“Girl Dinner”: A Fun Trend Turned Harmful?
Written By Suhani Kapoor | Edited by Veronika Millena
Scrolling through Instagram and TikTok lately — chances are you’ve seen a handful of reels titled “girl dinner”. Started by creator Olivia Maher, these reels usually consist of girls showing their easy, considerably small meals. The trend started out lighthearted, simply presenting the food we eat when we don’t feel like cooking, or generally aren’t hungry enough for a full meal. Now, there are thousands of videos with millions of views, of meals consisting of arbitrary items: pickles, soda and popcorn, plain hamburger buns, and pretty much anything else.
However, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not this “girl dinner” trend has evolved into possibly promoting disordered eating. Obviously, seeing TikToks with quite minimal foods or snacks on the plate raises concerns; often the nutritional value of the meal seems quite inadequate and makes one concerned about the disordered eating it may imply. At its core, the trend stands to represent what is occasionally eaten, but if “girl dinner” like only crackers or pickles is something done regularly — it likely falls into the category of disordered eating.
The “girl dinner” trend is quite freeing and enjoyable at its heart–it represents women just eating what they want, uninfluenced by the diet culture. It’s a symbol of just having fun and different meals for once.
It starts to become a problem when it is used as a way to undereat or eat restrictively. The trend does have potential to form a culture of disordered eating. When young girls or women come across videos like these, they may feel that they need to eat less, that compared to others there’s “too much” on their plate. It leads them into the trap of restrictive eating–using the term “girl dinner” as an excuse to eat smaller and less nutritious foods.
There are ways to make the concept healthy by promoting well-balanced plates of nutritious foods. According to the National Institutes of Health, the recommended daily calorie intake for a woman with an active lifestyle is 2,000–2,200. However, the certain more “extreme” examples like the one of plain hamburger buns do have the chance of having a negative impact.
The takeaway? At its core, the trend is fun and amusing, a way to express just enjoying a night for once–and is fine as it remains that way. However, the increasingly more extreme “girl” dinner meals have quite a likelihood to create a toxic culture of undereating — with young girls and other people for whom it might trigger disordered eating. That’s not to say it’s not an enjoyable trend for many, and it’s most definitely not done with bad intentions! Showing off your “girl dinner” that’s well-balanced and part of a nutritious meal is the perfect way to go about it.
