{"id":32,"date":"2026-08-18T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shoeleathermagazine.com\/2026\/?p=32"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:37:26","slug":"the-world-is-obsessed-with-being-thin-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shoeleathermagazine.com\/2026\/the-world-is-obsessed-with-being-thin-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The World is Obsessed with Being Thin. Again."},"content":{"rendered":"

As the era of self-love comes to end, image-obsessed language reminiscent of early 2000s diet culture is taking its place. And it\u2019s spreading further than ever before.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Taylor Swift steps on a scale that says she\u2019s fat in the music video for \u201cAnti-Hero.\u201d Photo courtesy of Taylor Swift.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Mina Rad was 20 years old, she had, to her knowledge, successfully beaten her eating disorder.<\/p>\n

For six years, Rad had struggled with a cycle of binging and restricting. Initially, Rad was binge eating, but after a friend made fun of her recent weight gain, she started restricting her food intake as a form of self-harm.<\/p>\n

As she got older, it felt like a competition to be the skinniest girl in school. Rad grew up watching \u201cThe Biggest Loser,\u201d a popular weight-loss competition television show, where whoever lost the highest percentage of body fat won a cash prize. Weight loss was a contest, and she wanted to win.<\/p>\n

Shortly after her 20th birthday, Rad had thought she put the competition behind her, so when she first encountered Liv Schmidt\u2019s advice on staying skinny, she thought nothing of it. Schmidt, a popular but controversial wellness influencer, posted portion-control \u201clife hacks\u201d and reminders to viewers to get their 10,000 steps in each day.<\/p>\n

Schmidt also ran a subscribers-only group chat called The Skinni Soci\u00e9t\u00e9. Whoever was interested just had to pay Schmidt $20 a month, and they would have access to exclusive tips from Schmidt and a network of other women, who were hoping to improve the discipline surrounding food. Hoping to work on her own portion control, Rad signed up.<\/p>\n

Rad stayed silent in the chat, but took in all Schmidt and her disciples had to offer. She enjoyed Schmidt\u2019s tips and appreciated her honesty. According to Rad, Schmidt said it was okay to want to be thin, as long as you weren\u2019t obsessive over it.<\/p>\n

Rad connected with the sentiment. She didn\u2019t understand why, at that time, Schmidt\u2019s content was being heavily criticized on TikTok. Schmidt\u2019s content was helpful, and even if the girls in her Instagram group chat were a bit competitive, everyone was still supportive. It wasn\u2019t until she stumbled across a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0of Schmidt\u2019s titled \u201cWhy I Don\u2019t Eat Like a Tourist\u201d that Rad started to get the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to try the food. I\u2019m here to look sculpted on the beach,\u201d Schmidt said in the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy memories don\u2019t come from meals. They come from how flat my stomach was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quickly after that, Rad unfollowed Schmidt and cancelled her subscription. She started to look at Schmidt\u2019s content with more skepticism, including Schmidt\u2019s controversies, which stemmed from all sorts of small comments, ranging from animal emojis to the color of someone\u2019s workout set.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t see this before,\u201d Rad recalled. \u201cShe basically said that if you are overweight you can\u2019t wear the color blue unless you\u2019re skinny or else it\u2019s gonna make you look like a whale.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Schmidt\u2019s post about staying thin on vacation was what prompted Rad to cancel her subscription. Photo courtesy of @livsschmidt on Instagram.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Schmidt\u2019s post about staying thin on vacation was what prompted Rad to cancel her subscription. Photo courtesy of @livsschmidt on Instagram.<\/p>\n

While Schmidt and her followers are loud, and growing increasingly louder, as her following has now reached over\u00a0300,000<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram (her original TikTok with over\u00a0600,000\u00a0<\/a>followers was deleted), they\u2019re not the only ones promoting this mindset.<\/p>\n

In 2009, super-model Kate Moss popularized the phrase \u201cnothing tastes as good as skinny feels,\u201d a mantra she picked up from her modeling friends. She initially faced backlash, and later distanced herself from the statement. But Moss\u2019s mantra is nothing compared to Schmidt\u2019s degrading statements.\u00a0Posts like<\/a>\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t reward yourself with food, you\u2019re not a dog\u201d are becoming more and more prevalent on the internet alongside Schmidt\u2019s tips. According to a\u00a0Reddit post,<\/a>\u00a0Schmidt\u2019s Skinni Soci\u00e9t\u00e9\u2019s page uploaded a post that read; \u201cBeing a true girls girl who wants everyone to get skinni is giving obese people wrong directions so they walk more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt isn\u2019t the only influencer who posts content like this, but she is considered one of the many leading faces of this strange cultural moment. In a TikTok video\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0by user Abbey Sharpe, a registered dietician, Sharpe claims that Schmidt makes six figures off her subscribers-only chat, which implies that the group is growing in numbers. Rhetoric like Schmidt\u2019s, which health experts warn is eating disorder motivation disguised as wellness advice, has been sneaking into public conversation for the last few years. It\u2019s not just on TikTok. Marketing campaigns, television, and online conversation on other platforms have gotten more and more obsessed with keeping women\u2019s bodies thin.<\/p>\n

This is a stark change from recent years. In the 2010s, body positivity, a movement dedicated to promoting love for all bodies, was sweeping America. Clothing brands were becoming more inclusive and plus-size models were getting more work. At the same time, anti-fat jokes and stereotypes were no longer as acceptable in film and television. While Moss initially faced backlash for her repeated mantra, it wasn\u2019t until the body positivity movement really hit mainstream that\u00a0Moss admitted<\/a>\u00a0she regretted the statement.<\/p>\n

But since the movement\u2019s peak, the body mindset has since been pushed aside in favor of \u201cnothing tastes as good as skinny feels\u201d meaner younger sister. Those interviewed for this story said it\u2019s now normal on social media, and in real life, for people to take a page from Schmidt\u2019s book and refer to others as whales, dogs and pigs. Brands are scaling back their in-store sizing, according to\u00a0TikTok users<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CNBC<\/a>, and actress Elle Fanning is now considered plus-size. Everything has added protein in it, everyone is on a wellness journey, and ads with Serena Williams and Mike Tyson that hawk weight loss medications are everywhere.<\/p>\n

Williams, the\u00a023-time<\/a>\u00a0Grand Slam-winning tennis player, partnered with wellness brand Ro to promote their telehealth weightloss program\u00a0in 2025<\/a>. She faced backlash for the campaign, and continued to face it after Roe launched a SuperBowl Commercial with Williams at the front of it. This campaign has been inescapable, and some individuals are tired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s being shoved down our throats,\u201d said Marielle Greguski, a plus-size influencer. \u201cI can\u2019t get on a subway without looking and seeing Serena Williams with that thing in her arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

While all of this isn\u2019t exactly new, the body positivity movement hoped to end negative discourse surrounding women\u2019s bodies, and muffled the noise as best as it could. Instead, the movement only made the discourse quieter, without making any major systemic changes.<\/p>\n

Rad, who has been in recovery for one year, has been staying away from any content related to body image. But the algorithms, she said, can be relentless. While she isn\u2019t seeing content like Schmidt\u2019s, extremely thin women still flood her feed. For Rad, the online environment fostered by influencers like Schmidt and others, is bleeding into everyday conversation, making women feel increasingly unsafe in their own skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey brand themselves as making community for people, but it\u2019s really to fuel each other\u2019s eating disorders,\u201d said Rad. \u201cThere\u2019s really nothing positive about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diet culture as we know it has existed longer than people might think. In 1860s England, William Banting, an obese mortician wanting to lose weight, met physician William Harvey. Harvey prescribed Banting a low-carbohydrate diet, and\u00a0diet culture was born<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Initially, dieting was more common for men, as people believed women lacked men\u2019s \u201cleanness and self- control<\/a>.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until the 1890s that dieting language began appearing in women\u2019s culture magazines. Alongside it came racist pseudoscience. The ideal body \u2014 which, at that point, was on the curvier side, more commonly seen in Black women \u2014 was shifting. According to authors Sabrina Strings and Lindo Bacon in their\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity\u201d for Scientific American, 19th century Black women were seen as having an \u201cinability to control their animal appetites,\u201d which pushed white women away from the curvier body that was once in fashion.<\/p>\n

As a response to World War I, the 1920s had women rationing food and counting calories. Years later, in the 1940s, as the concept of the ideal housewife was becoming more and more prevalent, \u201cslenderizing salons<\/a>\u201d began to pop up with machines designed to make the average woman more slender. While fad slimming technology and early diets were on the rise, diet culture was still in development. It wasn\u2019t until the obesity epidemic that the diet industry really took off.<\/p>\n

Obesity is a medical condition defined by the\u00a0World Health Organization<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cabnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.\u201d In order to classify as obese, an individual must have a body mass index of 30. Body mass index (BMI) is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters.<\/p>\n

The ongoing obesity epidemic is often cited to have begun in the 1980s, after obesity rates in American adults\u00a0rose from<\/a>\u00a015% in 1976\u20131980 to 23.3% in 1988\u20131994. In actuality, the American obesity epidemic first emerged in the 1950s, after insurance agencies began looking into the causes of heart disease, which at the time was the leading cause of death for Americans. In the 1950s, obesity was labeled by the\u00a0US Public Health Services<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe greatest problem in preventative medicine in the USA\u201d according to Nicolas Rasmussen\u2019s book \u201cFat in the Fifties.<\/a>\u201d Originally, obesity was considered a mental illness, and amphetamines were used to treat it.<\/p>\n

The epidemic largely disappeared from the public eye by the 1960s, until obesity rates rose in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Obesity rates have continued to rise ever since, and the adult obesity rate currently sits at 40.3%. There is no concrete reason as to why the rates have risen, but the increase of processed foods and decline of physical activity are possible factors.<\/p>\n

In response to the rising obesity rates of the \u201970s and \u201980s, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, released a set of\u00a0seven guidelines<\/a>\u00a0in early 1980. These guidelines include tips like \u201ceat a variety of food,\u201d \u201cmaintain ideal weight,\u201d and drink alcohol \u201cin moderation.\u201d The guide also informed readers to avoid too much fat, sugar, sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol.<\/p>\n

Diet culture was thriving, just under a different name. According to a\u00a01994 chart from Weight Watchers International,<\/a>\u00a0terms like \u201cdiet\u201d and \u201ccalorie counting\u201d were out, and terms like \u201chealthful eating\u201d and \u201cportion control\u201d were in. At the same time, thinness was being used as a fashion statement.<\/p>\n

Heroin chic, a popular fashion aesthetic from the 1990s, emulated the visual style of heroin junkies. Under this aesthetic, models were extremely thin, with very gaunt features and dark eye bags. At the same time, actress Kate Winslet was considered fat, with director James Cameron allegedly nicknaming her \u201cKate Weighs-a-Lot<\/a>\u201d on the set of \u201cTitanic.<\/em>\u201d In the film \u201cBridget Jones Diary,\u201d main character Bridget Jones, played by Renee Zellweger, was considered fat as well, but Bridget Jones weighed roughly\u00a0136 pounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This attitude continued well into the 2000s and 2010s, around the time Moss popularized the mantra \u201cnothing tastes as good as skinny feels.\u201d Thin was in, and the media was all over it. Popstar Britney Spears and actress Charlize Theron graced the covers of several tabloids for having visible cellulite.<\/p>\n

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Magazine cover that criticizes celebrity women\u2019s cellulite. Photo courtesy of Reddit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mainstream pop culture was pushing unrealistic beauty standards onto the Hollywood elite and onto the average individual. Freelance culture writer Sophie Vershbow, age 36, remembers what it was like growing up in this era. When she was a senior in high school, Vershbow went on a community service trip in Ecuador where she ended up losing about 10 pounds. When she returned a month later, her weight loss was praised at every turn. Vershbow, who was already struggling with disordered eating habits, took the praise to heart and developed anorexia.<\/p>\n

She struggled for years, but what helped her recover was the body positivity movement. \u201cIt would be dumb to think that me and all my friends don\u2019t have some sort of body hangups,\u201d said Vershbow. \u201cBut we\u2019re not sitting around criticizing our bodies too much at this point\u2026I learned so much from body positivity activists on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, a social justice movement, called Fat Liberation, staged a sit-in as a form of\u00a0protest against anti-fat bias<\/a>. The Fat Liberation movement continued to speak out against anti-fat structures, alongside another activist group, the Fat Underground. Body positivity, an online social media campaign, stems from that time, but spends less time focused on systemic change like the Fat Liberation movement once did.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, fat activists began to find each other on platforms like Tumblr and MySpace. And in the 2010s, fat activists and plus-size models began posting \u201coutfit of the day\u201d pictures onto burgeoning social media networks like Facebook and Instagram as a form of activism. The trend quickly took off with influencers promoting self-love and body acceptance across the web.<\/p>\n

Stores began carrying larger sizes and fashion brands increased the amount of plus-size models. Songs like \u201cAll About that Bass\u201d promoted self-confidence with\u00a0lyrics like<\/a>, \u201cYou know I won\u2019t be no stick-figure, silicone Barbie doll. So, if that\u2019s what you\u2019re into, then go ahead and move along<\/a>.\u201d Trainor\u2019s body positive anthem was at the top of the charts for\u00a0eight consecutive weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lizzo, a plus-size singer, rapper and flautist, also rose to fame during this era. Her songs like \u201cJuice<\/a>\u201d and \u201cTempo<\/a>\u00a0\u201d promoted body acceptance through her own confidence. Fat suits to portray plus-size characters were no longer acceptable in film and television, and plus-size women like Aidy Bryant were given opportunities to create and star in\u00a0their own shows<\/a>. It seemed like, for the first time, everyone loved their bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a preteen and a teenager, Jessica Simpson was the fattest person in the world, \u2019cause she\u2019s a size four,\u201d Vershbow recalled. \u201cCompared to that\u2026It just felt like we were making progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trend cycles are like boomerangs. In the 90s, heroin chic became the go-to aesthetic because of the cultural atmosphere. According to\u00a0The Swaddle,<\/a>\u00a0consumers turned to nihilism and embraced the deadly aesthetic during the time of recession. While heroin chic went away, the 2000s were still full of gaunt women, which was also a response to economic turmoil. But the body positivity movement was a result of backlash for the first two moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons that millennials had some first big body positive wave was because we didn\u2019t like how we grew up,\u201d said Vershbow, a born and raised 90s kid. \u201cWe wanted to make it different.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this current era of diet culture doesn\u2019t have an exact start date, it does have multiple catalysts for its beginning. The internet, creation of Ozempic, and the body positivity movements failure to ignite actual social change play a big part in it. But similar to body positivity, backlash has had a role to play in the culture shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a really successful movement, you\u2019re always going to see some degree of a backlash movement,\u201d said Riley Martinez, political reporter. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s not very potent, but other times it is. And this one seems to be really pretty potent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Martinez sensed something a bit deeper than just a contradictory point to a social movement. \u201cIt would be naive to say that it is not related to Donald Trump and the rise of really, really conservative politics that we\u2019re seeing ever since, basically, 2016,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cFemininity, prettiness\u2026It\u2019s all kind of related to a very specific ideal of what women should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juliana Tucciarone was 23 years old when she realized that something was wrong with her body. After gaining an alarming amount of weight in a short period of time, Tucciarone was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a chronic illness that can cause hormone imbalance and ovarian cysts. Rapid weight gain is a common side effect.<\/p>\n

To manage her symptoms, her doctor suggested that she go on a Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) antagonist, but the doctor wouldn\u2019t prescribe it to Tucciarone because she didn\u2019t have any active cysts. Desperate to feel her best, Tucciarone sought out alternatives. Instead of getting her medicine in her home state of California, she reached out to an Idaho Medical Spa her grandfather found. Medical Spas combine spa-like treatments with non-surgical aesthetic services, like GLP-1 medications. After several telehealth calls, Tucciarone was put on a compounded semaglutide medication, which is not the same as Ozempic and is\u00a0not always regulated<\/a>\u00a0by the FDA.<\/p>\n

\u201dIf my primary care physician would have prescribed me legit Ozempic, I would have done that,\u201d said Tucciarone. \u201cAnd I would have felt better about doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tucciarone\u2019s GLP-1 medications from her Idaho Medical Spa comes in syringe form. Photo courtesy of Tucciarone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tucciarone uses GLP-1 medication as a way to manage symptoms of her condition, but these drugs have gone mainstream in America. According to a November 2025\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0from Kaiser Family Foundation, one in eight adults are currently on a GLP-1 medication and one in five adults have been on a GLP-1 medication at some point in time.<\/p>\n

Ozempic, which is the most well-known GLP-1 medication, was originally designed as a treatment for Type-2 diabetics, but it also caused weight loss as a side effect. Medications like Wegovy and Zepound were developed later, specifically for weight management. These medications fall under the GLP-1 or \u201csemaglutide\u201d umbrella.<\/p>\n

According to that same Kaiser poll, only 45% of GLP-1 users are actually diabetic, while the rest are using the drugs for other chronic illnesses or just solely weight management. Health officials often remind the public that Ozempic was not designed to be a weight loss drug, but its side effects, which include quieting food noise and sometimes rapid weight loss, have made it a household name. In fact, countless users are upfront about wanting to lose weight fast, which undercuts the lasting change the body positivity movement hoped to purport.<\/p>\n

However, many people like Tucciarone are finding success with these medications. And at Dr. Allison Lucchesi\u2019s family medical practice, it\u2019s changed people\u2019s lives. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it really help people that have struggled their whole life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But GLP-1 medications have become a divisive topic with some people arguing that their users are \u2018lazy\u2019 and \u2018cheaters.\u2019 Celebrities like\u00a0Lizzo<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Oprah<\/a>\u00a0received backlash for allegedly using the drugs. Lizzo, once a body positive icon, was\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of turning her back on the plus-size community. Others believe that everyone needs to be on them and go so far as to promote them on TikTok Live or sell \u201cGLP-1 Patches\u201d on\u00a0TikTok Shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In mid-2024, Dr. Lucchesi, was bombarded with requests for Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications. Demand was high, and Dr. Lucchesi had to do a lot of research while handing out prescriptions. \u201cI started prescribing, and basically let the insurance companies decide who it was covered for and who it wasn\u2019t covered for,\u201d said Dr. Lucchesi. \u201cIt was a steep learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without insurance, a month of Ozempic can total about\u00a0$1000<\/a>\u00a0and requires significant efforts to obtain. For Ozempic and other FDA approved weight loss drugs, a patient would need a doctor\u2019s visit and a weight pre-authorization from their insurance company, which can take up to three weeks. Many patients of Dr. Lucchesi had their insurance companies refuse to cover GLP-1 medications for weight loss, simply because the drug was too expensive as the craze continued on.<\/p>\n

But the government is taking steps to make these medications cheaper. In November 2025, the Whitehouse\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that a few name brand GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, would drop to $350 a month when purchased through \u201cTrumpRX<\/a>,\u201d a government owned prescription website. Additionally, a Wegovy pill was\u00a0approved<\/a>\u00a0in December 2025, and costs\u00a0$150 a month\u00a0<\/a>without insurance.<\/p>\n

At one point towards the beginning of the craze, Dr Lucchesi refused to prescribe the medication as she waited for more research to become available. But similar to Tucciarone, patients were desperate for the miracle drug to either lose those last five pounds or to majorly change their lives. They were doing whatever they could to get their hands on it.<\/p>\n

Medical Spas and online pharmaceutical companies became a popular spot to get GLP-1 medications for a more affordable price and an easier process. But with this new accessibility, came more medications on the market. Some Medical Spas, like the one Tucciarone uses, sell uncompounded GLP-1 medications, which means that the drug is not FDA approved. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s safe, and I don\u2019t recommend it to my patients,\u201d said Dr. Lucchesi.<\/p>\n

But people are using it anyway. Dr. Lucchesi\u2019s hairdresser has been using uncompounded medication for two years. \u201cShe just gives it to herself,\u201d Dr. Lucchesi said. \u201cNobody\u2019s weighing her, nobody\u2019s checking her blood work, nobody\u2019s doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only are some of these medications unsafe, but also, they have also sparked a widening cultural debate.\u201cI do see [them] as the beginning stages of an eradication campaign,\u201d said comedian and activist McKenna Moore, who received\u00a0flack online<\/a>\u00a0for a now deleted\u00a0TikTok\u00a0<\/a>where she compared Ozempic and other GLP-1\u2019s to genocide. In her\u00a0original video<\/a>, Moore stated, \u201cWhen are we going to understand it\u2019s all the same thing\u2026They want to get rid of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since GLP-1s were shrinking the individuals using it, Moore believed that the medication was trying to eradicate fat people. Moore later elaborated that Ozempic on its own is not genocidal but that it \u201cgoes with capitalism\u2019s goals of constraining and constricting people,\u201d Moore said in an interview.<\/p>\n

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