When Beauty Standards Get More Unreal Than Ever: AI Models and “Face Snatching” Shapewear
As a clinical psychologist who works with people struggling with eating disorders and body image distress, I often hear clients describe feeling like they’re not measuring up. Not thin enough. Not toned enough. Not young enough. Not sculpted enough.
Just this month, two high-profile developments have pushed these already-damaging ideals even further from reality:
Vogue magazine published a fashion campaign using AI-generated models.
Kim Kardashian’s brand Skims released a “face wrap” that promises to “snatch” your jawline while you sleep.
It’s easy to dismiss these as gimmicks or fads. But when we look closer, they reveal deeper truths about the pressures women face - and the increasingly unrealistic benchmarks used to define beauty.
Let’s break them down.
AI Models in Vogue: Comparing Ourselves to People Who Don’t Exist
In August 2025, Vogue ran a paid advertisement by the fashion brand Guess featuring AI-generated models. There was no mention of this on the main page, only a small note in the fine print that the ad was created using artificial intelligence.
The result? Flawless, symmetrical, smooth-skinned women with idealised proportions that even the most genetically blessed humans can’t attain. These aren’t real people with lives, stories, and imperfections. They’re computer-generated avatars. Digital fantasies.
From a body image perspective, this matters. It’s one thing to compare yourself to a model who’s been Photoshopped. It’s another to compare yourself to someone who doesn’t even exist.
And yet, for many people (especially teens and young adults) this is now the norm. The bar for what’s “attractive” keeps moving higher, away from authenticity and toward simulation. The harm isn’t just aesthetic, it’s psychological. These portrayals can leave people feeling less-than-human themselves.
The Skims Face Wrap: Selling Solutions to Problems That Don’t Exist
Around the same time, Kim Kardashian launched the SKIMS “Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap”, a stretchy band marketed as a way to “snatch” your jawline and tighten your face. The product claims to use “collagen-infused yarn” and offers temporary compression effects. It sold out quickly.
Let’s be clear:
The idea that your face needs “snatching” is not based on health, science, or wellbeing - it’s based on fear.
Features such as jawlines are predominantly influenced by genetics.
There’s no reliable evidence that collagen-infused fabric alters facial structure or reduces ageing.
At best, it might reduce puffiness for a few minutes. At worst, it contributes to obsessive appearance-fixing, body checking, and anxiety about natural features like a soft jawline or round cheeks.
Kim Kardashian cannot credit this product for her jawline, and has acknowledged having undergone plastic surgery procedures in the past.
From a clinical standpoint, tools like this can reinforce compulsive behaviours, especially for individuals already struggling with disordered eating, body dysmorphia, or low self-worth. It sends the message that your resting face isn’t good enough, that you must actively “correct” your appearance, even while you sleep!
Why This Matters
These trends may seem superficial on the surface, but they contribute to a broader cultural climate where:
Beauty becomes synonymous with control.
Diversity is erased in favour of a hyper-thin, symmetrical, surgically enhanced ideal.
Normal features like softness, wrinkles, texture, or asymmetry are framed as flaws to fix.
In therapy, I often work with clients to unlearn these messages. We explore:
How diet culture and beauty marketing prey on insecurities.
The difference between appearance-based and values-based self-worth.
Ways to reconnect with the body as a source of strength, sensation, and experience - not an object.
Some Questions to Reflect On
If you’re noticing increased anxiety about your appearance, it may help to ask:
Who benefits from me feeling this way about my body?
What expectations am I holding myself to, and are they even human?
What would I say to a friend who felt pressure to “snatch” their jawline?
Final Thoughts
We can’t stop Vogue from publishing AI-generated images. We can’t stop celebrities from selling cosmetic quick fixes. But we can choose to stay curious. To question the beauty ideals we’re being sold. To prioritise health, connection, and meaning over chasing perfection.
And if you're struggling with body image or disordered eating, know this: You are not failing. You're living in a culture that constantly tells you you're not enough. But your worth has never depended on how tightly sculpted your face is, or how closely you resemble an AI-generated fantasy.
You deserve to live a full, meaningful life in the body you have - no snatching required.