Eating Disorders Are Getting Worse. Is it Social Media’s Fault?
“The Fat Girl Cheat Codes to Obtaining A Skinny Body.” “Skinny Girl Activities To Live A Skinny Life” “A Step By Step Guide on How To Get Skinny.” These are just a few of the most recent video titles from content creator Liv Schmidt. On YouTube, where Schmidt currently posts, they highlight the creator’s intense focus on skinniness, with most of the half-hour to hour-long videos showing Schmidt direct to camera offering advice, like comparing bodies on a weight loss journey to a slowly depleting roll of toilet paper or the espousing the helpful nature of Bethenny Frankel’s famed motto “taste everything eat nothing.” But online, Schmidt’s content, which has been called out by medical professionals and banned on TikTok, represents an ongoing battle between tech companies and the stars that make them money. Is skinny back in? And if it is, what happens to the viewers this type of content might hurt in the process?
While Schmidt isn’t a household name by any stretch, she holds an outsized influence on TikTok. (The influencer and her representatives did not respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.) Since gaining popularity in 2023, the 22-year-old, who’s based in New York, has grown her TikTok account to over 600,000 followers by posting videos about avoiding accidental weight gain in college, staying thin while working in an office, and how to grocery shop with your waistline in mind. “Weight is a touchy topic, but that’s what the viewers want,” she told the Wall Street Journal in September, pushing back against criticism, though she didn’t directly address the allegation that she promotes disordered eating.
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But even though Schmidt and her fans stand behind her videos, TikTok has strict policies against content that can be seen as promoting disorders. She was banned in September, then banned again in October after attempting to start her account from the beginning. When reached for comment, a spokesperson for TikTok confirmed that Schmidt’s account was disabled for violating Community Guidelines, but declined to say further about which specific videos broke the rules. According to TikTok’s Community Guidelines, the company does not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors. Content that falls in a gray area — like weight loss tips, body checking, and using medication or supplements for weight loss — is restricted to viewers who are 18 years and older, and in some cases, can be ineligible for the for-you page.
But even with Schmidt banned from TikTok, it hasn’t stopped her from monetizing her content — and belief that “everyone can be skinny”— on other social media platforms. Since Aug. 25, Schmidt has posted at least 11 videos and vlogs to YouTube on how to exercise, eat, and party to get a skinny body. Since being banned from TikTok, where she had over 600,000 followers, Schmidt’s YouTube account has grown to 11,000 subscribers. When reached for comment, YouTube said the site “prohibits content that glorifies, promotes, or features disordered eating behaviors. We also do not widely recommend content that comes close to violating these policies. Liv Schmidt has only recently begun posting to YouTube, and is of course subject to our Community Guidelines.” On Instagram, where Schmidt posts photos for her 67,000 followers, she usually references her dieting content. “Follow me for more diet tips, order the whole dessert menu,” she captions one post. But on her subscribers-only chat, where she has hundreds of paying customers, Schmidt gives actual dieting tips, including calorie restricting and exercising activities. (Meta did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.) Even if Schmidt disappears from social media entirely, what remains is a digital landscape that’s proving disordered eating content isn’t simply trending, it’s in demand. And according to medical experts and researchers who spoke to Rolling Stone, it couldn’t come at a worse time.
Social media has a long history with discussions surrounding body image, mental health, and disordered practices, with eating disorder communities proliferating on text-based sites like MySpace and Tumblr. But as popular apps have moved toward an emphasis on visual media, experts say the risk users face surrounding disordered practices has changed. “Unfortunately, social media replicates things we see in mainstream media and also offline patterns. As such, social media often promotes body types that are unattainable for most, which has been shown to impact body image in negative ways,” says Yalda Uhls, an adjunct professor at UCLA and founder of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers there. “In addition, there are subgroups that find each other on social media that share information that can be harmful such as [pro-anorexia] groups that talk about not eating.”
But while experts can agree that content that explicitly promotes people developing eating disorders is wrong, the complex nature of the illness means addressing the large majority of content that could be harmful is much more difficult. Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, says while content on social media can change us, it will also vary person to person. “Many people can swim around in all kinds of toxic social media content without developing an eating disorder. But if you are vulnerable to developing an eating disorder, social media content can continuously nudge you toward less healthy and more extreme attitudes around eating, exercise, and body image,” Engeln says. “People who are already prone to eating disordered attitudes and behaviors tend to seek out content focused on body shape, dieting, and exercise. The more you seek out that content, the more the algorithms will continue to feed it to you.”
Social media, and developments in tech, are often blamed for causing fatalist or adverse reactions in its users. But while doctors say the cause of eating disorders can vary, what is decidedly true is that eating disorders in teens are getting worse. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, hospitalizations for eating disorders in teen girls doubled during the pandemic. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) found that more than nine percent of Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, a rate that has seen a steady increase in the past 10 years. And as a psychiatric illness, eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate. The only thing ahead of them is opiate addiction. “It is not uncommon for someone who is seeking out information online to then be exposed to content that may then be harmful to them or put them at increased risk for an eating disorder, NEDA CEO Doreen Marshall tells Rolling Stone. “We encourage content creators to promote help-seeking resources and information, to share the hope of recovery, and to refrain from sharing images or behaviors that may actually fuel disordered eating in vulnerable groups.”
Many advocates for those with eating disorders have directly called out tech companies for their part in facilitating the problem. Since 2020, U.S. lawmakers have criticized companies like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google for algorithms that have allegedly boosted eating disorder content. Bryn Austin, a professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells Rolling Stone that while practitioners can offer aid to those suffering from disorders, a stronger approach to tech is necessary to really make a difference. In 2024, TikTok expanded its rules against promoting unhealthy eating habits, including preventing particularly egregious accounts from monetizing the content and age-restricting other versions. But Austin says there’s still more to do across the board. “We need to change the law, plain and simple. Nearly 30 years ago, Silicon Valley lobbyists got vast protections for the industry codified into federal law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It has effectively shut down nearly all efforts to hold social media platforms accountable,” she says. “But then just a couple of months ago, we saw the signs of change, when the Third Circuit Court ruled that TikTok could potentially be held liable for a viral trend…linked with the self-strangulation death of a 10-year-old. This ruling has put wind in the sails of advocates and lawmakers in states across the country and on Capitol Hill working for changes in the law.”
Since her ban from TikTok, Schmidt has continued to use other social media sites to spread her message. After her first account was blocked on the site, she opened a second TikTok, which included a description in the bio that was later deleted: “It’s not a sin to want to be thin.” Fans of Schmidt’s work have mourned her departure from the video app, while critics have celebrated it as a sign that tech companies are taking accountability and enforcing their policies. But as eating disorders remain a hot button issue both on- and offline, influencers who promote them will continue to profit. “Influencers undoubtedly make many of those who follow them feel unattractive. But they can also leave you with the feeling that if you just watch closely enough, and if you buy enough of the right products, you won’t have to feel so awful. They sell body dissatisfaction, but they also sell the dream of being relieved of that dissatisfaction,” Engeln says. “For many people struggling with body image, consuming the content of these influencers is like poking a bruise. You keep pressing on the bruise because a little part of you hopes that one day it won’t hurt so much.”
If you’re struggling with disordered eating, help is out there. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website to find out the steps you can take to get better, or call the ANAD Helpline at 1 (888) 375-7767.
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