Is the Internet obsessed with young girls?

Digitally-grown aesthetic movements, subcultures, fashion styles, micro-celebrities, and archetypes are easily counted in the hundreds.

Among them: e-girls, Instagram faces, Cracky-chan, Valerie Lukyanova, Venus Angelic, Belle Delphine, Bella Poarch, Neekolul, j-fashion, k-fashion, living dolls, anime waifus, Zoomer ethnic ambiguity, coquettes, etc.,

Does any of this make sense? And who are these people? Their only similarity is their youthful appearance: big eyes, small noses, and tiny lips on real and imagined women and girls.

These people, groups, and trends are all different expressions of one thing: our long-standing obsession with female youth, which is now accelerated by the attention economy.

Here are two examples of women who have used filters to enhance their neotenous features and earned thousands of dollars from OnlyFans: Diana Deets/Coconut Kitty and Maria Tretjakova/Olivia Casta.

Founder of OkCupid Christian Rudder famously said: “From the time you’re twenty-two, you’ll be less attractive than a twenty-year-old.” That’s just the way it is.” It was an outrageous claim, but data supported his assertion.

In general, older faces are rated as less attractive than younger ones. In cross-cultural studies, women with baby-like features (large, widely spaced eyes, small noses, and chins) are considered the most attractive.

Looking at PornHub data over the last five years reveals that the most popular porn actresses, both amateur and professional, tend to have neotenous features.

OnlyFans is no different.
Porn star Belle Delphine, for instance, is regularly accused of making herself look younger. Despite this, it’s not that she makes herself look more childlike – pubescent girls, or even prepubescent ones, don’t even look like her – but more cartoonish, like an anime character.

The PornHub data again reveals a desire for something less-than-human; hentai was, for example, the top category for 2021.

In other words, perhaps the end goal isn’t so much to approximate youth as it is to give the impression of something not wholly human that shares some qualities with youth.

That’s what springs to mind when I think of girls like Venus Angelic, Beckii Cruel, and Bebe of “BebopandBebe,” all known for their anime-inspired, neotenous looks social media.

At the height of their fame, the former two were 13 and 16. At the height of their fame, the former two were 13 and 16. Bebe might be only seven years old and certainly under ten years old at the height of her fame. Even Bebe, a child, doesn’t naturally look like that.

Social media has undoubtedly accelerated this disturbing trend. The juvenilization of adults is a peculiar symptom of our hypermodern age, and what’s even scarier is that we don’t even know how far down this rabbit hole we will go.