How Social Media Influencers Affect Perceptions of a Healthy Life

This essay examines the impact of social media health and wellness influencers on young people's perceptions of healthy living, arguing that these influencers can inadvertently contribute to the rise of orthorexia, an eating disorder characterized by an obsession with healthy eating. The author draws on research from the National Eating Disorder Association, the Toledo Centre for Eating Disorders, and Healthline to demonstrate the correlation between following health influencers and exhibiting symptoms of orthorexia. The essay highlights the deceptive nature of social media, where influencers often present an unrealistic and unattainable version of healthy living, leading young people to sacrifice important aspects of their lives in pursuit of this ideal. By analyzing the lifestyles promoted by influencers like Sarah Stevenson and Ellie Bullen, the author critiques the elaborate and costly health regimes that are often promoted, arguing that they are not achievable for the average person and can lead to an unhealthy obsession with health.

For this opinion piece, titled ‘The Orthorexia influencer: How social media influencers effects
young people’s perception of a healthy and happy life’ I was inspired by the ‘On the Dot
Woman’ opinion piece written by Sarah Ashlock in 2020. I have written this opinion piece for
Wired as they have excellent opinion pieces and are a magazine focused on how technology
affects culture, which is what I am discussing. In the piece I discuss how health influencers
on social media encourage disordered health and even Orthorexia. I read Ashlock’s article
where she discussed how Sarah Stevenson, a health influencer, discourages bad eating
behaviour, which I completely disagreed with, based on what I have seen first-hand. I have
seen friends become obsessed with health and wellness influencers and try and emulate
their lifestyles to the point it completely takes over their lives. I conducted research into this
phenomenon and found some very helpful recourses that back up my points in these
articles. I researched the National Eating Disorder Association’s profile on Orthorexia and
found one of the main symptoms is an obsessive following of lifestyle influencers. On the
Toledo Centre for Eating Disorders Website, I read that of the population studied, 49% of
people following health influencers displayed symptoms of orthorexia. I wondered how
popular the majority of health and wellness influencers are, and according to a survey
conducted by Healthline, 34% of these influencers have over 50 000 followers. To see how
many of the influencers were being honest about their lifestyles that so many found
desirable, I research how many people are honest on social media, and according to a study
conducted by Custard.co.uk, 19% of people claim their social media presence is an accurate
representation of their real life. From there I felt I had a good foundation to base my
argument of, and I began my opinion article.
The Orthorexia influencer: How social media influencers effects young people’s perception
of a healthy and happy life.
I used to think leading a healthy life is quite simple: eat healthy foods and stay active. Two
simple tasks that won’t take up too much of my day. Now I have realised that won’t cut it
for the new generation. What used to be the standard for a healthy lifestyle has evolved
vastly since the rise of fitness and wellness influencers on social media platforms like
Instagram. What appears on the surface to be guidance and motivation for young people to
lead a healthy life is beginning to have the exact opposite effect and contributing the rise of
the lesser-known eating disorder: orthorexia.
Most people associate an eating disorder with a person who avoids properly consuming
food at all costs, whether that entails throwing the food back up or simply not eating at all.
With these being two very unhealthy acts, we don’t normally associate an eating disorder
with someone who is obsessed with improving their health. However, there is a lesser-
known eating disorder where those who are afflicted believe they are actively improving
their health, but quite the contrary. Orthorexia is an obsession with healthy eating. In itself,
the desire to eat healthy and look after your body is not a bad thing, but those with
orthorexia are so fixated on their health that it actually becomes detrimental to their mental
wellbeing and their physical health. Symptoms of orthorexia include:
 Obsessively checking nutrition labels and the number of kilojoules in foods.
 A psychological inability to eat anything that doesn’t fall under what they categorize
as healthy or pure.

 Abnormal interest in other’s eating patterns and health.
 High levels or distress when health food options aren’t available.
 Intense body image concerns.
 Obsessively following health, wellness and lifestyle bloggers on social media.
(Orthorexia, 2018)
So, what is the correlation between orthorexia and social media? Well, have a look at one of
the major symptoms: ‘obsessively following health, wellness and lifestyle bloggers on social
media.’ Since Orthorexia was first defined in 1998, the illness has been appearing more
frequently (Orthorexia, 2018). Orthorexia’s case increase has directly coincided with the rise
of social media. In a study conducted in 2017, it was found that 49% of people who followed
health and wellness social media influencers on Instagram displayed symptoms of
orthorexia (Social Media and Orthorexia - Eating Disorders Treatment, 2020).
So, what exactly is a social media influencer, and why do they have such an effect on young
people? A social media influencer is an online personality who have built a brand for
themselves in a particular field they have expertise in. A field that has sparked the interest
of many young girls is health and wellness. In a survey conducted by Healthline.com on 337
health and wellness influencers, 34% off them had over 50 000 followers across their social
media platforms (2019 Healthline Health and Wellness Influencer Survey Results, 2019). A
big part of being a social media influencer is to present the best version of your life to your
audience. It’s all in the name: influencer. These social media influencers exist to influence
their audience to urge to be like them. How many people would look up to an
unexceptional, non-glamourous, unattractive person? This is a problem because who we
present ourselves to be on social media is not who we necessarily are in real life. 19% of
people active on social media said their online presence was a completely accurate
representation of who they are (Warren PhD, 2018). This means that over 80% of people
present a false image of what their day-to-day life is like. Young people don’t immediately
cotton on to being deceived by their favourite influencers. You never want to believe your
heroes are misleading you, do you? They believe that the health and wellness influencers
are living the best lives imaginable, and what do these influencers accredit their happiness
too? Their exceptional health.
Aussie wellness influencers like Sarah Stevenson and Ellie Bullen show their amazing beach
bound lives on Instagram with their tanned skin, perfect hair, perfect bodies and cute furry
friends. And what do they credit their wonderful lives to? Their healthy lifestyles. That is the
focus of their social media presence. Rationally we know that to live as ideally as they do
you must have money, but they don’t focus on their money as some influencers do (think
Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton), they accredit their lifestyles to their healthy living. Sarah
Stevenson wrote in a blog from 2017: “believe me, I've been there too. I would talk the talk
and never end up walking the walk. In December 2013 I decided enough was enough.
From then on, every January I have developed new habits and skills that have ultimately
led me to the lifestyle I live today!” (Stevenson, 2017). She is implying that her healthy
habits led her to the glamorous lifestyle she lives today, which is untrue, wealth and
sponsorships have.

Regardless of how much money these influencers have to sponsor a fabulous life, the
healthy lifestyles they are promoting are far more elaborate than what we as normal people
would consider to be healthy. Health has gone beyond eating your greens and 30 minutes of
exercising a day, far beyond. Now to be healthy you must restrict your diet to only the best
and most costly foods, introduce an abundance of supplements to your diet and spend 2
hours at the gym with a personal trainer. Health influencers can devote their whole life to
their health, because it’s their job. But for the average person, this is not achievable, as this
elaborate life is very difficult to juggle around work, studying, family and whatever else they
have going on. However, young people will sacrifice what is important in order to focus
solely on becoming as healthy and ‘happy’ as their favourite influencer and let the obsession
with being healthy rule their lives. This is what leads to orthorexia and more and more
young people are falling down this rabbit hole.
I have seen first-hand friends and family wander down this grave path, and maybe you have
to. They check out these influencers in the hope to be inspired to kickstart their own healthy
lifestyle. The obsession then begins, they become consumed by it and what was once
important to them gets abandoned. It’s heartbreaking to witness. What they are eating is all
they think about, and they become slaves to the lifestyle. It’s not fun for them and it’s not
fun for the people around them, so why are we letting this phenomenon freely continue?
References
Healthline. 2019. 2019 Healthline Health And Wellness Influencer Survey Results. [online]
Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/health/2019-healthline-influencer-survey-
results#Demographics-and-content-themes> [Accessed 27 November 2020].
National Eating Disorders Association. 2018. Orthorexia. [online] Available at:
<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia>
[Accessed 27 November 2020].
Stevenson, S., 2017. You Are Going To Be HEALTHIER And FITTER Than Ever! — Sarah's Day.
[online] Sarah's Day. Available at: <https://www.sarahsday.com/blog/2017/12/28/you-are-
going-to-be-healthier-and-fitter-than-ever> [Accessed 28 November 2020].
Toledo Center | Eating Disorders Treatment Center. 2020. Social Media And Orthorexia -
Eating Disorders Treatment. [online] Available at:
<https://toledocenter.com/anorexia/social-media-and-orthorexia/#:~:text=In%20particular
%2C%20there%20seems%20to,Instagram%20had%20symptoms%20of%20orthorexia.>
[Accessed 27 November 2020].
Warren PhD, C., 2018. How Honest Are People On Social Media?. [online] Psychology Today.
Available at: <https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/naked-truth/201807/how-
honest-are-people-social-media> [Accessed 27 November 2020].