Abstract
Since the young people of Generation Z and Generation Alpha have had access to social media early in their lives and represent a large percentage of TikTok users, they are exposed daily to beauty trends and toxic beauty standards that can be found in this environment. Since TikTok is the platform where a multitude of new insecurities related to physical appearance are born, the content found on it can negatively influence young people’s perception of their own physical appearance. We gathered the data for this paper from a content analysis on the TikTok platform, which focused on trends and the behavior of users and content creators. This study will investigate the links between problematic beauty content on the TikTok platform and low self-esteem among the people of Generation Z and Alpha, as well as how the findings can affect their purchasing behavior. The paper will focus both on the negative psychological effects that this type of content can have on young people and on the trends that most often promote ‘problematic’ ideas and through which, inevitably, content creators or companies try to sell products that improve physical appearance.