#SkinnyTok is dead. Or at least that’s what TikTok wants you to believe after its recent ban of the hashtag promoting an extreme thin ideal. That might have appeased regulators, but it shouldn’t satisfy parents of teens on the app. An army of influencers is keeping the trend alive, putting vulnerable young people in harm’s way.

Today’s social media landscape makes it all too easy for creators to repackage and disguise disordered eating as a “healthy” part of everyday life. That lifestyle then gets monetized on various platforms — via habit trackers, group chats and 30-day aspirational challenges — and shared with a much broader audience.

The rise of #SkinnyTok is in many ways a rehashing of the pro-eating disorder content of the past. In the mid-1990s it was Kate Moss and “heroin chic.” Then came the Tumblr posts in the early aughts praising “Ana” and “Mia,” fictional characters that stood for anorexia and bulimia. Now, it’s 23-year-old influencer Liv Schmidt telling her followers to “eat wise, drop a size.”

Schmidt, a prominent #SkinnyTok influencer who is often credited with lopping the “y” off of “skinny” and replacing it with an “i,” is the founder of the members-only group “Skinni Société.” In September, she got banned from TikTok amid scrutiny by the Wall Street Journal.

The fact that she continues to make headlines some nine months later drives home the perpetual game of whack-a-mole that regulators are playing with problematic content. After her TikTok ban, Schmidt simply moved her audience over to Instagram, where her followers have grown from 67,000 to more than 320,000. Until recently, she was charging people $20 per month for a “motivational” group chat, but when The Cut found at least a dozen of those users were in high school, Meta demonetized her profile in May.

And yet her Instagram account still exists and she’s actively posting to her YouTube channel. A video titled “How to Create a Skinni Body on a Budget” raked in nearly 50,000 views within a week, a particularly disturbing level of engagement considering she’s encouraging her viewers to consume fewer than 1,000 calories a day — far less than what health officials recommend for a nutrient-dense meal.

In her Instagram bio, Schmidt links to a Google application where anyone can apply to her Skinni Société. While membership previously cost just $20 per month, screenshots posted on social media suggest this latest iteration could run about $2,900 per month — a gulf that proves her schtick is a complete black box. Regardless of price point, she continues to use public platforms to lure people into private spaces where conversations promoting disordered eating can flourish unchecked — all while profiting from them. Bloomberg Opinion made several attempts to reach out to Schmidt for comment, but she did not respond.

This sort of content is causing real harm. Johanna Kandel, founder and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders said the uptick in callers mentioning #SkinnyTok to her organization’s hotline began last winter. And despite social media companies’ efforts to blunt the reach of the trend, as many as one in five calls fielded by the nonprofit in recent weeks have referenced the hashtag.

Some of those callers had past struggles with an eating disorder that was restarted by the hashtag, while others started following #SkinnyTok to “better themselves” or “get healthy” only to be pulled into a precarious mental space, Kandel says.

The bombardment of images of a skinny ideal can have even broader harms. Although this type of content has always lurked in the dark corners of the internet, people had to actively seek it out. Now, the algorithm delivers it on a platter.

That’s being served in insidious ways. While Schmidt’s rhetoric may leave little to the imagination, other influencers frame their content more subliminally. They encourage a disciplined lifestyle that blurs the lines of health consciousness and restrictive eating, which makes it all the more difficult to detect: Walk 15,000 steps a day, drink tea, nourish the body — these are things that might not raise alarm bells if a parent were to find them on their kid’s social feeds.

Sure, the TikTok trends that do raise alarm bells — remember “legging legs”? — are quick to get shut down. But what about something as seemingly innocuous as the popular “what I eat in a day” videos? How are social media companies expected to police troubling content that’s cloaked in euphemisms like “wellness” and “self-care”?

It’s a question that weighs on wellness and lifestyle creators who are trying their best to combat the negative content out there. When speaking with Kate Glavan, a 26-year-old influencer, it’s clear why she has been vocal about her experience with disordered eating: “I don’t know a single woman that hasn’t struggled with some sort of body image or food issue,” she said. “The only thing that snapped me out of my eating disorder was learning how it was destroying my health. I had a doctor look at my blood work and tell me I had the bone density of a 70-year-old woman at age 17.”

Whether that would work on today’s 17-year-olds is up for debate. “A lot of younger Gen Zers now believe that everything is rigged — schools, doctors, the government. That paranoia has created a distrust of expertise itself,” Glavan explained. “They think the whole medical system is corrupt, so they turn to influencers instead — which is incredibly dangerous.”

How dangerous? University of Toronto assistant professor Amanda Raffoul, who studies eating disorders, says there’s “a pretty solid body of evidence that the more young people in particular spent time online and on social media, the more likely they are to have poor body image, have negative thoughts about their appearance and to be engaging in harmful eating-related behaviors.”

For example, a 2023 review of 50 studies found that social media leads to peer comparisons and internalization of a “thin” ideal, which together contribute to body image anxiety, poor mental health and, for some, disordered eating. That effect is exacerbated when someone has certain risk factors — they are female or have a high BMI, for example — and are exposed to content that encourages eating disorders.

The danger is most acute in adolescent girls. That skinny ideal can elicit strong emotions and feelings of inadequacy at a time when they don’t yet have the tools to separate reality from fiction. But researchers also see a worrisome trend in adolescent boys who have been drawn in by fitfluencers pushing obsessive muscle training, unproven supplements and restrictive diets.

After a 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation revealed Meta was fully aware of Instagram’s potential to pull teen girls into a body image spiral, social media companies have offered some guardrails around problematic content. Kandel says when her nonprofit starts to hear multiple callers mentioning specific body image-related hashtags, it notifies companies, which typically are quick to shut them down.

While helpful, it also feels like the companies are doing the bare minimum to protect kids. Although eating disorder researchers can glean insights from individual social feeds, they still can’t get their hands on the internal data that could help them identify who is most at risk of harm and craft better safeguards.

For adolescents, the most powerful solution would be to step away from social media. Research shows spending less time scrolling can improve body image in struggling teens and young adults. But if that’s not realistic, parents and teachers could help them think more critically about what they’re seeing online — and how influencers like Schmidt make money by chipping away at their self-esteem.

If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders can help: 1 (866) 662-1235.

Jessica Karl is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and author of the Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

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An ambitious plan to make sure those who served in the Armed Forces have a roof over their head when they return took another step forward Wednesday as housing advocates and veterans support groups broke ground on a veterans housing neighborhood in Eagan.

All told, the $5.5 million Veteran Village project includes 22 homes for up to 36 veterans and their families who are experiencing homelessness, spread across more than 6 acres on the 3900 block of Rahn Road. It’s the latest effort to help veterans needing assistance securing permanent housing, led by local partners including the Housing First Minnesota Foundation, Lennar homes, the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans and Mount Calvary Lutheran Church.

An architectural rendering of Veterans Village, an ambitious plan aimed at combating homelessness among veterans, will include 22 homes across six acres in Eagan. (Courtesy of Lennar)

With construction underway, it caps off two years of planning, including finding a site, purchasing the acreage, receiving city approval and developing blueprints for the homes. Housing First and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans began partnering in 2017 with the construction of the first single-family home for members who had served in the Armed Forces. The 15th such home is currently under construction. The Housing First Foundation Veteran Housing Initiative has already developed more than 39,500 square feet of supportive housing since 2017.

“It’s a major sense of pride to be involved in a project like this,” said Jon Lovald, chief operating officer of the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.

Lovold served 25 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in 2015 as a lieutenant colonel, and also served with the Minnesota National Guard as the director of human resources for the active Army and National Guard workforce.

There are more than 200 veterans on the Minnesota Homeless Veteran Registry, a tally that two years ago topped 400 people.

Lovold said MACV assists more than 1,800 veterans annually stay housed, as another 600 veterans become homeless each year.

That list is fluid, he said, as people transition into and out of different circumstances.

“The key is that we outpace the rate of names going off of the list, rather than going on,” Lovold said, comparing the constant need to how an emergency room operates. When one person’s needs are fulfilled, another person needing help emerges.

“The list is never going to be zero. The system has to exist,” Lovold said.

A village for vets

Whereas previous homes in the partnership were single-family structures spread out over the metro area, this latest effort allows MACV to closely assist veterans with case management as they transition into the next period of civilian life, he said.

Lovold recalled retiring after 25 years, and reaching a certain set of financial and medical benefits that helped him find solid footing as he transitioned away from the Army and National Guard. He concedes that is not a typical situation — many others deal with a much different set of circumstances. For many veterans, the Armed Services provided a way to leave at-risk situations, or troublesome situations at home.

“You’re in the military, learning all of these other skill sets, but that doesn’t change what has been happening at home, four, eight, 10 years while you were gone,” Lovold said.

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The Veteran Village setup, with a case management office near the homes, can fill some of those gaps in life skills that are badly needed, he said.

The first building in the complex is on track to be completed by September, said Sofia Humphries, senior director of community impact with Housing First. The remaining homes are on track to be completed later this year or early 2026.

The first building also will be part of the Parade of Homes tour.

Veteran Village will include four one-bedroom units, 11 one-bedroom units with a garage, and seven three-bedroom units for families.

“Contributors from big to little have stepped up and contributed to the project,” Humphries said. “It has been a really unifying project.”

Excellence in independent publishing will be celebrated Saturday at the 35th annual Midwest Book Awards gala at Frey Theater, St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul. The awards, presented by Midwest Independent Publishers Association, recognize creativity in content and execution, overall book quality and the book’s unique contribution to its subject area.

Winners from MIPA’s 12-state Midwest region will be honored in 32 categories during a program hosted by Kansas City media personality Cherayla Haynes that will include a tribute to MIPA founder Sybil Smith, who died in 2024. A 6 p.m. reception will allow guests to network and peruse displays of this year’s finalist books, followed by 7 p.m. announcements of the Gold winners. Tickets are $56.25 to $75. Advance registration is required. Go to mipa.org.

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A technological revolution is unfolding — one that will transform our world in ways we can barely comprehend. As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves and corporate America’s investment in AI continues to explode, we stand at a crossroads that will determine not just America’s future but humanity’s as well.

Many leading experts agree that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is within sight. There is a growing consensus that it could be here within the next two to five years. This is a fundamental shift that will lead to scientific and technological advances beyond our imagination. Some have referred to the development of advanced AI as the Second Industrial Revolution, but the truth is that it will be more significant than that — perhaps incomprehensibly so — and we are not prepared.

The potential benefits of AGI are extraordinary. It could discover cures for diseases we have battled for generations, find solutions to the most difficult mathematical and physics problems, and create trillions of dollars in new wealth.

However, there is real cause for concern that we are racing toward an unprecedented technological breakthrough without considering the many dangers it poses. This includes dangers to our labor force, U.S. national security, and even humanity’s very existence. As Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently suggested, AI could lead to a “bloodbath” for job-seekers trying to find meaningful work, and that is just one threat.

The same technology that could eradicate cancer may also create bioweapons of unprecedented lethality. Systems designed to optimize energy distribution could be weaponized to destroy critical infrastructure. As countries sprint to develop advanced AI, the one conversation we are not having is about the possibility that the same tools that might solve our greatest challenges could create catastrophic and even existential risks.

Back in 2014, Stephen Hawking warned, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” More recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed, “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there will be great companies.” According to Bill Gates, not even doctors and lawyers are safe from AI replacement.

AI advancement is developing at warp speed without any brakes. We are unprepared to deal with those risks.

For this reason, we are launching The Alliance for Secure AI, with a mission to ensure advanced AI innovation continues with security and safety as top priorities. We have no interest in stifling critical technological advancement. America can continue to lead the world in AI development while also establishing the necessary safeguards to protect humanity from catastrophe.

Safeguards begin with effective communication across political lines. We will host strategy meetings with coalition partners across the technology, policy and national security sectors, ensuring that conversations are informed about the dangers of AGI.

Beyond the halls of Congress, this will require a public education push. Most Americans are unaware of the unprecedented threats that AI may pose. Our educational efforts will make complex AI concepts accessible for everyday Americans who must understand that their livelihoods are at risk.

By convening AI experts, policymakers, journalists, and other key stakeholders, we can connect leaders who must work together to get this right for America, and humanity. We have no choice but to build a community committed to responsible AI advancement.

I am profoundly optimistic about AI’s potential to improve our lives. And yet, alongside its potential benefits, AGI will introduce serious and dangerous problems that we will all need to work together to solve.

The advanced AI revolution will be far more consequential than anything in history. Daily activities for everyday Americans will be forever changed. AGI will impact the economy, national security, and the understanding of consciousness itself. Google is already hiring for a “post-AGI” world where AI is smarter than the smartest human being in all cognitive tasks.

It is critical that the U.S. maintains its technological leadership while ensuring AI systems align with human values and American principles. Without safeguards, we risk a future in which the most powerful technology ever created could threaten human liberty and prosperity.

This is about asking fundamental questions: What role should AI play in society? What are the trade-offs we need to consider? What limits should we place on autonomous systems?

Finding the answers to these questions requires broad public engagement — not just from Big Tech, but from every single American.

Brendan Steinhauser is the CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the implications of advanced artificial intelligence. He wrote this column for the New York Daily News.

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