Ln January 13, Miley Cyrus releases the clip of her new song, Flowers, on his disappointment in love. Miley may have separated, but she looks much better than before, in her sparkling gold dress. Internet users then put hundreds of montages online to celebrate the “glow up” of the Disney starlet. The glow-up? A rise in range of oneself. Before and after photos of her abound everywhere. On a publication, we see the very young Miley, in the 2013 clip of Wrecking Ball, tell her future husband – now her ex – “I will always want you”. And right after, Miley, 30, now divorced, singing a swirling ode to singleness and self-love. The sequence is already cult.
The expression is a contraction of glow (“shine”) and grow up (“grow”), which could be translated as “improve”, “become more beautiful”. It has become a verb, even an injunction: “How to glow up in 10 steps”. In 2014, the #gloupchallenge (without w) exploded on social networks, with photos showing the evolution of personalities, like Kylie Jenner, the half-sister of Kim Kardashian, boosted with cosmetic surgery. Young people post a montage of photos of them when they felt bad about themselves, often as teenagers, and a recent photo, proof of their metamorphosis.
By making us grow “oh” of satisfaction, these scripted contents, intimate symbols of success, combine a supposed psychological state and a visual validation. Get better, it must be seen. A bit like in decorating shows, clothing coaching, home renovation where, with dazzling effects, the radical transformation seems to be the joint result of a stubborn will and a wave of a magic wand.
Ever more calibrated vision
Unsurprisingly, the glow up of personalities having recourse to a cosmetic surgery operation have multiplied. According to article R. 4127-19 of the public health code, in France, surgeons aren’t allowed to advertise their profession…but clients do it for them by sharing stunning before-and-after photos.
These contents proliferate, because they continue to inspire. Who wouldn’t dream of being the best version of themselves? Playing sports, eating healthy, having the buttocks of Jennifer Lopez… The list never ends, with an ever more calibrated vision of women. But men are not left out. “I’m sorry, but you’re not my type”, we read on several TikTok posts, with a “before” photo of a prepubescent man with acne-prone skin and a chubby face. Then comes the “after” of the ephebe: complexion become radiant, dressed to the nines, sublimated by a filter. A chiaroscuro whose networks abound. On TikTok, the hashtag #glowup has over 75 billion views.
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