A Deep Dive into Social Media’s Beauty Standards and How to Stay Authentic with Elizabeth Powell

By: Aneesha Mahapatra

In an age where beauty is filtered, favorited, and polished online, the definition of "real" seems more elusive than ever. 27-year-old, Elizabeth Powell, most well- known as Wizzo, is a Kansas City based esthetician who sparked a much needed conversation on TikTok recently. In the video (which received over 5 million views), Wizzo explained that many women are all starting to look the same. She spoke about how today’s beauty standards are less about individuality and more about conformity and how Instagram rewired society’s brains into thinking the looks people are seeing are the looks they should be receiving. 

 I got the chance to ask Wizzo some deeper questions about society’s take on beauty standards, social media, and even the male gaze. 

“I’ve spent years studying the skin, but also people,” she said. “I’ve seen first-hand how people change their goals depending on what is being rewarded online. What we choose to enhance, erase, or conceal isn’t just about appearance. It’s about how we want to be perceived.”

Wizzo mentioned how filters, social media likes, and cosmetic work can create a cycle that affects not just how we act, but how we think. 

“I think using filters, facetune, or getting cosmetic enhancements tricks the brain into thinking that we are 'improving,’ when really we are just conforming,” she said. 

She brings up ideas from “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” by Shoshana Zuboff to explain how social media rewards certain looks and how those looks then become the new norm. “The algorithm will reward a certain face and then that face becomes the new standard.”

This repetition, she explained, has a powerful effect. Especially on younger users. 

“I think repetition is one of the most powerful forms of conditioning. When you see a certain face or body shape repeatedly, it becomes normal. Even if it’s filtered, edited, or surgically created. I think young people are incredibly impressionable and are wired to seek belonging. If they don’t see themselves reflected in what’s being celebrated, they may think they have failed in some way.”

Her video also made a strong point about how beauty has changed from the 2010s and onward from something expressive to something industrial. When asked what caused that shift, she replied, “It was a mix of things. Appeasing the male gaze has always affected the beauty standard, but I think Instagram taking off, iPhones becoming universal, and porn becoming more accessible. That’s when beauty stopped being about self-expression and more about visibility and what performs well. You weren’t just taking a selfie anymore, you were creating a personal brand. Influencers, especially the ones getting millions of likes and brand deals, shaped what we see as desirable.”

She added, “I think something needs to be said about porn. With IPhones becoming universal, people (especially young people) had easy access to porn. That type of content often presents women as perfectly contoured, surgically enhanced, and sexually submissive objects. It’s a fantasy, but I think that fantasy started to bleed into reality. The exaggerated aesthetic started showing up in mainstream beauty. Big breasts, big butts, big lips, and a tiny waist.”

In her view, today’s beauty standard is a product, and the ones profiting the most are the platforms themselves. They’ve created systems that thrive on people’s insecurities, keeping users constantly engaged, comparing themselves to others, and consuming more content.

The idea of “Instagram face” shows how online beauty trends are starting to affect how people look in real life. “ ‘Instagram face’ created the illusion that beauty is objective and achievable with the right amount of work (and money). But what it really did was make people hyper aware of their entire appearance, not just their faces. The body became another project to fix, filter, or edit.”

Wizzo also noted how thinness remains the most rewarded body type online, even with the push for body positivity. “Platforms might push ‘body positivity,’ but the version that gets the most likes is usually thin, toned, and still fits the beauty ideal.”

 She explains that it’s not just about wanting to be skinny, it’s about chasing approval in a system that rewards that look. “The algorithm rewards what’s been historically celebrated, and that’s thinness. I think there is this underlying message that women should be small, controlled, and easy to digest. It’s not just about beauty, it’s about obedience. When things feel unstable (economy, politics, climate), people start clinging to rigid ideals. Thinness gets repackaged as wellness or discipline.”

However, Wizzo was quick to acknowledge that there are creators challenging that narrative. Some of her favorite creators and celebrities include Beth Jones, Lisa Corbo, Aimee Lou Wood, Paloma Elsesser, Esther Medina, Julia (@athaza), and Mei Pang. She stated that what makes these certain creators inspiring is how they express themselves freely, without trying to please the algorithm or fit into a mold. “They show that beauty can be eccentric, aging, moody, political, joyful—whatever you want it to be. And I think that’s what people are really craving.”

When it comes to taking back beauty from the algorithm and making it personal again, Wizzo’s message is clear and strong:

“We have to stop thinking of beauty as something we have to earn or prove. Reclaiming it means making it personal again: letting it be emotional, weird, playful, or even inconsistent. It’s not about creating the perfect image for the algorithm. It’s about dressing or doing your makeup in a way that actually makes you feel something. That’s where freedom is.”

Her experiences in the beauty industry also highlight the ways male approval still dominates even in spaces seemingly built by and for women. “I think a lot of women genuinely believe they’re choosing how they want to look, but those choices are still shaped by a culture that’s been catering to men for generations. I’ll never forget working at a med spa and having a nurse injector tell me, ‘You have good sized lips, but if you got lip injections, you could have DSL lips for your man.’ Absolutely vile. That moment showed me how normalized it is even in clinical settings for beauty to be about male approval. It wasn’t about what I wanted. It was about molding myself into something performative. That kind of thinking kills individuality and keeps women locked into a beauty cycle that’s never truly their own.”

When asked if men even realize the beauty standards they expect from women, she did not hesitate. “Most definitely. Men’s preferences still shape so much of what we see. It’s not just the male gaze, it’s male entitlement. A lot of men have been raised to believe that women should center their looks, their energy, even their lives around being desirable to them. And that mindset doesn’t go away just because we’re on ‘our’ platforms. We internalize it. We perform for it. And a lot of women end up curating their beauty through that lens whether they mean to or not.”

There is nothing wrong with choosing surgical or cosmetic procedures if that’s what feels right for you. Wizzo highlights that the issue isn’t the procedures themselves, but the pressure behind them, the way society and social media can make people feel like they have to change in order to fit in or be accepted. “Even if you say you’re doing it for yourself, those desires were planted in you by something outside of you- media, social comparison, childhood programming, or the patriarchy.”

When asked what it means to be “real” now, she said, “Being real has nothing to do with whether you wear makeup or have filler. It’s about having a strong sense of self… You can’t be easily shaken when you truly know and love yourself. That’s what being real is: not perfection, but alignment.”

Wizzo draws her inspiration more from timeless icons rather than today’s trendsetters. “Most of my beauty inspiration comes from women of the past—Monica Bellucci, Sade, Julia Roberts. They had something effortless and truly their own. They didn’t need filters or trends; they just had presence.” She also respects Aimee Lou Wood for being herself in a world that values sameness, embracing her complexity without trying to fit in.

Overall, Elizabeth Powell (Wizzo) believes today’s beauty standards are shaped by platforms that push everyone to look the same and be thin, making people try to please others instead of being themselves. She says the way out is to focus on what makes you feel strong and special.

Her advice for anyone feeling stuck in comparison is simple: “Remember that trends aren’t the truth. The standard changes every few years, so why let it define your worth? Try to unfollow accounts that make you feel less-than and replace them with people who remind you of your power, your creativity, your complexity. You don't need to change yourself. You need to change what you’re looking at.”

PSA NOTE: 

Everyone’s beauty journey is personal, and there’s no right or wrong way to look. Whether you choose cosmetic treatments or embrace your natural features, the most important thing is that it comes from a place of self-love. Do what makes you feel confident, not what you think you have to do to be accepted in society.