say: While some of the more lighthearted things we can definitely look back on and laugh at, it’s genuinely sad that diet culture was as rampant as it was.
Can you think of other totally “normal” things from the 2010s that haven’t aged amazingly? Let us know in the comments.
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