My Thoughts on Glow-Up Culture's Uptick During Back to School Season

Hello beautiful! For many of you, school is starting soon, or it's already started. So, the next couple of posts on this blog will be related to bao school season and much of the stress that can come with it. I've found that a lot of this stress isn't necessarily about the managing the schoolwork itself but more so about looking up to par for when the first day of school rolls around. Appearance becomes the most important part of being around people regularly, in an atmosphere like school or work. For a while, I fed into this culture of constantly working to look "my best," just to go to school. Now, I'm starting to see this culture everywhere, especially online.

Of course, feeling put together and wearing clothes or hairstyles that make you feel good is one thing, but working at your appearance for the sole purpose of impressing others without even considering yourself is entirely another, and today, I'm going to discuss the distinction between the two and my personal opinions on the pressure to have a glow up at this time of year.

First of all, I want to let you all know that there doesn't have to be anything wrong with typical beauty practices like shaving your legs, putting on makeup, and getting your nails done. These can be things that contribute to your confidence, as long as your confidence still stands strong without these things. This post is not meant to convince you to stop beauty routines; I just want to share my thoughts and opinions on the extent to which these standards can affect us if we're not careful.

Glow up culture isn't new. It has a new name, but the idea of becoming a new person simply because you took off your glasses and put on a pretty dress has been around for a while. "Makeovers" have been an essential part of "the female experience" since before this century and were popularized by movies like Clueless and The Devil Wears Prada.

With the emergence of social media, the term "glow up" has spread like wildfire and essentially means a makeover, typically on the outside, but sometimes on the inside. If you've been on the internet for long enough to see the annual video tutorials on how to "glow up" for back to school, you might have noticed that many of them refer to rhetoric of looking unrecognizable and impressing classmates, specifically boys.

School starts to become less about learning and more about making people like you by looking as visually pleasing as possible. As I said earlier, trying to look put together is perfectly fine in my opinion, but I start to draw the line when it starts to become the only thing on your mind.

We see "glow up culture" everywhere in the lives of young girls. 10 step skincare routines to prevent aging and the whole "Sephora Kids" trend are evidence to me that harmful seeds are bring planted in the minds of teenage girls: seeds that tell them, "Because you're a woman, you have to be beautiful."

It goes without saying that this idea is incredibly degrading for young women and women in general, but I want to stay on track and highlight the importance of this concept specifically at the start of the school year.

Once again, school is about education. The goal should be to learn and become an educated version of yourself. Instead, many young women focus on impressing the people that they are perceived by, often distracting themselves from matters like their schoolwork.

I find it very ironic that a space meant for learning, a right that women were and still are deprived of in many parts of the world, is turning into a space for showing off one's beauty, arguably the most superficial thing about a person. I feel that these videos that appear on our social media pages right before school rolls around can influence the way we perceive school and it's importance. So, if a majority of back-to-school videos are about "glowing up," young girls may start to think that looking pretty for school is more important than the learning itself.

This isn't to blame all of the young women out there who have succumbed to a "glow up" video here and there, but I do want to make you all aware of what type of content you're actually consuming when you see a video telling you how to go "from ugly to pretty."

Going back to school doesn't mean you need to impress anyone. you don't have to glow up for anyone but yourself, so whenever someone, online or in person, tells you that a makeover would do you some good, you shouldn't feel pressured to make changes to your appearance if you don't want to.

But, if you do enjoy taking part in beauty practices that a glow up typically consists of, make sure you're doing it for the right reason.

How would you define a "glow up"? Have you noticed glow-up culture affecting anyone in you life? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on glow up culture in the comments!

Remember if you ever need a hand, girl, let me help!