Back in my day, we just called it going on a walk.
I’ve been very boomer-ish lately when I see videos on TikTok of people going on “hot girl walks.” THAT’S JUST A WALK, I want to scream at the screen, before putting my phone down and feeling the need to touch grass.
If you haven’t come across the trend, it’s just girlies putting on their cute workout clothes and going on a walk. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s totally harmless, and yet I couldn’t stop fixating on it — how did taking a walk get turned into a TikTok-able event? Why does it have a new name? Who is responsible for this? I simply had to find out.
Apparently it’s a TikTok user named Mia (@exactlyliketheothergirls) who posted a video about how she used the Hot Girl Walk to lose weight. In her first video, she says, “If you wanna know how I went from this and this, to this, this and this, listen up — this is for you.” She shows some “before and after” type photos (a diet culture red flag always). The “before” photos show a straight-sized blonde young woman wearing trendy dresses. The “after” photos show an extra thin young woman with visible abs and smaller trendy clothes.
She goes on to explain that she’s been going on “hot girl walks,” which is a brisk, four-mile walk where you’re only allowed to think about three things:
1. What you’re grateful for
2. What your goals are and how to achieve them
3. How hot you are!!!1!1!
So now, of course, it’s popped off on TikTok and Instagram, with hundreds of thousands of girlies throwing on their Lululemon leggings and putting an inspirational podcast in their Airpods and going for a little neighborhood walk.
Again, at its core, it’s a harmless activity. And if it helps you get out and walk, good for you! And as an avid hater of running, I’m glad walking is getting its moment in the sun. But I can’t help but interrogate how this TikToker has made a very simple action, that lots of people do everyday, into a cultural commodity, adding onto the notion that absolutely anything can be content if you try.
Learning about the hot girl walk’s weight-loss origins and how it’s a vessel for productivity and girlboss-type sentiments made me a bit more skeptical than I’d previously been. I think its creator is generally well-intentioned, but it’s gotten out of hand with the way it idolizes weight loss — the most virtuous thing you can do, according to the internet. While hot girl walks are accessible to people of all sizes, you’ll be hard pressed to find fat creators going viral for touting its benefits.
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Like the “That Girl” trend, it’s a celebration of thinness and Westernized beauty standards that masks itself as something different. It’s also reminiscent of 12-3-30, the workout craze that took over exercise TikTok for a while.
If you’re not familiar with 12-3-30, it’s a workout started by influencer Lauren Giraldo who was another relatively thin person who became an *extra thin* person by walking on a treadmill at a speed of 3 and an incline of 12 for 30 minutes a day. The creators of these two activities have imbued them with some sort of magical thinking, that these are special exercises to help you lose weight and improve your life. But the thing is, they can sometimes help people lose weight because…it’s exercise. There’s nothing particularly special about them — except the way they’ve been packaged and marketed.
Hot girl walks soon got picked up by news outlets and became the perfect marketing tool. The New York Post published an article called “Ladies, here is everything you need for your TikTok Hot Girl Walk,” which goes on to try to sell you on expensive activewear and accessories that are wholly unnecessary for going on a walk by yourself. $70 Lululemon tops, a $50 fanny pack, $55 Bala Bangles wrist weights (you know, the cute ones), $30 water bottles and hydration supplements, and of course, a $300 Apple Watch. Plus, “Remember, Hot Girl Walks are comprised of fitness and a motivational soundtrack. You can’t successfully execute the second part without a good pair of headphones.” So buy some Airpods too, you poor fucks.
Why does one need to spend hundreds of dollars to go on a walk? I get it to a certain degree — activewear that’s comfy and cute makes me feel better when I work out. But when I’m going on a walk by myself, I don’t feel the need to get all dolled up. But then I remembered the core tenant of the hot girl walk: The performance of it all.
Because did you really go on a hot girl walk if you didn’t post about it?
Searching “hot girl walk” on TikTok pulls up thousands of videos, a lot of them with titles like “How to hot girl walk.” Most of them say all the normal things: Put on some music, grab your essentials (sunscreen, sunglasses, fanny pack, etc), and walk! Just walk, girl! The lack of new information in these videos is further proof — if we needed any more — that for the most part, people don’t need to be told how to go on a walk. The more I look, the more baffled I become at how this becomes content for people.
If you’re a hot girl walker and the trend helps motivate you to walk and makes you feel good: that’s great. I have no beef — I’m glad you’ve found a way to exercise that is accessible and simple. But there are so many people who use it as a way to make content, showcase a brand deal, or use it as a thinly-veiled way to celebrate already-thin people getting even thinner.
And watching all these videos, I could’t help but wonder (sorry) — do these influencers have so little to say that they have been relegated to making content about something so mundane? And crucially, if they couldn’t make it into content, would they still be doing it? ✦