Performing Effortless Beauty

In recent years, the "clean girl" aesthetic has emerged as a popular visual and lifestyle trend on TikTok, promoting a specific image of femininity. The look is characterised by glowing skin, minimal makeup, slicked-back hair, and natural beauty. While the trend is often framed as effortless, there is a great deal of concealed aesthetic labour, as participation in the aesthetic requires time and resources. This thesis examines how young women on TikTok perform aesthetic labour through the clean girl aesthetic, interrogating the ways in which beauty, identity, and privilege intersect in the construction of femininity online. The central question guiding the research is: How do young women on TikTok perform aesthetic labour through the clean girl aesthetic? Adopting a qualitative approach, the study employs thematic analysis to examine 52 TikTok videos posted by young, female creators who participate in the trend. Videos were selected through purposive sampling and analysed through the lens of feminist media theory, drawing on concepts of aesthetic labour and postfeminist and neoliberal discourses. The analysis reveals four key themes. Performing Effortlessness highlights the contradiction of achieving a highly curated "natural" look. Consumerism and Aesthetic Labour highlights how commodified self-care routines and product promotion are central to the clean girl aesthetic. Norms and Exclusion examines how Eurocentric beauty standards and upper-class femininity are upheld in the aesthetic. Finally, Platform-Specific Representation shows how TikTok's algorithmic culture and platform affordances shape the aesthetic. While the clean girl aesthetic is often associated with self-care and wellness, its idealised version of femininity often centres whiteness, thinness, and affluence. This thesis concludes that the clean girl aesthetic operates as a postfeminist performance of self obscures extensive aesthetic labour under the guise of natural beauty. TikTok serves as both a platform for reproducing beauty standards and a space where creators can challenge them. The findings contribute to broader conversations about aesthetic labour, digital culture, and representation online.