Can I Pull You For a Chat? Love Island’s Effect on Young People Today

By Katie McShane

In the mid to late 2010s Love Island stars frequently made guest appearances at the teenage discos in my town. 9:30 on a Saturday night, 14-year-old girls plastered in fake tan and eyelashes are queuing up to take a photo with their favourite celeb. I can’t help but apply this memory to today’s media, nowadays questions are arising surrounding our obsession with reality tv, self-consciousness among young girls, ‘Sephora kids’, and unrealistic body expectations.

On the surface Love Island is entertaining tv, but should we allow it to infiltrate our culture as it did my discos? And is this yearly reliance contributing to these issues?

Real-ity Tv?

Let’s face it, reality tv is never “real”, but the advertising of it as true can be misleading to young people who may not have learnt this subtext yet. Love Island is a reality tv show where a group of people gather in ‘The Villa’ cut off from the rest of society and under the watchful eye of ITV. Throughout the game they ‘couple’ and ‘recouple’ up, those who are single are eliminated as are those voted off. The remaining couple wins £50,000. At its core Love Island is a game show. However the main focus is always on the couples and relationships rather than the competition. This exposes young people to unrealistic relationships and love standards that are presented as normal. The Islanders are performing and competing amongst themselves, whether they win or not being an ex-love island “star” comes with its own celebrity status. If they play their cards right. More and more we’re seeing moments and personalities being played up in an effort to becoming an iconic influencer. The tv we’re seeing isn’t real and yet teenagers are seeing the relationships portrayed and are expecting the same. Toxic masculinity, gaslighting, lying and cheating are promoted to young people, who are then perpetuating or accepting this behaviour in relationships.

“How to glow up”: the teenage obsession with looks

‘The teenage girl cartoon archetype’, we all can recognise her so much so that children watching cartoons can pick up on the joke. She’s probably facing a mirror applying makeup or looking at any spots or blemishes, or she’s turning to another character to ask, “Does this dress make me look fat?”. Wherever you’ve seen her, this media exists, and it is everywhere. Love Island is known for its cosmetics-based platform, from makeup collabs to days off where contestants can get their hair and nails done. Love Island is just another piece of media pushing beauty standards onto young girls. The Islanders almost always look picture perfect, from their tan to their makeup to their nails. They promote a version of ‘beauty’ that is completely unattainable for the average person. There’s no denying the effects of this, we are seeing it already with a new generation of young girls skipping their ‘awkward phases’ and heading straight for whatever aesthetic is trending at the moment. It all ties into this image of the ‘perfect woman’ who is definitely not as effortless as she seems.

Sephora 8-year-olds and the new preteen

But what are the effects of these new cultural phenomena? As I mentioned above, a new version of preteen is emerging. One obsessed with not loom bands and slime but Drunk Elephant, retinol, and Sol de Janeiro. TikTok has lovingly named these girls ‘Sephora kids’, if this is a new cultural mutation then Sephora is their hivemind. In their droves young girls are purchasing makeup and skincare products grown women would be jealous of, inspired of course by TikTok, tv, and influencers. We don’t need to question if this is damaging that much is clear, the question is to what extent? The need for perfection is incredibly harmful to these young minds. Self-esteem aside, these products are not designed for pre-pubescent skin. It’s clear to me this toxic culture is burning young girls both inside and out.

Gains, Goals, and the Masculine Gaze

I’ve spoken a lot about women and young girls and the effects Love Island can have on them, but the bodies and ideals it portrays can also be damaging to young men. A few years ago, in a school variety show I played a ‘Stereotypical Love Island Boy’ which of course left me “lifting weights” in the background. With so much media on our tv of men with muscles and abs it’s easy to consider that the norm which can leave many men, especially young boys isolated. Today gym culture is rampant among men, it seems they all have a singular goal – to build muscle. Whilst a healthy lifestyle should always be promoted, it worries me that this obsession could lead to issues with weight and disordered eating.

Is Love Island really the problem? I don’t think so, rather our looks-based society feeds off it and uses it as fuel. Continuing to present people who have obviously prepared for a role, both in body and in personality, as everyday-off the street joes- it adds a layer of contention to an already drama filled show. I believe if Love Island became less looks based and promoted different body types it would lose this controversial element whilst keeping pure the content and drama, we all know and love.