The “Clean Girl” Aesthetic: Is It Attainable?
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
The Clean Girl Aesthetic: we’ve all seen some manifestation of it. Everything is in beige, neutral colors. Yet, every food eaten seems to be green. Girls with perfectly manicured, O.P.I. Bubble Bath colored nails rub $68 Drunk Elephant moisturizer onto their faces. After doing an Olaplex hair mask, they start their skin care routine that’s somehow 8,000 steps long. They fill up their (also beige) Stanley cups with water and stir in their Bloom Nutrition Super Greens Powder.
Chances are, you’ve probably seen a Tiktok or Instagram Reel exactly like the one I just described. If you’re anything like me, you’ve immediately compared your life to those portrayed on social media. “Why doesn’t my life look like that?” you wonder. “Why can’t I be aesthetic?”
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Let’s say you tried to make some changes. Maybe you bought a Stanley cup (guilty). Maybe you tried out Olaplex (guilty). Maybe you asked for Bubble Bath at the nail salon (soon to be guilty).
Like me, you have fallen victim to influence. Specifically, you have fallen victim to influencers and the notion that having certain products will give you the perfect life. This is an important concept we have to keep in mind while on social media—we have to look out for that #ad or that #sponsored. Because, the harsh reality is… the clean girl aesthetic is a social media construct. No one’s life actually looks like that! These girls are influencers! It’s their job to make us feel like our lives are lacking without the products they’ve been sponsored by. (For the record, I hold nothing against influencers. Get that bag, girl!)
However, if we—as young women— fail to become conscious of the product placements and various other psychological marketing tactics being used on us as consumers, it holds us to an impossible standard. These “clean girls” definitely own things that aren’t the color beige and eat foods other than exclusively green vegetables. Chances are, they get lazy and skip out on their skin care routines just like we do. However, their social media accounts don’t show any of this, only the curated highlights.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
Therefore, it’s easy to think that we aren’t good enough because our life doesn’t look like theirs: perfect or aesthetic. According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report published February 13th, 57% of female high school students in 2021 experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” compared to 29% of male students. Clearly, young women have enough to worry about, we don’t need to feel like our lives are “ugly.”
The word aesthetic is defined as “concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.” I say, death to the clean girl aesthetic. Let’s appreciate the beauty in unpolished reality. Let’s see the influencers' chipped nails and their imperfect, green-stained Stanley straws. Let’s see that splotchy breakout we’ve all experienced from a trendy face mask.
Outside social media, life isn’t perfect. That doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful.
Strike Out,
Alex Keezer
Editor: Grace Maneein
Athens