2.5 hrs of makeup: Japan teen struggles with social media beauty standards

Misaki, a 17-year-old in Hyogo Prefecture, spends as long as two and a half hours each morning on makeup, which she calls equipment for facing other people with confidence. She uses eyelid tape, cosmetics, contouring, face-framing hair and colored contacts to approximate the features she sees praised online: large, slightly drooping eyes, a narrow nose and defined facial contours. Her dissatisfaction began in sixth grade after seeing selfies on social media, then deepened when classmates mocked her height and she heard another student ridiculed for her appearance. She became afraid of being seen and stopped attending school for a period.

Choosing a correspondence high school where makeup and clothing are unrestricted let Misaki attend in a way she could accept. Encouragement from classmates and taking on public-facing challenges, including leading a school project and completing an internship, helped her recognize that people judge more than appearance. Yet her fixation remains: she compares herself with other girls, doubts that appearance-based judgments can be avoided, and sometimes turns to AI to express her distress or seek makeup advice. Her story illustrates how constant exposure to narrow beauty ideals can erode young people’s confidence, while also showing how supportive environments and accomplishments can help them participate more fully without necessarily erasing long-standing insecurities.