The Scary New A4 Paper Waist Challenge That’s Taken Over Instagram

A4Waist Challenge

by Rebecca Cox |
Published on

Just when we’d recovered from the disturbing thigh gap challenge, women have started judging their bodies by measuring their waists against a piece of A4 paper.

The craze started in China and involves women standing behind a piece of A4 paper and hoping their waist disappears behind it. That’s just 21cm wide.

Millions of pictures using #A4waist were posted on Chinese social media site Weibo and the trend has since spread to Instagram, where users, mostly in their teens and early 20s, have taken up the body challenge.

The trend has caused concerns amongst many Instagram users who worry the hashtag promotes unrealistic and unhealthy body goals.

However, the backlash is underway with thousands of users discouraging the trend using hashtags #stopA4waist and #immorethanmywaist.

Many posters have started uploaded pictures of them holding their university diplomas and paper showing messages of discouragement against the trend.

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