Self improvement may involve beginning a gym routine, reading a book or eating a healthier diet. In online spaces, however, self improvement has morphed into a newer, more extreme and possibly more dangerous practice — looksmaxxing.

In looksmaxxing culture, physical looks are the exclusive source of success in dating, relationships and career opportunities. Due to the creation of the looksmaxxing.com forum in 2019 and more recently the propulsion of looksmaxxing culture in social media apps like TikTok, looksmaxxing has been experiencing a resurgence of interest among millions of young, impressionable teens. 

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Branham’s Self-Improvement Club, run by sophomore Kibum Park, aims to disseminate advice focused on improving health and looks to Branham’s community. Park does not see the club as a looksmaxxing group, but believes that some aspects of the club align with some of the healthier and less drastic forms of looksmaxxing. Lunchtime discussions revolve around improving confidence, nutrition, style and socializing in an effort to achieve a better lifestyle.

“It’s first impressions: better socializing with people, knowing how to live your life better with more purpose and maybe even getting better grades,” Park said. 

Park finds that though looksmaxxing carries a negative connotation today, its rise in popularity has increased awareness about self-care practices and how they can improve a person’s self image.

“I always used to be insecure about how I looked,” Park said. “Going on this journey helped me a lot in building my social life, my confidence and trust in my everyday life as a human being.”

In particular, Park values those who spread positive advice but places special emphasis on making sure people are wary about the media they consume. Though a follower of looksmaxxing, Park has spent little to no time on the online forums, denouncing the harmful hardmaxxing procedures the sites promote.

“It’s just a term I use to better yourself — how you look and the way you come across to people,” Park said. “I wouldn’t recommend anything like surgeries, but scientifically, [self-care] has [been] proven to improve on how you look.”

On the “healthier” side of looksmaxxing, ideas such as “gymmaxxing” promote exercising to improve one’s physique. Though junior Johnathan Barrientos does not subscribe to the looksmaxxing ideology, he has become a long-time fan of the content creator Santa Cruz Medicinals, also known as Brendan Ruh. Barrientos recognizes that content like Ruh’s can be beneficial so long as a person is able to find balance between focusing on appearance and managing mental health.

“The content from Santa Cruz [Medicinals] is mainly just health and caring about the body and what you eat and consume,” Barrientos said. “I like how he cares for the youth’s health and reveals the true harm that some common foods bring.”

Overall however, Barrientos finds that the overarching message behind looksmaxxing content promotes ideas that can damage people’s self-image and make them overly hateful. Specifically, the PSL scale can bolster the idea that people’s appearance is more important than their personality.

“I feel like it makes people overly observant about others’ appearances,” Barrientos said. “Truthfully, you never know what other people are going through, and it definitely promotes outside appearance over inner personality.”

In fact, Barrientos has found that this toxic looksmaxxing culture has seeped its way into the social media feeds of teenagers, impacting the health of his friends. In particular, Barrientos has a friend from Leigh High School who is taking peptides, most commonly injected for skin, muscle and hormonal health, at the age of 17.

“I think that’s a bit extreme because you’re underage still,” Barrientos said. “To be taking stuff like that where you don’t even know the true long-term effects. The way that they’re promoting it as something just to look better, it makes it seem so normalized to do these things. He only speaks on the positives, but there’s definitely going to be some sort of negative.”

Though doctors never recommend performing risky procedures at home, looksmaxxing influencers, such as the controversial Clavicular, have created content operating on themselves and others in the name of self-improvement. In addition, there is an abundance of videos online explaining the best ways to bone smash, providing guides as to areas to hit and damage to reshape your face. On the extreme side, Clavicular recently livestreamed a video in which he injected a 17-year-old girl with Aqualyx, a fat dissolvent, by himself. Reflecting on this, Barrientos wants people to consider the long term effects these practices can have on one’s health and safety. 

Looksmaxxing culture has not only infiltrated Leigh, however. Barrientos explains that these practices are also becoming familiar talk amongst students on Branham’s campus. 

“There’s kids in my physics class, math class, tutorial, and you hear it around when you’re just going about your day,” Barrientos said. 

Junior Winston Middlebrook, who considers himself very familiar with the looksmaxxing community, acknowledges social media’s role in turning the concept into a less serious and trendy topic.

“I think its popularity is due to its meme-ability,” Middlebrook said. “There’s more people involved now more than ever in the actual community, but there’s also exponentially more memes about it. It is growing, but it’s also becoming a joke.”

While looksmaxxing culture has become a joke among Branham students who casually poke fun at the extreme ideas and measures people go to, Barrientos emphasizes how these jokes only fuel the fire and spread it onto more and more social media feeds. 

“I think it’s one of those things where people take it as a joke, but underlining, they take it seriously, and they’re interested,” Barrientos said. “All jokes have meaning because it comes from somewhere. It’s not just coming from nowhere.”

After considering how the spread of looksmaxxing culture as a joke can conversely keep it trending on social media, Barrientos recognizes that the content can warp the minds of not just teenagers, but children. Specifically, Barrientos is concerned about the long term effects consuming looksmaxxing content can have on younger generations.

“It’s not just high schoolers on TikTok,” Barrientos said. “There’s fifth graders, elementary, middle schoolers, and if they’re seeing it at such a young age — let’s say there’s an elementary kid that wants to start smashing their face with a hammer — that’s really bad, especially because they’re still developing.”

Barrientos posits that looksmaxxing ideals are easy to fall into at young ages due to higher rates of insecurity and mental health issues. In fact, he finds this content prays on younger audiences, abusing their consumption to promote beauty standards.

Due to its birth in the depths of incel culture, many of looksmaxxing’s principals of attractiveness promote Eurocentric beauty standards. These ideals have become so extreme in fact that Barrientos believes they borderline on eugenics. 

“[Looksmaxxers will] compare natural characteristics for ethnic groups and your stereotypical European and say [Europeans] look better,” Barrientos said. “I feel like that’s more of a personal standpoint of what you like and what you don’t like, so it could be some underlying racism. It promotes this one idea, and if you don’t fit that one idea, it says you have to change yourself.”

Nevertheless, Middlebrook finds that only a minority of people involve themselves with looksmaxxing ideologies.

“I think for most, it is genuinely just trying to look better, and that’s often just hygiene and becoming the best version of yourself,” Middlebrook said. “But there is a group of people who are taking it too far, like bone smashing and then also singling out black people or just latching on to ideologies that are harmful.”

As the looksmaxxing community continues to grow in popularity, physical education teacher Greg Stefani believes it becomes difficult to distinguish between personal goals and the expectations of the group.

“You’re kind of chasing somebody else’s approval, and I don’t think that’s always the best solution to things,” Stefani said. “If that’s something you want for yourself, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but if you are just doing something to please another group, then that’s not the best option.” 

Many use looksmaxxing as a tool for social and romantic connection. However, Stefani emphasizes that looks are not as important as they may seem. Stefani adds that having a sense of compatibility with a partner and shared interests may in fact play a much larger role in sustaining a healthy relationship than just appearance alone.

“Who do you get along with? What do you guys have in common? Just things that come naturally,” Stefani said. “Looks are very superficial things. Looks will come and go. People that might be insecure — your body will change so much naturally, so I don’t think that [looksmaxxing] should be our main focus.”

Additionally, Middlebrook believes that rather than focusing on regulation, looksmaxxing must be addressed at the root of the issue. Many young men face pressure from peers or families to meet the traditional ideas of masculinity, and some may also have limited spaces to talk openly about their own insecurity or self worth. 

Skeptical of the entire looksmaxxing industry, Middlebrook suggests never taking any information at face value.

“What you’re seeing on social media, it’s all a product and you can’t believe anything you see,” Middlebrook said. “You have to think, how is this benefiting the person who’s making it? How is my attention being sold right now? Be aware.”