Is the wellness industry doing more harm than good?
The wellness industry has no doubtedly become one of the fastest growing industries within the past few years, recently dominating social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok.
The Google definition of the wellness industry is that it’s “the pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that contribute to holistic health.” It basically involves taking sometimes simple and sometimes more extreme steps and lifestyle changes, to have a healthier mental and physical well-being.
Image via Poosh on Pinterest
To put into perspective the scale of this new wellness movement, #skincare has been viewed over 111 billion times on Tik Tok and #wellness has been viewed over 6 billion times. The industry is also estimated to be worth around $4.5 trillion.
It’s recent explosion over social media, however, has made it become more of a trend rather than just a casual change of lifestyle; it’s even helped birth the newly popularised term ‘that girl’ which has been trending all over various social media platforms.
According to Urban Dictionary, ‘that girl’ is: “a girl (or any gender) that gets up at 5am, meditates, drinks smoothies, has showers every day, journaling, eating only healthy food, goes to gym every day and is successful in many ways. This stereotype is typically on Tik Tok and films morning or night routines. Most likely rich too.”
Image via the teen magazine on Pinterest
‘That girl’ morning routines, are videos mainly shared on Tik Tok, which show off people manifesting their success. Most of these videos feature girls doing almost exactly (or a very similar variation) of what was listed in the Urban Dictionary definition, showing off an aesthetic and idealised version of getting up at 5am and being nothing but productive all day. In short, the girls in these videos seem to have their sh*t together, and often end up inspiring their viewers to do the same.
It could be argued that wellness has taken over from the uprise of the makeup industry around 2016. Contrary to a few years ago, where full beat glam makeup with heavy contour, cut creases and blinding highlight was the look to have; nowadays a more natural, glowy makeup look has been trending over social media. The term ‘clean girl makeup’ was trending just a few months ago, now with over 770 million views on Tik Tok, featuring tutorials on how to get your makeup to look as ‘clean’ and natural as possible.
Image via @kyliejenner on Instagram
The main difference between the trend of wellness and that girl, opposed to other viral trends on social media like the 2016 makeup, y2k or e-girls for example, is that rather being based around purely aesthetic (although this isn’t to say that isn’t one of its appeals) it’s more focused on creating and manifesting a better lifestyle for yourself.
It must be said that compared to a lot of other trends that have been popularised on the internet, one that promotes mental and physical wellbeing is a lot less harmful than many others. However, for the majority of people, with full time jobs and not that much time and disposable income to invest into wellbeing, it can make them feel unproductive and create unrealistic expectations.
What is easy to forget when watching these aesthetically pleasing videos, is that most of the people who post them are full time content creators, without the usual 9-5 job or studying constraints. This allows them to easily have the time to spend a few hours a day at the gym and take themselves out for a green juice after, and more than enough disposable income to spend on expensive self-care products.
It’s very easy to be blinded by the aesthetic of their avocado toast and acai bowls (because trust me, I’ve been there), however when a person with a less privileged lifestyle tries to implement the ‘that girl’ routine into their own lives, it can often lead to disappointment when it’s 10 times harder than it looked on Tik Tok.
Image via @emmalorrae on Instagram
Skincare is another huge factor when it comes to wellness, featuring in the majority of ‘that girl’ routines, which has lead to blemish and acne free, ‘healthy’-looking skin being idealised. This new obsession with achieving a naturally flawless looking face, again, is extremely unrealistic and extremely hard to achieve if you aren’t rich enough to afford such skincare products or aren't naturally blessed with clear skin. I also can’t help but feel that labelling such looks as ‘clean girl makeup’ could be damaging for those without naturally flawless skin and find it hard to achieve the looks they find online, as this enforces the incorrect assumption that their skin is unclean.
Image via @christinachloe01 on Pinterest
However, it’s becoming clear that many social media users are starting to get tired of the pressure that the ‘that girl’/ the ‘clean girl’ trend has started to put onto us, with a new Tik Tok trend starting where people post their ‘clean girl photos’ which are ironically quite the opposite, with messy photos from nights out and mid mental breakdown, for example. Other videos I’ve seen on my For You Page have more straight up been calling ‘that girls’ out, saying that a common fashion trope of theirs (wearing blazers) are ugly, one video with the caption “unpopular opinion: ‘clean girl’ outfits are ugly af- like why are you wearing a blazer to get coffee.”
I believe at its core, the wellness industry can provide many benefits to help improve someone’s physical and mental health and sometimes a small change like journaling for example, can help reduce stress and anxiety greatly. However, it also can create a lot of false hope that is only perpetuated by social media. It makes us believe that becoming ‘that girl’ is an easy fix that will cure our mental illnesses and change our lives, when really it can take a lot more and ironically add more pressure on us.