75% of Gen Y women are still impacted by toxic Y2K body culture, says new Dove survey

If you flipped through a magazine in the early 2000s, you probably remember the headlines: the crash diets, the “bikini body” countdowns, the cruel “who wore it worse” features and relentless body shaming.

For an entire generation, these glossy pages didn’t just sell beauty products, they sold a toxic ideal of what a woman’s body should look like.

And while we may have left low-rise jeans and tabloid gossip columns in the past, the damage didn’t disappear with them.

As a new study from Dove highlights, women are still feeling the effects of early 2000s body culture.

As part of the brand’s latest campaign, designed to celebrate 25 years since Y2K, they asked millennial women about the lasting impact of those beauty standards. 

Three out of four millennial women in Canada said those harmful beauty messages still shape how they feel about their bodies, while 50 per cent said they believe those ideas will always influence how they feel about themselves. 

And, some of the most memorable – and damaging – phrases?

Seventy-one per cent said “bikini body” was most memorable with Y2K media, while “love handles”, “muffin top”, “size zero” and “thunder thighs” were close behind. 

“As the generation with the lowest self-esteem, it’s clear millennial women are still recovering from decades of unrealistic beauty expectations around how their bodies should look,” said Divya Singh, Head of Unilever Personal Care, Canada. “At Dove, we believe that there is no one version of beauty.”

Reclaiming the narrative

In response, Dove is inviting millennial women to reclaim the parts of themselves they were once taught to hide.

Through its new #UnseenBeauty campaign, the brand is encouraging women to share childhood or teen photos they might have once felt embarrassed by – images that capture a raw, unfiltered beauty they couldn’t appreciate at the time.

By empowering women to embrace and share their #UnseenBeauty moments, Dove strives to help women see their real beauty, the brand said. 

To kick off the campaign, PWHL star and Olympic gold medalist Sarah Nurse is sharing her #UnseenBeauty story, describing how she was often ashamed of her athletic build growing up because she didn’t look like the girls she saw in the media. 

“I partnered with Dove to help challenge Y2K standards of beauty so we can start seeing ourselves differently,” said Nurse, the first of many Canadian creators who will be joining the online challenge showcasing the damaging effects of the Y2K media pressure. 

“There are so many parts of us we used to hide that we deserve to celebrate! I hope Canadians join me in sharing their #UnseenBeauty photos, so we can write a more body positive future for the next generation.”