And, and, and let me just say this: do not take medical advice from someone on the internet without a specialized degree relevant to the area you are seeking help for. This rule of thumb especially applies to misguided blonde main characters on TikTok who are paid to encourage you to buy their skincare faves, overpriced hair route, or experimental elective procedures in the hopes it will make you just Clean Girl Aesthetic as they are. Their influence can’t outweigh your genetics or the advice of beauticians, estheticians, or medical doctors without one-on-one insight into your history. Still, it’s extremely tempting to buy into TikTok wisdom that’s only a swipe away, especially for younger viewers, which is why influencers like Liv Schmidt are so damn problematic. Who is this “thin” TikToker seemingly trying to make “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” a mantra again? Here’s some healthy pushback at Liv Schmidt’s “skinny” TikTok controversy.

Why was Liv Schmidt’s TikTok account banned?

In light of her tell-all profile with The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times reports that Liv Schmidt’s TikTok was removed for breaking community guidelines. Liv’s account shared unverified “wellness” tips that revolve around how to “stay skinny” after attending Arizona University, where “every single person around you is blonde and skinny.” Liv’s content has included animal emojis that could be perceived as fatphobic when discussing food, like whales, pigs, and cows. Redditors who screenshotted these troubling emojis used Liv’s “what I eat in a day” videos to estimate she once promoted consuming a total of only 800 calories. Her “aesthetic” relies on her size, according to Liv, because gaining weight would be her “worst nightmare,” as stated in a now-deleted video.

The notion of achieving thinness above all else, which Liv’s content has allegedly encouraged, has elicited a strong reaction from the online community about the potential dangers of glamorizing disordered eating. Liv has claimed she has no personal experience with disordered eating, but that doesn’t mean the same is true for the 700,000 users who followed her account. TikTok is in an ongoing battle with federal and state governments in the US about its alleged potential negative health impacts on young kids. Creators who could influence others to risk their health, intentionally or otherwise, may jeopardize the app’s future.

Liv Schmidt’s Most Controversial Moments

“For me, it was way easier to cut out 300 calories of food than to burn 300 calories in exercise, especially if you’re a career person with a limited amount of time.”

In her interview with The Wall Street Journal, Liv explained that for a “career person” (why does she sound like a Mattel executive designing a new Barbie), it’s easier to simply eat less than work out because of the time working out takes. Foundational health studies, like this one published in the National Library of Medicine, show that both nutrition or diet and physical exercise are essential to a long and healthy life. A calorie deficit can’t provide the cardiovascular, metabolic, and musculoskeletal benefits that come with incorporating both nutrition and exercise instead of “focusing solely on one or the other.” Plus, consuming too few calories can have a negative impact on your energy levels, metabolism, fertility, and bones. Plus, 80% of people regain the weight after ending a strict diet.

Liv said in a TikTok video she “prayed” for her “mom’s skinny genes.”

While it’s not weird to want to look like your parent, being disappointed she got her dad’s “fat genes” is an example of the rhetoric her critics believe shows that Liv’s brand of “wellness” presents skinniness as something to idolize and fatness as something to fear. Plus, ouch, your dad has feelings too!

Liv’s bio once read, “It’s not a sin to want to be thin.”

After her first account was banned, Liv’s second TikTok @notlivssschmidt, once poked fun at her critics in her bio by stating it’s not a “sin” to prefer being small and that she was “Saving America from obesity 1 person @ a time.” What this mindset leaves out is that a healthy person can come in all shapes and sizes. As a wellness creator with a platform based on advising others how to be “fit,” conflating size and fitness presents a problem of accuracy and ethicality. If Liv “like[s] to be skinny,” as she has previously said, then no one can stop her. But her content has been accused of blurring the line between promoting a preference versus unhealthy preoccupation with weight.

Liv called obesity in America a “competitive sport.”

In another deleted video that was met with major backlash, Liv said obesity in the United States “made being American feel like a secret shame.” Oh boy, it’s hard to believe Liv is “misunderstood” when she frequently puts out such large, sweeping statements. The facts are that America ranked as the 12th most obese country in 2023, and while there are plenty of reasons to have concern for the US of A, “shame” should be something we’re taking out of the conversation about body weight, not persisting.

What responsibility should social media platforms take when it comes to fostering harmful behavior, and when does censorship come into the equation? Listen to the latest episode of Good Bodies.