How embracing beauty can improve mental health for teens
Illustrations by Yuchen Yu
by Sonia Chien
The fraught relationship between beauty and mental health is nothing new. For centuries the media has historically played a huge role in defining beauty standards and circulating health practices, often leading to feelings of depression, anxiety, isolation, and low self-esteem, particularly among women. And unrealistic ideals of beauty emphasizing youth and slimness have been shown to have a significant detrimental impact on mental health.
And for today’s youth, unfortunately, the effects of beauty standards might be even more prevalent due to the frequency and intensity of social media’s influence. The global burden of the effect of body image on mental health is on the rise, in part because social media is one place many users find themselves subject to unhealthy comparisons. A UK study from 2019 reported 40% of teens say content on social media causes them concern over their body image. Millions of teenagers – almost one-third – “felt ashamed in relation to their body image.”
As the next generation of mental health advocates, young people need to recognize the role they can play in shifting the narrative around body image and mental health. While the media continues to fuel unrealistic beauty standards, youth have the power to push back — to build a healthier dialogue around self-image, self-worth, and mental wellness. Both on and offline.
Going inwards before glowing out
Isabella Loneragan, award-winning Australian skin and dermal therapist and expert in psychodermatology, a field exploring the interaction between the mind and the skin, spoke with Medicinal Media about the dangers of social media in the context of perpetuating poor body image. “The mere frequency of filter use on social media has resulted in unrealistic beauty standards,” she noted.
At the same time, Loneragan believes that there are many benefits to considering the intersection of beauty and mental health as one with incredible potential for self-care. “There is a definite link between positive mental health and external beauty,” she described, “and not all conditions need medications. Rather, some patients need and crave nurturing and to feel heard.”
In her clinic, Loneragan has observed a strong causation effect between client stress about perceptions of what their skin “should”’ be and the prevalence of skin conditions, which are often not helped by expensive products in these cases. “I witness it time and time again. [Clients] are often actually negating the intended benefits of beauty treatments by possessing a negative and stressed mindset.”
For this reason, she is also an advocate for practitioners to be honest with their clients about what they can expect from any product on the market. “I believe it is the duty of professionals working within these industries to draw the ethical line of what they are willing to promote as an achievable outcome.”
This presents an opportunity for younger audiences. Social media and beauty culture may be a source of stress, but they can also be channels for reclaiming self-care and authenticity. Youth-led movements and influencers are already pushing back against harmful beauty ideals, making it clear that embracing imperfections and cultivating inner confidence can be as impactful — if not more — than external beauty.
Yuchen Yu
Beauty as a tool for self-care
Even in the mainstream beauty industry, there has been a notable cultural shift towards embracing beauty as a tool for self-care, rather than one for comparison. Collaborations between beauty brands and mental health organizations have been cropping up, such as one in 2019 between Revlon, supermodel Adwoa Aboah and the organization Gurls Talk. Selena Gomez’s brand Rare Beauty has also made a splash in prioritizing mental health with their Rare Impact Fund, with 1% of all sales donated to combat the loneliness crisis.
Niloufar Esmaeilpour (MSc, RCC, SEP), founder of Lotus Therapy, a therapy and counseling center based in Vancouver, Canada, has seen firsthand the impact that self-care can have on healing from trauma and connecting to the deeper self, including through practicing some form of beauty regimen. “Both beauty and wellness have a deep attachment to self-healing, as they concentrically focus on caring for and nurturing the body and mind,” she said to Medicinal Media. “Any type of beauty practice or wellness very much could be formed as part of individual self-activities raising the mood and self-esteem in a person.”
Esmaeilpour described that she started Lotus Therapy when she saw a need for therapies that target not only the mind but also the body and spirit on the trajectory to wellness. She views self-compassion as a core tenet of healing.
“Self-compassion is really about treating oneself in the same way one would treat a friend who is really suffering,” she noted. “It is recognizing that feelings of personal failure and inadequacy are part of the shared human experience, rather than something that separates one from others.”
This same mindset can be applied to how teens approach their own mental health. Adolescents are at a stage where peer relationships can deeply influence how they view themselves, so just as they would comfort a friend through moments of self-doubt or failure, they can learn to do the same for themselves. Friendships can serve as a mirror for self-worth, and when teens feel accepted and understood by their peers, they are more likely to internalize a positive sense of self. This could, maybe, even transcend the halls of high school and ultimately contribute to a larger cultural shift.
Yuchen Yu
Embracing beauty in a wellness context
Embracing beauty in healthy ways means looking internally, rather than externally. It means accepting that the sensation of feeling beautiful as a result of self-compassion will always outweigh any form of gratification that can be received from the outside world.
Prioritizing beauty as a form of wellness can therefore be considered a practice in self-care, and an important feature of the mental health toolbox. On this front, Esmaeilpour made a few suggestions for how this might look when incorporated into daily life.
Make a daily commitment to a small act of self-compassion, such as a skin care regimen.
Book yourself an appointment to prioritize wellness, such as at a spa or massage center.
Do some research and sampling of different wellness products and procedures. This can allow for space to explore what makes you feel good, rather than letting comparison to what others might have or like seep in.
Young people have the power to challenge outdated beauty standards and make room for mental health advocacy in the mainstream. From self-compassion practices to youth-led movements, there is an opportunity to reshape how society views beauty and mental health.
In this fight, young people are not just the recipients of mental health messages, but the drivers of change. By embracing beauty as an expression of self-care and focusing on inner wellness, youth can advocate for a world where self-worth isn’t determined by external standards, but by how we treat ourselves — and each other.
Sonia Chien is a freelance writer and aspiring fiction author. She studied politics in her hometown of Boston, MA, before receiving her MA in Journalism in Berlin, Germany, where she currently lives. Sonia enjoys exploring new genres and debating hot takes.
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