For a long time in my early teens my mother refused to let me watch Grease. She thought the messaging was off - bookish Sandra Dee only gets her man once sewn into skin-tight black leggings and a push-up bra. Nowadays I get her point, but as it turned out there was little use in shielding me from the problematic teachings of Grease, when a slew of noughties makeover movies would constitute my Blockbuster evenings for a good decade. Who could forget the red dress moment in She's All That? Or Sandra Bullock's slow-mo-worthy walk out of an aircraft hanger in Miss Congeniality? Gracie Hart, a haphazard FBI agent with a penchant for baggy shirts and a low pony, was only deemed worthy of a feature film once fresh from a glow-up - read: waxed legs, plucked brows, highlights, heels and a body-con. Any millennial chick-flick devotee worth their salt can recite Bullock's iconic line on cue: 'I am in a dress, I have gel in my hair, I haven't slept all night, I'm starved and I'm armed. Don't mess with me.'
The moral of these 90-minute box office hits? Take off the glasses, slap on the make-up, hike up the hemline and you have yourself a woman worthy of a happy ending.
These days the makeover trope has all but been whipped off our screens by way of woke-signalling, the one baffling exception being Netflix's under-baked 2021 reboot, He's All That, in which the streaming powers that be flip the gender dynamics of the makeover movie model on their head. TikTok megastar Addison Rae stars as Padgett Sawyer, a popular social media influencer and Gen Z's answer to Freddie Prinze Jnr's golden boy Zachary Siler. Her mission? To turn photography nerd and beanie wearer Cameron Kweller (Tanner Buchanan) into her prom king. The production might have been panned by critics, but it was number one in the Netflix charts for over a week. So, are these narratives acceptable providing screenwriters take the objectification of women off the table? Ask the mother of an impressionable photography student.
Cut to 2023 and TikTok has taken up the makeover mantle under the guise of Gen-Z's newfound glow-up obsession. Search the hashtag, scroll the videos and see if you don't get lured in. Lululemon-clad influencers emerge, one after the other, each berating old pictures of themselves to camera, evidence of their bygone era. 'I don't know her, I don't want to know her, I don't even talk about her,' says @izzy_furniss of her former self. Next they talk you through their glow-up tips. And you stick around to hear them. Scoff, you might, but I defy you not to be drawn in by their freshly Balayaged hair, their glowing skin and bright white smiles. 'How do they do that?' you'll say inwardly, 'what are their secrets?'.
And their secrets, as it turns out, aren't that difficult to get on board with. In fact they're a series of soft-core, often regurgitated pieces of wellness advice that might - in some select cases - actually do you some good. Here's an example. @izzyutterson, a TikTok star who routinely reels in thousands of views with nuggets of glow-up wisdom. In one video (which has one million views and counting) Utterson lists everything she would do to glow-up in 30 days:
Watch: @izzyutterson 'Things I Would Do To GLOW UP In 30 Days'
1. Drink two litres of water a day.
2. Invest in a good dandelion tea and a good peppermint tea. 'Peppermint tea really helps me with bloating,' says Utterson, 'and dandelion tea is great for water retention.
3. Invest in a good probiotic and L-glutamine supplement. 'Happy gut, happy you,' says Utterson, 'L-glutamine works to repair the lining of your gut.'
4. Cut out toxic people and things that are not good for you. 'That could be hanging out with a toxic friend, that could be a toxic partner, that could be the fact that you downed two bottles of wine on a Friday night and maybe didn't feel so great the next day, been there, done that, cut it out,' says Utterson, before adding a disclaimer, 'I'm not telling you to cut out all of your friends or stop drinking alcohol, I still drink, but not to the extent that I used to - it's about being controlled and levelled.'
5. For 30 days write down in a journal or notes app, three-to-five things that you're grateful for - practice gratitude.
6. Stop punishing your body with hardcore HIIT workouts and high-cardio exercising. 'It's going to stress out your body,' says Utterson, who prefers weight training and Pilates.
7. Find or start a fitness routine that you enjoy. Utterson argues that finding a form of fitness that is gentle and that you enjoy, makes it more sustainable in the long-run.
8. Reduce your alcohol intake. Listen to your body.
9. Hydration, hydration, hydration. 'To glow on the outside you need to be looking after yourself on the inside,' says Utterson.
10. Find a lymphatic drainage routine that works for you, whether dry body brushing or a DIY gua she routine.
Most glow-up advocates on TikTok are quick to point out that they are neither doctors, qualified fitness experts nor wellness professionals in any sense of the word (and it is well worth remembering this as you scroll), but this is wellness advice lite - a series of somewhat achievable goals that, for the most part, are likely to make you feel virtuous, if not transformed.
So, what's the big deal? TikTok's algorithm. Send a signal out into the ether that you have an appetite for glow-up focused videos and slowly your feed will morph into a weight loss channel - 'how I lost 20lbs in a week,' followed by 'supplements that keep my waist snatched,' and so on. Dangerous social media fodder for TikTok's key demographic - stats taken this June reveal that 38.5% of TikTok users are aged between 18 and 24. And as well-meaning as TikTokers like @izzyutterson may be and as much as they frame their content as feel-good advice, the makeover movie message we thought was long ago buried remains: 'That girl in the before picture? She's not enough.'
Main image credits: Miss Congeniality, She's All That, Grease, TikTok @izzy_furniss, TikTok @izzyutterson