Nine out of 10 of my friends have had botox at least once. We’re in ours Early 30s. Suffice to say, i’m not exactly surprised by a recent yahoo news/yougov poll that found that nearly half (49%) of Women between the ages of 18 and 39 they’re concerts about writles. What is Startling, Howver, is that Younger Women Appear to be More World About Wrinkles than Older Women.
Acciting to the poll, which surveyed 1,677 US adults in late March, a Majority of Women Aged 40 and Older (55%) Report Being “Not Very” Not at All “Concerned About Wrinkles. The Same Poll Also Found That Just 20% of Women Over 40 Said They Waled Consider Getting A Cosmetic Procedure (Such as Botox or Fillers), where 34% of Womenween the ages of 18 and 39 are opened to it.
IT’S REFERSHING THAT OLDER WOMEN AEN’T SO HUNG UP ON HAVING WRILLES OR FEEL THE NEED TO HAVE WORK DONE. On the Other Hand, Why Are The Signs of Aging Such a Heightened Source of Anxiety Among Women Who Are Lickely to have the Fine Lines or Come with Age? There are a few culprits.
We’re Staring at Our Faces All Day
Bianca tourned 26 During the Early Days of the Pandemic and the Consequent Pivot to Remote Work and Zoom Meetings. “Prior to that, i had never had anything done to my face,” she tells me. “Not that I didn’t think about it – quite a few of my friends who work in Beauty had tried filler and botox and raved it, but i just didn’t fel it was necessary.
All that time on camera had bianca, who is now 31 years old, scruitinizing her looks. “I Swear I Started to See My Face Changing Right Before my Eyes, which freaked with out a bit,” she Says. “Started to hyper-fiber on lines that hadn’t been there before, especilly on my forehead and around myyes.”
She was 28 when she “finally bit the Bullet and Got Botox.” While bianca is happy with how it tourned out – “i was woried it might with look Frozen or unnatural, but it Simply smoothed out my forehead my eyes look more open,” She Says – The Botox Wore AFTER AFT A COUPLE OF MONTHS. These days, she has a treatment once or twice a year to, she says, “Feel more refreshed and look less.” But, Bianca Adds, “It”s Definitely a long-term investment and a part of wishes I never started Because is hard to stop.”
This Shift to Video Meetings Gave Rise to Not Only “Zoom Fatigue” – Feeling Drained After Being on Camera for the Day – But Also a Form Facial Dysmorphia Some Call “Zoom Dysmorphia.” Acciting to Hilary WeingardenA Massachusetts-Based Clinical Psychologist With Expertise in Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Body Image Distrtress, Constant Exposives to Our on-Camera Cause Many of US to Picc Apnearance.
I started to hyper-fiber on lines that hadn’t been there before.
“We’re Looking at Our Our Faces Much More than we did before 2020,” Weingarden Says. “It ‘ITEs Become Really Common to Sit on Video Conference Calls for Houters of Every Work Day. While we do this, we’re offten Staring at Our Our Faces. Naturally, look at your face for hours a day leads to thinking more about your Physical Appelarance than Done, and It IT Can be Common to Start Your Appearans to Those Depicted in the Media or … Peers.
Some, Like Bianca, Turn to Cosmetic Procedure AS A Result. or 2023 Commercial for Botox Cosmetic noted the zoom effect. “I’ve been gioven the opportunity to work from home, so that means lots of video calls,” A Woman Named Kim Says in the AD. “I see MySelf More, and I definitely see Those Deeper Lines.”
We’re Being Influenced
Instagram has Evolved from a Photo-Sharaing Platform Touting Graini Filters into A Slick, Highly Curated Marketplace Where Selfies Appear to Be Filtered and Facetuned. Ads for Skincare Products Claimimg to Turn Back the Clock on Your Face Are Pervasive, and Many of the Game-Changing Serums or Night Creams Flooding Your Feed Be Purchased Right in the App with JUST A FAPS. Click on Those Links, and the Algorithm Adjusts Accordingly, Sending More Skincare Content Your Way.
And while Beauty standards have always been unrealistic – i MySelf GREW up Comparing MySelf to Actresses and Models – Social Media Has Paved the Way for Eve More Comparisons. On YouTube, Celebrities Walk Viewers Through thiri Personal Beauty Routines for Voguewhile Paid Paid Influencers on Instagram and Tiktok Name-Drop Anti-Auging Retinols and Skin-Smoothing Treatments and Break Down Buzzy Like Glass Skin (in Which the Skin is so dewy and radiant it loooks like, you guess, glas). Dermatologist Have Also Entered The Chat, Normalizing Preventive Botox for Younger Women. HOW COULD ANYONE CONSUME THIS Content and Not Become, Well, influenza?
“We are definitely seeing an increes in youunger doomen Becoming more focused on Skin Aging and Wrinkles, in Part Related to Social Media and the Numerous Products Targeted for Skin Aging, Says Dr. Marisa Garshicka Board-Certified Dermatologist. “Social Media Has Made Information More Accessible and Provided a Platform for Products to Get More Expos.” Seeing someone Else – be it a Celebrity or Your Favorite Beauty Influencer – Try Out a Skin Care Product or Treatment, She Adds, Provides a Sense of “Comfort and Relatability.
There’s also a pressure to participate, and it skews even Younger than 18. Speaking to Yahoo Life Last Year, Dermatologist Dr. Nava Greenfield noted that “social media and trends play a long role” in the current obsession among many adolescents-the so-class sephora kids who drop their allowance (andno) on luxury creams
“Young Women are always look for Ways to improve their appearans, and media has convinced Young People That Focus on Skin Care is a Way to Tweak their appearans in a Way that gits saying of agency,” Greenfield Said.
Is aging naturally out of style? (Getty Images)
We know more (and Maybe Too Much)
Once upon a time, if you had a question of your skin, you had to turn to a professional or seek out advice from Friends. Now Are Are Not Just Just Search Engines, but Entire Skin Care Communities (Skintok, Reddit Groups Like Skincare Addictionwhich has a whopping 4.8 million members, etc.) Where you can express your concertns, KAS advice about specific Products and Treatments with Other Young About “Premature Aging.”
“Are these lines normal for 22? Should i get botox?” One Redditor Asks, Posting A Series of Close-ups of Her Face to the Group. While these forums can offfer a sense of Feeling Less Alone, They Also Beget More Comparison. (I adm that i’ve been property to my own insects thoughts, Like: At Least My Face Looks Better Than Hers.)
The information-sharing in these communities will inevitably also teach you wish you wish you never know exisisted. AS someone with a chronic skin condition, learning about “inflammaging” – aka acceled due to chronic inflammation – sent with into a bit of a spiral. The thought that my skin could age faste than others becase i’m offten inflammed is terrifying.
Bottom Line: We’re Surrounded by Anti-Agging Messaging
IT’S NOT JUST WHAT WE SEE ON ZOOOM AND WHAT POPS UP IN OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS. IT’S The Proliferation of Medspas Offering Microneedling and Botox, Two of the Procedures Garshick Says is Popular Many Many Young Women. IT’S The Movie Stars Who Suddenly Look Half Their Age. Its events, as Weingarden Points Out, The People We Know and Love.
“We’re Also Seeing – In the Real World, off the TV Screen and Magazine Pages – Altered versions of what aging looks like all the time, here Amongst Our Peers,” She Says. “THIS IS LIKELY CONTRRBING TO CULTURAL BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT AGING ‘SHOULD’ LOOK LIKE AND EXPECTIONS THAT WE ‘FIX’ NATURAL AGING.”
All this is to say, it ‘tough to be a Young Woman Today. I’d like to say we are enjaying our youth. But in a Society SO Fixated on Fighting The Signs of Aging, It Feels Like We’re More Afraid of LoSing it.
