In stores, social media, TV and music, we are constantly witnessing the preaching of ‘body positivity’ and to ‘love yourself’ yet this is often proved difficult to accept when for years, as a woman, it has been an impossibility to define what is considered and what is seen and understood as ‘pretty’ in the 21st century. 

Upon reaching yet another “20” decade it is harrowingly noticeable the change between our society over the last century. In the Jazz Age of the 1920s the desired aesthetic for women of the time was to style themselves androgynously and freely through the wearing of lower-heeled shoes and sparkling shift dresses styled with a sharply cut bob and darkly applied makeup. This particular age of fashion also mirrors the mod era of the 1960s thanks to the “British invasion” of music and fashion wherein women, centrally in the UK and the USA,    were strongly inspired by the style of the girlfriends of rock and roll legends. This mirroring of past standards is not uncommon in the ever-changing world of fashion and beauty as one could even compare the Kardashian empire of the 2010s wherein it was most desirable to bear a curvaceous figure to Hollywood in the 1950s when starlets of the screen would take great lengths to achieve such a figure, through dangerous diets and surgeries, as seen through the look of Marilyn Monroe. 

As we are reaching the mid-2020s, what is in store for the standards of beauty? In the fashion industry the big names of Bella & Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Anok Yai and Emily Ratajowski still very much reflect the bone-thin catwalk standards of the past 30 years wherein protruding shoulder blades, piercing collar bones and stick thin limbs are still the most desirable features for fashion houses in which paints the image that women of varying shapes and sizes are not fit for high fashion. 

Overall, I see a worrying reversion back to the heroin chic days of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell in the 1990s when, looking at modern day catwalks women are now removing their surgical implants and take obscure diet, as noted by Yolanda Hadid telling her daughter, Gigi Hadid, to “have two almonds, chew them really well”, to bring back skinny: as seen in the past few fashion weeks of previous years. 

Moreover, social media is ruling the way in which we should live our lives, with a constant stream of ‘influencers’ showing us how great their lives are and how we need to be just like them in order to find happiness in this generation. We are ultimately trapped in a cycle of trends, whatever is popular on social media eventually pours into the standards of our everyday lives and is eventually lost as the next trend rolls around. Furthermore, this is worryingly reflected through the way women perceive their bodies based on the most popular users we see on our feeds, day in and day out. Looking at how fast the standards of beauty have shifted over the past century; it feels as if you will never be beautiful..