Hashtag Trend #GrowingUpUgly Isn’t Very Pretty

Meet Pepe the Frog. According to knowyourmeme.com, he’s an anthropomorphic cartoon character from Boy’s Club but has been memed a million times over to be used as a reaction face including to evoke Feels Good Man, Feels Bad Man, Sad Frog, Angry Pepe, Smug Frog. Now Pepe has yet another emotion to add: #GrowingUpUgly Pepe.

On Twitter and Instagram Wednesday, the hashtag #GrowingUpUgly began trending and within 24 hours there were about 117,000 tweets and 3,000 images posted to Instagram. Pepe sticking a fork in a socket, Pepe crying, Pepe screaming, Pepe giving the middle finger, and Pepe with makeup looking sad, all accompanied with melancholy confessions like, “When only your mama calls you handsome,” from @caribeman​. “All the clothes you buy look good until you put them on,” Shyla Oliver said. Molly Little added: “When the only texts you get from guys are asking for pictures of your homework.”

The confessions flowing onto social media platforms one after the other sound distraught, even when tinged with sarcasm and humor. And while sure, some users are probably just jumping on a trend, others are sharing truly despondent revelations; it’s impossible not to see the 140 characters as seriously distressing in some cases.

Concern over one’s looks is normal — there’s a reason why the cosmetics and shapewear industries exist — but imagined or perceived ugliness that reaches an intensity so severe it can be considered body dysmorphia disorder, or BDD, is an entirely different matter. A preoccupation with a nonexistent or slight defect in appearance is a real psychiatric issue.

#GrowingUpUgly is the latest in a string of trending hashtags that explore the state of self-esteem and the perception of beauty in our society. The #dontjudgemechallenge had teenagers posting side by side selfies: one beautiful, their natural selves, sometimes filtered, the other ugly, faces covered in fake acne, glasses, pimples, and drawn on unibrows. While in theory it was supposed to convey how wrong it is to judge a book by its cover, the viral sensation actually equated people who possess those traits with unattractiveness. Women tired of makeup shaming posted selfies with half of their faces done with #ThePowerofMakeup to combat shaming. And there are certainly more positive ones such as #PlusSizeAppreciation, #effyourbeautystandards, and #rockthecrop, which aims to increase body confidence.

The co-opted pound sign has turned social media into a haven of honesty. Confessions, admissions, and thoughts of this kind used to be kept to oneself, or maybe your therapist or close confidante, but social media offers a new way to work out your self-worth in a forum that will actually engage and work it out with you. If someone sends out a #GrowingUpUgly and gets validation that this isn’t in fact true, it could be as cleansing as divulgence to a confidante. While social media also has an obvious ugly side, this one seems pretty positive.

Perhaps Pretty Pepe will be next.

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