Most adults are familiar with the awkward teenage phase. It’s those terrible years in our adolescence when our faces are beset with acne, growth spurts make us lanky and uncoordinated, and we still haven’t learned how to dress or style our hair properly.
Interestingly, other folks have their awkward phases later in life. On the Internet, it’s known colloquially as a “glow-down”. That’s the opposite of a glow-up: a transformation where you become less fit, attractive, and confident.
Here we have some side-by-side pics of people who have shared their “glow-downs” with the Internet to teach us all a lesson that beauty fades. Maybe being hot is overrated after all?
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Image credits: mack_bell11
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Image credits: stephanie_thats_me
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Image credits: louis_nielsen
Change is inevitable; it’s natural for trends to come and go. Just around 10 years ago, we were all about heavy make up looks, accessorizing, and looksmaxxing. But, with the 2020s, a new trend emerged: no-makeup looks started making the rounds on social media, people started focusing more on accentuating their natural beauty and flaws, and body positivity became a staple of pop culture.
Yet, in recent years, people have been moving towards even more drastic movements like glowing down. Since we were kids and teens, the ugly duckling transformation has been something we’ve been told we all will have. Enhancing one’s physical appearance meant more attention, more value, and, thus, a happier life.
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Image credits: melissasuggitt
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Image credits: _iluvwillll
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Image credits: appleandeveesthetics
Whether we like it or not, a lot of beauty and body trends are reflected in who’s popular at the moment. Talking with Vogue Singapore, Dr. Shauna Tan, an aesthetics doctor with The Covette Clinic, pointed out how celebrities who are currently receiving the most attention worldwide dictate the glow-down movement.
“When Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber were at the forefront of everyone’s minds, hourglass figures, lip fillers and butt implants were the most common requests in clinics,” she explains. “The current new wave of cool girls such as Charli XCX and Billie Eilish, on the other hand, endorse the notion of embracing imperfections.”
“Now, we are seeing more patients who accept their natural features and are aiming for healthy-looking skin instead of flawlessness.”
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Image credits: sophiebrodrick
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Image credits: willyssaga
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Image credits: broooksterr
What exactly is glowing-down? According to Bionix Clinic, these are the main four elements of the aesthetic:
- No-makeup look. Embracing your natural skin tone and things like redness without having to mask it with makeup.
- Natural texture. Pimples, freckles, and other imperfections don’t stress people out as much. It’s all part of the natural look!
- Attention to skincare. Whereas before, beauty was all about makeup, people are now focusing on achieving beauty without having to mask anything.
- Subtle enhancements. Instead of drastic, very visible changes like lip injections and botox, people ask beauty clinics for refinements to “enhance facial balance and radiance.”
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Image credits: weaselton2nd
#11
Image credits: thisiskarim
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Image credits: nrkadess
Some celebrities have spoken about how they’ve changed their approach to beauty. Ariana Grande, for example, admitted that she was hiding behind certain beauty procedures. “I had a ton of lip filler over the years, and Botox. I stopped in 2018 because I felt it was too much. For a long time, beauty was about hiding for me. And now I feel like maybe it’s not,” she said in an interview for Vogue.
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Image credits: maghenhamilton
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Image credits: foreverfloow
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Image credits: yvette_m6
People are calling out celebrities getting dental procedures, too. Many feel that too-perfect, unnaturally-looking veneers ruin the authentic beauty of people who get them. Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and others have been under fire for getting the procedure. “I absolutely hate this celebrity trend because THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR TEETH,” one user wrote on Twitter (X). Many wonder: why couldn’t they just get braces?
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Image credits: felixblaz
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Image credits: iabdabd96
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Image credits: brycehall
A glow-up doesn’t always have to be bad. Clinical psychologist Lisa Tsang told Vogue that when done with intentional self-improvement and self-care in mind, it can be beneficial. “Glowing up can be about both comparison and self-improvement. When it’s about bettering yourself, beyond just looks, it becomes a rewarding journey of personal growth.”
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Image credits: pinkellewoods
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Image credits: bellabetten
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Image credits: carolinekraemer_
However, for many people, glowing-up means associating their self-worth with their physical appearance. Laura Pitcher of the Cut talked with several women who have become borderline obsessed with glowing up, and the general outcome for them was the disillusionment of thinking that being beautiful would solve all their problems.
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Image credits: raisingherandme
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Image credits: brycehall
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Image credits: nanna_honore
YouTuber Haley Pham, for example, shared how she decided to go on a “glow-up” reversal journey in March 2024. She posted a video where she took out her piercings, and stopped dyeing her hair or getting hair nails and eyelashes done.
“I feel like my attention was on the wrong things and I could be a more useful person if I weren’t so self-focused,” she told Pitcher. “The focus for the day should be if I’m being a good friend to people.”
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Image credits: bentleymescall.2
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Image credits: elixriv
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Image credits: anitatrzebunia
So, does the glow-down trend signal that we as a society don’t care that much about looks anymore? Perhaps—because we’re still focused on how people look, aren’t we? Licensed Naturopathic Doctor Heidi Lescanec says that we shouldn’t focus on physical appearance to determine a person’s worth.
“The most compelling beauty isn’t about perfection; it’s about authenticity. It’s in the laughter lines that hold memories, the scars that tell stories, and the messy hair that shows you’ve been living life, not posing for it.”
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Image credits: happymadimoo
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Image credits: aylor_liiight
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Image credits: angelicalovestiktokkkk
What do you think about the glow-down movement, Pandas? Which glow-downs from this list do you think are the most impressive? Share your thought about beauty trends like “natural beauty” with us in the comments! And, in the meantime, check out our previous article about which beauty standards people find the most unattractive.
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Image credits: ranch_mammi
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Image credits: editornalish
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Image credits: zahrairm
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