Thin is back in fashion, apparently. I’ve watched with growing dismay as female celebrity after female celebrity, mostly based in the United States to be fair, have made their appearances on various red carpets, looking like shadows of their former selves. The discourse on TikTok has been difficult to digest and to escape.
I’m old enough to remember the last time being skinny was treated as the holy grail - back in the 1990s with the creation of the concept of the supermodel - Kate Moss with her elfin features, Claudia Schiffer with her perfect blonde curls, Alek Wek with her mould-breaking beauty, Yasmeen Ghauri with her exotic sensuality, Linda Evangelista with her ever-changing hair colour, Cindy Crawford with her memorable beauty mark, Christy Turlington with her Upper East Side classiness, and many more. They all had a few things in common: they were tall, beautiful, confident…and slender. [Yes, I omitted Naomi deliberately. IYKYK]
At some point, slender became slim. Slim became thin. And before you knew it, women around the world were eating less and less in an effort to match up to an unrealistic ideal of ‘the perfect woman.’
These were dark days indeed, with the gaunt look even acquiring a name of its own: ‘heroin chic.’ It wasn’t a euphemism either, as many of the models, super and regular, resorted to hard drugs to suppress their appetites.
Thankfully, this era faded away by the end of the 1990s, after the unfortunate death of a famous Italian-American photographer from an overdose kickstarted a major pushback against it. A healthier aesthetic began to return, with models like the German-Brazilian Gisele Bündchen, whose bronzed skin, rosy cheeks and willowy figure became a much more attractive option in comparison.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there has always been more pressure on women to look good for as long as they’re alive, and especially when they’re in their 20s and 30s.
Men receive the privilege of growing old at their leisure, becoming distinguished zaddies and silver foxes; remaining objects of attraction well into their maturity. Girls and women, on the other hand, have to deal with soft and hard criticism from other girls and women - some of it well-meaning, some of it not. They also have to deal with often-unwanted attention from the opposite sex until they’re perceived as being over a certain age, at which point they become invisible.
Part of growing into yourself as a woman involves becoming comfortable in your skin, in this body that was gifted to you, that patiently waits for you to accept the hourly and daily miracles it performs to keep you alive. Part of achieving contentment as a woman means looking in the mirror and understanding that the best version of yourself is looking back at you. Each day with a healthy body is a blessing.
Fast forward to 2026. I don’t think it’s an accident that I’ve been moved to write this post so soon after International Women’s Day. There’s something profoundly unsettling about seeing the outpouring of social media posts celebrating women and their achievements, while some of the most powerful countries in the world are actively working to take away some of our hard-earned rights.
These same countries want women to increase the number of children they give birth to, while doing nothing to make it easier to take care of them once they’re here. Subsidised daycare. Generous paid parental leave. Tax credits. Cash grants for families. Free early childhood education. Free maternal health services. Legal job protection for parents returning to work. That’s how you truly support women who are mothers.
And if we don’t want to get married or have children? Single women deserve economic empowerment, a decent work-life balance, the removal of societal and familial pressure to conform, protected legal rights, political representation and participation, and so much more. Their lives are just as valid, regardless of the choices they’ve made.
So, when I watch clips of women who have dieted their bodies into looking like prepubescent girls, my heart breaks. When I listen to beautiful, strong women agonising about what they ate that day, I feel sad.
When I witness a woman playfully yet savagely speak down on another woman’s appearance, I change the topic or change the channel. I want more for them. I want more for us. There is so much more to think about than the size of our bodies.
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