Fitness Guru Targets Kylie Jenner on Instagram

Yahoo Life
Cassey Ho of Blogilates
Cassey Ho runs the popular Blogilates website, YouTube channel, and social media accounts. (Photo: Getty Images)

Cassey Ho is a fitness expert who boasts millions of followers on IG and YouTube, not to mention hundreds of thousands on Facebook and Twitter. Ho took to her social media outlets this past week to discuss a phenomenon that she couldn’t stay silent on for much longer — the rise of the so-called booty models and women flaunting their wares on social media, all under the guise of fitness.

“The media is now SOCIAL MEDIA and our new magazine covers are Instagram photos. People like Kylie Jenner have become the new beauty standard whether you like it or not. And these tiny waisted, big booty’d girls are what’s in. So, that means young girls are growing up wanting to look like that.”

Yes, I'm saying taboo things like "real girls" and "perfect girls". I wanted to get your attention and looks like now I have it. I'm just doing what the media does. But you see – the media is now SOCIAL MEDIA and our new magazine covers are Instagram photos. People like Kylie Jenner have become the new beauty standard whether you like it or not. And these tiny waisted, big booty'd girls are what's in. So, that means young girls are growing up wanting to look like that. Which is fine…but the trouble is…young girls don't know what it takes to get that. They don't know that those hips and that waist comes at a price, a literal price. And for what? To fit in? To look good? To feel better about yourself? I mean, do what you will, it's your body! And I'm not here to judge you for it. Just don't hold yourself against beauty standards that are impossible to reach naturally. Don't feel bad for not looking that way. You don't need to. I want you to go read my heated blog post on this topic on blogilates.com (link in bio). It gets really real. I can't hold it in anymore. #blogilates

A photo posted by Cassey Ho (@blogilates) on Oct 14, 2016 at 2:27pm PDT

Ho goes on to explain her thoughts on why this desire to look like Jenner and other social-media-friendly models can be fraught with issues.

“The trouble is … young girls don’t know what it takes to get that. They don’t know that those hips and that waist comes at a price, a literal price. And for what? To fit in? To look good? To feel better about yourself?”

Ho first posted these words on Instagram and pointed her followers to a longer discussion on her website, titled “Instagram is the new beauty standard.” With thousands of comments between the Instagram post and her article, the message clearly resonated.

One reader, Kimora Chanel, responded: “I praise you for writing this blog! … Society needs to understand that we are all made and built different for a reason. Young women need to understand the beauty standards society has set up for us is complete bull! ”

Another reader, Alice Smith, focused in on the issue of young girls seeing unrealistic images in social media: “Some people say Instagram isn’t real life and not to take it too seriously but these things have a big impact on young girls in their real lives so yes it is happening and yes it is a problem!

In all, it seems Cassey Ho hopes folks will remember: “Real girls aren’t perfect. Perfect girls aren’t real.” Which seems to be a message worth repeating over and over again in the face of today’s social media cycle.