It’s no secret that the Kardashian-Jenner sisters are big fans of photo editing. However many of the Keeping Up With The Kardashians stars also are hopping on a strange new photo trend that sees the head being shrunken to impossibly small proportions. Where does this trend come from?
Out of all of the sisters, Kylie Jenner appears to be most fond of shrinking her head down to comically small proportions. However, the same photo manipulation can also be viewed on Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian’s social media accounts. The trend is not limited to the sisters, nor did it originate with them. Recently, Korean 90 Day Fiancé franchise star Jihoon Lee confused fans with his shrunken head in an Instagram post and influencers including American TikTok star Loren Gray are also big fans of this photo edit. Why are so many internet personalities trying to achieve head proportions reminiscent of Beetlejuice? It turns out that this trend actually stems from Korean beauty standards that are persistent in some Asian countries.
The sub-Reddit r/Instagramreality is dedicated to uncovering photo editing without exposing or shaming individuals. The sub has shared numerous photos people have unironically posted to their social media featuring them with impossibly shrunken heads. Reddit user u/miuxiu explained the trend on one of the sub’s posts dissecting the shrunken head craze. “Having a small head is a beauty standard in Korea,” the user wrote in a comment that has since received hundreds of upvotes. “Kids will look at people from far away and count how many heads tall you are with their fingers. It’s pretty crazy but it makes sense because they can end up looking like they have larger heads even if they don’t because of how much skinnier everyone is on average.” Many commenters on the sub have expressed similar sentiments, noting that Asian beauty standards can often be limited and extremely hard to achieve. Others commented that slender, dainty and doll-like proportions are heavily favored in Korea.
This isn’t the first time that the quest for reaching beauty standards has left proportions distorted, nor is extreme photo editing unique to Asian beauty standards. Website Betches featured an in-depth look at a popular influencer editing app that makes stars around the globe have long, slim legs – at the cost of being left with enormously long feet as a side effect. Kylie Jenner, Miley Cyrus and Ciara are among celebrities who hopped on the trend to have seemingly flawless legs and enormous feet. Photo editing has also been known to distort proportions to anatomically impossible degrees. Some reality stars and influencers shrink their waists to the point where it becomes smaller than their heads or where one’s belly button to waist placement is impossible. Others edit photos and end up with tiny or elongated hands, which has occurred with Kylie Jenner several times. Photo editing also commonly warps background images, leaving wonky household objects and strange lines.
The takeaway is that much of what is seen on social media is not real. If a photo seems off, then there is a good chance that editing has occurred to alter some aspect of it. The quest to achieve impossible beauty standards often leaves telltale traces, which people can learn to spot with enough practice.
