It was 2014. Tumblr, the blogging website perhaps best known for creating the phenomenon known as SuperWhoLock, was at its peak. It was a hotbed of creative activity, a hub of virtually unlimited artistic achievement. It spawned whole aesthetics, but for the purpose of this article, I turn to the aesthetic that started it all: Tumblr Girl™.
Tumblr Girl is a figment of my imagination, but ask anyone on that website at that time, and they’ll conjure up an exact image. Borrowed elements from grunge, goth, and twee became worn flannel shirts, Chucks or Doc Martens, and plaid skirts of the 2014 Tumblr Girl. It wasn’t the clothing itself that I or anyone else took issue with. It was how thin Tumblr Girl was supposed to be.
The ubiquity of social media in our lives means that as soon as one platform declines, another rises to take its place. As soon as TikTok stepped onto the scene, it rewrote the rules of the game. It did not, however, rewrite the players. Humans are just as susceptible to cyclical trends as history, as I see the same ultra-thin, diet-obsessed aesthetics from Tumblr a decade ago reappear in a different format on my TikTok FYP.
Here’s where we, as an industry, can help reset the stage. Consider the people who may be concerned about this: parents worried about their children developing a positive body image; schools putting together nutrition programs; even the very people in our lives who need no explanation but only want what’s best for future generations.
Our messaging is already exactly what it needs to be: We grow healthy food to fuel healthy bodies. Playing with what works as an antidote to the diet culture in social media will take effort, but pushing the importance of regular eating and healthy snacking is always worth the time. 
