London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jun 13, 2026

Instagram is wreaking havoc on young girls - and knows it

Instagram is wreaking havoc on young girls - and knows it

Real teens open up about how unrealistic body standards on Instagram are harming their mental health, leading them to crave plastic surgery and causing eating disorders.

When teenager Chloe Weinstein scrolls through Instagram posts by wildly popular, glamorous influencers such as Kylie Jenner, Daisy Keech and Madison Beer, she can’t help but envy their jet-setting lifestyles and compare her figure to their toned silhouettes.

Such feelings of inferiority have partly contributed to the 18-year-old’s desire for breast implants.

“I get down on myself as I’m often thinking: ‘How do [the influencers] look so good in bikinis, flaunting all the fun stuff they do in places like the Bahamas?’” Weinstein told The Post.

The college freshman of Randolph, New Jersey, is among the 32% of young, female Instagram subscribers identified by researchers as harmed by the platform. They found it exacerbates negative body image, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and, in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts.

The March 2020 study was commissioned by Facebook, the company which acquired Instagram nine years ago. But executives like CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Karina Newton, Instagram’s head of public policy, buried the concerns it raised, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Newton posted on Instagram that while she believes the WSJ piece “focuses on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light,” she added that “we stand by this research.”

Social media influencer and TED Talk speaker Victoria Garrick is critical of “inauthentic” images posted to Instagram.


“We’re increasingly focused on addressing negative social comparison and negative body image,” she wrote.

But their efforts don’t wash with social media influencer and TED Talk speaker Victoria Garrick. While acknowledging benefits of Instagram, such as facilitating connections across the world, the 24-year-old slams the constant promotion of “inauthentic,” doctored photos and other exaggerated aspirational content impossible for impressionable young girls to achieve.

Admitting to being part of the problem in the past, Garrick, who launched a lifestyle account in 2015, said: “When I first got on Instagram, I felt a pressure to portray a certain image. I edited and altered my photos and presented a highlight reel online.”

The constant fakery took its toll on her mental health and, after seeking therapy, she did a 180 by posting unfiltered pictures revealing her true, warts-and-all self. The LA resident, whose following has grown to 337,000 on Insta, now uses the hashtag #realpost and hopes other influencers and celebrities will follow suit.

Posting side by side images of herself, Victoria Garrick showed her followers the easily done technique of “perfecting” women’s bodies using digital trickery.


This development would be welcomed by Arizona native Carolyn, a 16-year-old who who is currently in treatment for an eating disorder. The high school junior, who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, maintains that her unhealthy obsession with fitness was partially triggered by Instagram. It was made worse by the platform’s “Explore” function, which employs artificial intelligence to serve users with curated material similar to content they’ve previously viewed. In Carolyn’s case, once she showed an interest in body building and related workouts, she was bombarded with so-called “fitspiration” posts.

“If this is what social media is telling me that’s healthy, then I’m going to start doing those things,” she said. “I wanted to be like those people.”

The posts featured buff-looking gym rats with washboard stomachs and wasp-like waists. Diet advice came under headings such as “The Golden Pyramid of Fat Loss” and “Top Fat Loss Supplements,” and cutesy graphics and images of “healthy” portions.

Mercifully, Carolyn, who is now working with nutritionist Megan Kniskern, is more mindful of the damage Instagram can cause vulnerable teens.

“Instagram does not care for our well-being because they’re not going to filter out all the bad stuff that could hurt our brains,” she observed. “They just spit out the things that young girls my age click on — fitness workouts and posts about calories — which lead to fanaticism about our health.”

Carolyn said the first thing Instagram should take to curb toxic content is re-thinking that “Explore” algorithm. “It sucks you in,” she said, lamenting that if you “like” or follow one potentially-problematic post or account, it’s a “slippery slope” to similar content.

“There needs to be some level of responsibility for sure… I don’t know what that would look like.”

Indeed, changes Instagram can make are amorphous because content is user-driven. Activists such as Garrick say that it would be too big a hill to climb to have the platform monitor every post — banning filters would be impossible to police.

Instead, Garrick urges influencers and celebrities to take this matter into their own hands by being truthful about digitally enhancing their images. “I’d like to ask everyone for transparency,” Garrick said, suggesting those who use filters or PhotoShop add a hashtag or label to the picture signaling the alterations.

Filters aside, images of willowy stars are impossible to avoid on social media. For Gwenyth Harrington, a member of the adolescent and teen support group run by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), pics of Gigi Hadid and Taylor Swift were some of the dangerous factors behind her eating disorder.

She was also negatively impacted by the platform’s “thinspiration” posts, which can often spark competition between young girls to look the skinniest of their peers.

The 17-year-old from upstate New York was twice admitted to the hospital where counseling helped her assess the damage caused by social media.

“I thought: ‘Wow! I need to unfollow people, especially the diet accounts and certain celebrities, cutting ties with them for the sake of my health,’” said Harrington. “Instead, I started following a girl who promotes body positivity in every one of her posts.

“It’s been a huge help and made me feel a whole lot better.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Barclays Moves to Acquire GoHenry in Bid to Expand Youth-Focused Fintech Services
UK Lupus Patients Show Remission in NHS Genetic Therapy Trial
London Clean Air Zones Linked to Fewer Emergency Hospital Admissions for Respiratory Illness
UK World Cup Scheduling Research Suggests Energy Bill Savings From Off-Peak Usage
UK Economic Anxiety Rises Among Young People Over Long-Term Job Prospects
NHS Expands Meningitis B Vaccination Programme for School Leavers and New Students
London Ultra-Low Emission Zone Linked to Drop in Emergency Respiratory Hospital Admissions
Derbyshire Police Officer Investigated Over Alleged Use of AI-Generated Evidence in Case Files
UK Parents Back Proposed Under-16 Social Media Ban as Online Safety Concerns Grow
Four Palestine Action Activists Jailed Over Sabotage Attack on Israeli-Linked Arms Facility
Barclays to Acquire GoHenry in Push to Expand Digital Banking for Children and Teenagers
UK Government Reaffirms Defence Spending Commitment Amid Cabinet Pressure and Political Disputes
Belfast Unrest Prompts Security Review as Paramilitary Activity Comes Under Renewed Scrutiny
SpaceX IPO Pushes Elon Musk to Become World’s First Trillionaire After Record Valuation Surge
United States and Iran Near Landmark Peace Framework as Negotiations Reach Final Stages
UK Competition Watchdog Investigates Ryanair Family Seating Charges
Imperial College Study Links London Emissions Charges to Lower Hospital Admissions
Scottish First Minister Launches US Trade Initiative Ahead of World Cup Match in Boston
Fifteen Million Workers Gain Expanded Sick Pay Rights Under UK Reforms
British Retail Investors Secure Record Participation in SpaceX Share Offering
Keir Starmer and Micheál Martin Coordinate Response to Northern Ireland Violence
NHS Prepares for Major Disruption as Resident Doctors Announce Four-Day Strike
Bank of England Expected to Hold Rates as Energy Costs Complicate Inflation Outlook
Britain Moves to Ban Under-16s From High-Risk Social Media Platforms and AI Chatbots
UK Economy Contracts as Middle East Conflict Weighs on Growth
Defence Secretary John Healey Resigns Over Military Spending Dispute With Treasury
Prime Minister Keir Starmer Faces Leadership Crisis After Senior Cabinet Resignations
NHS Trust Secures Funding for AI Tool to Detect Heart Failure Earlier
Government Unveils £4.5 Billion Investment Plan for Walking and Cycling Infrastructure
Nationwide Reports UK House Prices Falling as Borrowing Costs Remain Elevated
Centre for Social Justice Says Two Million Britons Are Using Illegal Loan Sharks
UK Carmakers Warn EU Local Content Rules Could Damage British Manufacturing
UK Government Imposes Emergency Ban on Seven Potent Synthetic Opioids
Royal Navy Completes Major North Atlantic Anti-Submarine Exercise Off Norway
NHS Figures Show Nearly 3,000 Patients a Day Receiving Care in Hospital Corridors
CBI Cuts UK Growth Forecast as Middle East Tensions Drive Inflation Risks Higher
Dan Jarvis Appointed UK Defence Secretary Following Major Government Reshuffle
University College London Study Links Physical Punishment to Higher Risk of Bullying
East Midlands Railway Unveils First Refurbished Train in £60 Million Modernization Programme
RNLI Issues National Water Safety Appeal Ahead of Expected Heatwave
Climate Change Raises Subsidence Risks for Millions of Homes Across Southeast England
Manchester Advances Plans for Underground Piccadilly Station With £1 Million Funding Commitment
Anti-Immigration Violence Continues in Belfast Amid Heightened Security Concerns
UK Law Locks Great British Railways Into Public Ownership
Office for National Statistics Adopts Supermarket Checkout Data for Inflation Measurement
Applied Atomics Launches With $500 Million Space Infrastructure Order Book
BYD Plans Nationwide Rollout of Ultra-Fast EV Charging Network
UK House Prices Unexpectedly Fall in May
CBI Warns UK Growth Is Becoming Increasingly Dependent on Public Spending
Makerfield By-Election Fuels Speculation Over Labour’s Future Leadership
×