From Alix Earle to Anna Paul, the world of female influencers has taken a seemingly sharp turn towards party girl central, and with hot girl summer approaching, when is a better time to explore when addiction is being dressed up as living whilst you’re young?
Existing alongside the era of the minimalist clean girl and quiet luxury aesthetic is one which embodies the complete opposite vibe in every single way. That is that of the party girl influencers. Usually based in Miami or LA, these girls find smoking cigarettes in mini skirts to be the epitome of chicness, and consider 4am an early night. For young people, this whole contradictory narrative can be really overwhelming, especially if you feel like your relationship with drink and drugs is already slightly confusing.
Proudly sober Tiktok creator Kathryn Thompson explains that she believes the glamorization of drink and drugs is becoming increasingly problematic on social media.
She says: “I’m five years Cali- sober, and I owe it my life. Unfortunately young girls think it’s all fun and games until they wake up the next day addicted, I spent from 18 to 23 drowning myself in alcohol and drugs. I really suffered with my mental health and I went to rehab twice.
“It’s really under talked about how harmful people promoting this kind of thing is, especially for young girls who are starting college or university. I know girls who have applied to Miami University because they saw Alix Earles’ wild nights out there. The thing is that especially when you are young, binge drinking can quickly become an everyday thing. I’m all for people who can go and party for one night, then call it a day but unfortunately that’s not the experience for the majority, addiction is so common.”
Seltzer, an alcoholic sparkling water beverage, has been sponsoring and collaborating with a load of influencers since 2020, bar (excuse the pun) the fact that these girls tend to be scarily attractive, mostly white, and all under the age of 25, Katryn points out that they are also all very slim.
“They are building this cool girl brand around these girls. So it kind of tells young girls, if you want to be this popular, this cool, this slim or this rich act like these girls. They drink and they party, so clearly that’s working for them. It looks so fun and like you are living whilst you’re young.
“But the truth is we can’t know how healthy their relationship with alcohol is, but drinking in excess isn’t ever good- and if it was a group of overweight, broke, unattractive people, it wouldn’t be so appealing, and Seltzer knows that.”
The JAMA Network reports that in 2020, alcohol advertisement in the US increased by 262%. And the advertisements not only sell a product, they want to sell a lifestyle based on an idealised version of what life will look like if you purchase. How effective would a wine advertisement be if it showed a lonely buyer taking a bottle home, to drink alone while watching television? I’m guessing not very.
But watching Alix Earle swing her Chanel bag round, whilst dancing on a table in an exclusive club in Miami, suddenly that drink becomes a whole lot more glamorous.
Kathryn says: “It’s not just a drink, it’s a highly addictive, anti depressant that ruins sleep, wrecks your gut, and gives you anxiety. Yet we sell it as fun, sexy and sophisticated. If it were invented today it would probably be gone tomorrow. We are so quick to call influencers out for stuff, so I’m not sure why we aren’t pointing out the issues with this.”
Contrastingly, Grace Hill who’s 19, and social secretary of the cocktail society at University in Manchester, says that she loves a night out, and doesn’t feel at all that ‘party girl’ TikTok is glamourising addiction.
“I think that alcohol is such a sensitive subject, and your relationship with it is personal, but for me drinking is something that is fun and I enjoy it. I never worry that I’m addicted, because I don’t feel like I have to drink, I drink because I want to.”
Grace reckons she has never, and would never ‘fit the clean girl aesthetic’. “I can almost never get up before 9am, I eat healthy when I can but definitely not everyday, and my room is often in a state, especially before a night out.
“I find the whole clean girl trend dumb and overly perfect.” She tells us, “It’s fun to see young people promoting going out and being chaotic, I think if you deep it all too much you can find a problem in everything, especially if you have suffered with addiction or something.”
Alix Earles podcast ‘Hot Mess’ really pushes back at the overly perfected, completely curated influencer which stereotypically has been the proto- type for success online. She is VERY honest, when discussing her life, her wild sex stories and deepest darkest secrets. Which for some (me included), is probably a refreshing shift from the Matilda Djerfs of the world.
But when does normalising being ‘a mess’, turn into glamourising something unhealthy?
Grace explains she does find the drug culture, which is ‘subtly promoted’ by party girls, ‘a little scary’.
“The Charli XCX BRAT CD had white powder on it, and that is so insane. And it’s stuff like that which makes people judge young people, creating false narratives that going out or enjoying going out means you are into all that. That’s not true.”
She adds: “I think judging women who post about their night outs is so misogynistic, no one cares when boys post their pints, like so what if Alix Earle posts a funny video whilst she’s deathly hungover. That’s relatable, you can’t pick and choose when you do or don’t want people to be relatable. Personally I think a glamorised what I eat in a day is way more triggering.
“The only thing which could be helpful is having more warnings/ disclaimers on the videos, which might help others recognise their own behaviours or problems. But other than that I think we shouldn’t presume that just because someone likes to party means they have addiction problems. That’s such a leap to make.”
But, as Katryn points out, often addiction goes unnoticed because alcohol is so normalised within society, and if you don’t yourself struggle, it can be easy to miss signs in others.
“I am not saying Alix Earle, or Anna Paul are alcoholics, they probably aren’t. But statistics show that so many other people are. And with impressionable young people on Tiktok, I do worry that making it look so appealing will lead to people facing addiction really early in their life.” Says Kathryn.
So, it turns out that viral picture of an espresso martini held by a stunningly manicured, perfectly photogenic hand, could actually represent a gateway into glamourised chaos in a sparkly mini skirt. Either way, perhaps it’s time we took a more critical approach to party influencers, and when we see a video of them being carried out of the bar unconscious, remember that probably isn’t as cool, or attractive, when they wake up the next morning.
