TikTok users are speaking out against a new trend which sees individuals use audio of Bella Hadid’s voice to promote disordered eating.
In the audio, the 26-year-old model can be heard introducing herself, as she says: “So my name, my name is Bella Hadid.”
In many of the 54,300 videos made with using the audio, people have poked fun at their eating habits. In one clip with more than 2.5m views, a man documents himself grabbing a glass from his cabinet and filling it with water. The TikToker, who goes by @owenpleasestoptalking, then places it next to his pizza before lip-syncing Hadid’s voice.
In the caption, he went on to explain why he felt like the model, writing: “Me after choosing to have water with my healthy meal.”
He then made another joke about his eating routine in the caption, where he wrote: “Like water cancels everything else out??? So I’m in my Bella Hadid era.”
Another video, featuring TikTok user @mrprada77, also shows a potentially dangerous use of the audio, with the text over the clip reading: “Me after only chewing gum for breakfast.” A third TikTok user, @carllevrai, also used the clip to promote how he apparently feels when he doesn’t “eat in the morning before school”.
Users also used the trend to make jokes about their weight, with one TikToker, @085dontwannabealive, claiming that she felt “skinny” when her “piercer said [she] didn’t have enough fat to get [her] belly button pierced”.
In light of the viral trend, TikTok users have begun to condemn the trend for promoting and normalising disordered eating. Influencer Victoria Paris, who has more than 1.3m followers on TikTok, was among those criticising the use of the viral audio on the platform, with the TikToker revealing that the videos all “slightly trigger” her eating disorder.
In the video, she filmed herself looking at the camera, before covering it with her hand. She then described her reaction to the trend, writing: “Me watching the videos under this sound that all slightly trigger my [eating disorder].”
Paris also emphasised how difficult it is for her to watch the videos in the caption, where she wrote: “Like I gotta swipe or look away, I’m a snowflake sensitive baby.”
In the comments on her clip, which has been viewed more than 456,000 times, many have agreed with Paris’ stance.
“Someone had to say it,” one person wrote, while another added: “Absolutely in every way.”
Other TikTok users revealed that the videos were triggering for them as well, and claimed that the individuals participating in the trend could be unknowingly struggling with disordered eating.
“Me trying to laugh as if I’m not going to think about it for the rest of the day,” one person wrote, while someone else said: “Same it’s so triggering but yet I’ll be peeking with one eye.”
A third person said: “And the way that some of them don’t even realise it’s a whole [eating disorder].”
While the trend features Hadid’s voice, she has been vocal about her own experiences with disordered eating, as she opened up to Vogue in March about her struggle with anorexia.
“I’d pack my little lunch with my three raspberries, my celery stick. I was just trying, I realise now, to feel in control of myself when I felt so out of control of everything else,” she said.
Although she noted that she has a much healthier relationship with food now, she still has feelings of body dysmorphia, explaining: “I can barely look in the mirror to this day because of that period in my life
The Independent has contacted a representative for Hadid for comment.
For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this piece, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. You can visit their website here.
NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. They can be reached by phone on 845 838 2040 or their website here.
