Thin Is In; Can We Welcome Back the “Heroin Chic”?

 TW: Mentions of eating disorders, depression, and body issues.

Victoria Secret Angel 
Alessandria Ambrosio

As a sixteen year old teenage girl, it would be impossible for me to live my life without worrying about how I look. After oestrogen, insecurity is the second leading hormone coursing through a teenage girl's veins. No matter the copious amounts of self love dialogue the guidance counsellor pours on the young girl, she cannot help but roll her eyes at the words
and at herself. A 2019 study found that depression is increasing among all teens, but particularly among teen girls. As many as 20% of teenage girls experience depression. And from my experience and observing the terrain of highschool around me, body issues are the biggest factor in this insecurity. 

Body standards change, we all know that. The golden rule of fashion trends themselves is that the last 20 years will always repeat themselves. And with the skimpy, tight fitting, low rise fashion of the 90’s and 2000’s making a comeback, so is the body. There’s multiple factors that have to do with this, but this isn’t something that just randomly made a comeback. Skinniness had been waiting under the craze of the BBL Fashion Nova body even after the sickly thin look became taboo of sorts, lurking in tumblr blogs and twitter threads. The biggest indicator was none other than Kim Kardashion. 

Jessica Alba and
Adriana Lima

    In 2022, Kim Kardashian made us all roll our eyes after she announced she would be wearing the iconic Marilyn Monroe “Happy Birthday” Dress to the Met Gala. Now, while I have my own set of opinions regarding that (Let poor Marilyn rest in peace.), it was a very shocking move indeed. In the end, Kim’s BBL (alleged lmao) couldn’t fit into the archived dress, causing it to tear even though she had been very public about her weight loss just to fit into that dress. Vanity Fair reports “Kim Kardashian Lost 16 Pounds in 3 Weeks to Fit Into Marilyn Monroe's Dress for the 2022 Met Gala. The reality star confessed that she's looking forward to indulging once the red carpet is over.” 

Kim K at the 2022 Met Gala

While losing 16 pounds in 21 days is a very impressive feat, if it’s true, it signified a change. You see, if Kim Kardashian is to be seen wearing a fursuit…you best believe fursuits will be in fashion pretty soon. Though, for all our sakes, I hope she stays away from them.

Now, around the whole 2022 period, I remember stumbling across an interesting acronym.  EDTWT. Basically, and I’m pretty sure it still exists now, it was a community on twitter creating weight loss threads, talking about anorexia, and how to get anorexia, all while using their favourite kpop idols as thread covers…and it was the worst environment ever. I was exposed to gore there, which basically traumatised me till this day and I still refuse to open twitter. All that aside, the rise of that community of twitter basically signified this: The common girl is going into unhealthy eating habits, all for the goal of that perfect skinny body. In 2022 and 2020 the hourglass was in, but with aesthetics like clean girl and pilates princess, it became slim hourglass that was all the rage. 

Adriana Lima

In 2024, we saw the rise of the Victoria Secret Model, especially Adriana Lima who unfortunately became the average pfp for the obnoxious female “looksmaxxer”. We saw the Kardashian-Jenner family ditch the fillers and BBL, and people are gearing more towards natural beauty. We saw people going crazy for ozempic, with multiple celebrities donning “Ozempic Face”. “Thinspiration” in on the rise, and believe it or not, I suspect it has something to do with the economy. 

In essence, the girlies that are skinny? They can afford to be skinny. 

Groceries are barely affordable now for many people and they are going towards eating out in fast foods just to not go hungry. Can you imagine that? An oil-filled McDouble? Gag! I only eat my super clean salad with extra protein and no carbs while drinking my liquid chlorophyll and taking my daily ozempic supplement AND I do yoga and workout in my free time. 

Can YOU afford to do that? 

Now I don’t think the sickly skinny look is coming back, but I do think that the whole “healthy” and rich look is coming back. The goal is to look like a lost 2000’s kardashian sister, like you have a whole account filled with money you don’t know what to do with. Like you can afford the food, but you don’t eat it because…you’re never hungry! And if we are going like how the trend is going, I predict the flat look will be in, and then it will be about big cleavage and to complete that 20 year cycle, the 2040 BBL Body.

I just hope the same attitude doesn’t return, and screw whoever made fun of Jessica Simpson!