See more: TikTok’s Latest Wellness Trend: Starving Yourself in the Name of K-Pop
TikTok users say that “Wonyoungism,” which aims to mimic the image of a beloved K-Pop artist, is promoting unhealthy dieting and unrealistic beauty standards.
Pastel pink and soft vignette filters, images featuring thin girls with long eyelashes, and good grades and skin-care products: These are all manifestations in the world of “Wonyoungism,” a wellness trend growing rapidly online among K-pop fans that, amidst the milky images of bows and strawberries, has faced criticism for promoting eating disorders.
The term Wonyoungism itself derives from the K-pop idol Jang Won-young, a member of the girl group IVE. At 19 years old, Jang has more than 11 million followers on Instagram, and has become something of a platonic ideal for fans online. Jang is confident, smart, pretty, sophisticated, according to those following her; so much so that she has evolved past typical celebrity into a quasi-religious figure, known simply as “Wonyoung.” Using phrases like “The Wonyoung Effect” and “Wonyoung Motivation,” evangelical fans online promote a message of self-improvement centered around the singer, telling one another that by making specific lifestyle changes, they can look and, more importantly, feel as seemingly confident as Jang.
The trend’s first boom happened last year, after an audio clip from an interview with Jang went viral. “I don’t care—you are you, I am me,” she says, a message that drives home two key tenets of the lifestyle: confidence and effortlessness. Inspired by the clip, the hashtag #wonyoungism bloomed among the fandom soon after; now, it currently has over 292,300 posts on TikTok, and many users post in the comments about how following the singer’s maxim—and the ways developed by fans to embody it—has changed their lives.
“No but the glow up every ‘wonyoungism’ girlies had needs to be studied,” one comment reads. “SO TRUE LIKE EVER SINCE I FOUND WONYOUNGISM MY LIFE HAS SM BETTER I’VE GOTTEN SM PRETTIER HOW????” another replied.
The goals of Wonyoungism center around one’s appearance, whether it be physical beauty (with Jang as a benchmark), level of organization and productivity, an outward-facing confidence, or making waking up at 5 a.m. and looking perfect under fluorescent lighting look easy.
The aesthetic is a defining factor of what constitutes Wonyoungism. Everything is frilly, saccharine, and pink—not unlike the coquette trend or “that girl” routines that continue to sweep across social media. Images of long, manicured fingernails on thin, pale fingers, pouty lips, thin women doing pilates, Glossier branded skin-care products, shining sheets of long, dark, hair, and perfect scores on exams dominate the screens of motivational videos and subliminals.
Wonyoungism TikToker Anastasia, 22, who goes by her first name online for security reasons, told The Daily Beast that she first came across Wonyoungism a year ago when the audio of Jang first went viral. “I was very inspired by it, not only by [her] style of clothes, or skin care and makeup, but also by the lifestyle,” Anastasia said. “Within reason, of course.”
While not all Wonyoungism accounts emphasize the presence of food or diet that much, there is an overarching fixation on exercise. Many of the posts solely feature thin women and advertise specific recommendations for weight loss, which can appear to be red flags for unhealthy behaviors masquerading as wellness. While Jang herself hasn’t performed or recommended Wonyoungism’s specific habits—specifically discouraging her underage fans from dieting in a 2021 livestream, calling diets “bad for you”—but has shown some glimpses into her diet and exercise routines in YouTube vlogs that have quickly inspired many copycat videos.
But many of Wonyoungism’s followers still set goals for themselves that are connected to their appearance. Several TikToks hashtagged #wonyoungism show photos of empty plates and chewing gum. In manifestation-style videos with millions of views, followers write their goals in the comments section as though they’re casting proverbial coins into the universe’s fountain: “clear skin, it girl,long hair,pretty nose,smell amazing,good grades,perfect body,great at all sports, my crush likes me back,” one wrote. “i only want good grades,medal and certificates💚since i dont have beauty i’ll go with brains,” another said.
Any adverse effects are simply categorized by most followers as not a part of the lifestyle. “wonyoungism made me got to hospital,” one user said in the comments. “That wasn’t wonyoungism then,” another responded. Creator run2wony recently disappeared from TikTok after facing backlash for their “harsh motivation” videos that others in the community called out for being mean—but when they did a face reveal, many put down the creator by saying they were “bigger than me.”
Yeshia Otero, 14, runs the Wonyoung fan account @wonwonysii_, where she posts content around her results and recommendations to following Wonyoungism. Otero is a fan of several K-pop girl groups, including NewJeans, Blackpink, and, of course, IVE. She told The Daily Beastthat she first found out about the trend when it appeared on her For You Page, and began trying out the lifestyle component after watching a few videos. “It’s kinda hard at first, but if you don’t have motivation and discipline, you’re never gonna make it,” she said. “It’s easy for me, but there are times I lose track.”
Part of those habits include working out, following a skin-care routine, and finding hobbies in her spare time. “I [lost] some weight, got better grades, and it changed my whole appearance,” Otero said. She “got healthier,” too. “I seldom get sick, and my metabolism got fast,” she explained.
Like Otero, many users in Wonyoungism spaces on TikTok and Reddit identify themselves as minors, with some as young as 13. While academic success is another frequent and common goal among people attempting the lifestyle, concerningly, younger users often name weight loss as one of their motivations for following the trend too.
No matter the age, perfection is the name of the game in Wonyoungism. It requires assuming an ideal lifestyle as perceived through the K-pop industry’s rabbit hole of content—which is often curated and manufactured for exhibition, rather than portraying real lives. The industry has long received criticism for placing emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards and failing to be transparent about the reality of being an idol, particularly through online video content that inspires fan theories about what goes on behind the scenes. As a result, some of the discussion among Wonyoungism followers leans toward the obsessive, betraying signs of disordered eating habits and behaviors.
