Interview with Rachel 

I spoke to a close friend of mine who has dealt with an eating disorder and explained to me how Tiktok has worsened it for her personally. 

I first began the interview by asking: How has Tiktok intensified your eating disorder? 

Rachel- Tiktok has personally intensified my eating disorder by showing me triggering content. I feel like every video is some girl who is extremely thin and I get videos of girls talking about GLP-1 or Reta. These videos make me want to try Reta because I want to be thin like these girls who are extremely pretty and have lives that seem amazing. I also see recovery tiktok videos of girls talking about “food freedom” 

Petra- How does it feel to see a triggering video and then right after a recovery video? Does that cause confusion or does it help? 

Rachel- I feel like it helps only if the girl that’s saying it is fit. If the girl isn't, I'm scared to take advice from her because I don’t want to get fat. 

Petra- When you see a trend focused on a specific body part does it create a new insecurity that wasn’t there before? 

Rachel- Yeah. I’ve seen “legging legs” which pretty just means skinny legs in leggings. Leg gaps are really focused on and it makes me want to make sure I have one also. I don’t like to wear shorts since I don’t have a leg gap right now and it makes me not feel good. 

This interview was a sensitive topic for both of us, honestly. I can relate to the things that she mentioned and it made me reflect on my own experiences with TikTok and its triggering content. 

Yasmin and Nazanin's podcast interview on "skinnytok"

In this interview it starts with two sisters speaking their mind about weight loss and “skinnytok.” Immediately when talking about “skinnytok” the first girl Nazanin says, “I do really appreciate more of the healthy movement now. I don’t know much about “skinnytok” but, I really think it’s just to be funny. It’s like ‘I only eat one almond a day.’” Her sister Yasmin then replies, “No, like some of the sayings like, what are some of the “skinnytok” sayings? Like oh, if you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, you’re actually not hungry, which is a good one.” In this part of the interview I don’t think they’re grasping the full toxic extent of “skinnytok.” They think these sayings are just silly and fun without thinking of the young girls on the app. Yasmin then says, “I will say I do think “skinnytok” can be a little toxic, but I do think some of the advice is actually really good. I’m not gonna lie. I feel like we don’t treat food addiction in America like an addiction because again like Britney said, you need food to survive. So it’s like where does the line blur between like listen to your body, like listen to what you want and what you need, versus straight on binging food addiction.” I can see where Yasmin is coming from but, “skinnytok” and the toxic algorithm TikTok can have is not helpful to any person whatsoever and the line is extremely blurred. “Skinnytok” is not healthy and does not promote healthy thinking.The bodychecks and the sayings “eat one almond a day” is promoting extreme food restriction which can then lead to binging food. If a person needs to treat food addiction they need to get help from a professional, not TikTok content creators. Nazanin says, “There’s this other creator on Tiktok and she is so unhinged. Have you seen her? It’s so funny.” Nazanin continues to explain that there’s this TikTok influencer who does Q&A videos. This specific “skinnytok” TikTok content creator was told, “I’m scared to ask you a question I have to tiptoe around you.” The TikTok content creator replied with, “You’re too big to tiptoe. Ask your question.” Nazanin explains this while laughing. I believe that even if it may seem funny or “unhinged” these content creators on TikTok are perpetrating harmful messages to their viewers who are young adults and young girls.