Media Citations
"How to think in the age of AI," - The New Statesman (April 2025)
"AI 'Chubby' Filter Causes Outrage on TikTok," - Newsweek (March 2025)
"My father had plastic surgery. Now he wants me and my mother to get work done," - The Guardian (January 2025)
"‘People think that looking better means you will have a better life’: why gen Z spends so much on beauty," - The Guardian (August 2024)
"We're In Micro-Insecurity Hell," - allure (August 2024)
"Why do we see beauty as virtuous and ugliness as a problem to be fixed?" - ABC News (February 2024)
"Januhairy: What embracing body hair says about the beauty ideal," - euronews.culture (January 2024)
"We were never supposed to see our own faces this much," - Dazed Beauty (September 2023)
What your new year's resolution says about you - Bustle (January 2023)
The Harms of Lookism - The Herald (December 2022)
Is it bad that I still want to be ‘beach body-ready’? - Evening Standard (July 2022)
Social construction, or the product of evolution? The intense debate around our attraction to the “Instagram face” - Le Monde (July 2022)
Can lip filler make you happy? - Slate (July 2022)
Interviewed on Lookism – Vogue Japan (September 2021)
How young people fell for cosmetic surgery - The Times (September 2021)
Image Isn’t Everything, Sussex Express (print) (November 2020)
How Isolating in Quarantine Has Been Detrimental To Our Body Image – Seventeen (October, 2020)
Ask the Expert: How can I persuade my teen not to edit her photos on social media? - The Irish Times (October 2020)
Heather’s comments in support of the Mental Health Foundation briefing paper on Image-editing apps and mental health were quoted in 264 outlets directly (PDF list available on request). Including: Image editing apps: The problem for our mental health - Happiful (October 2020), Call to limit body-editing apps for children - BBC Newsround (October 2020), Mental health experts call for restrictions on image-editing apps –Mail Online; Express and Star; Belfast Telegraph; Central Fife Times (September 2020).
Zoom is making us hate our faces - Mic (September 2020)
Why wellness is a $6 trillion confidence trick - Financial Review (July 2020)
Why do women feel pressured to shave? - Newsdio (June 2020)
The dark side of the wellness industry - New Statesman (June 2020)
The dark side of the video call boom - The Telegraph (June 2020)
What’s the Next ‘Instagram Face’? – Paper Magazine (May 2020)
Dr. Ourian on Cosmetic Surgery’s Holy Grail – Paper Magazine (May 2020)
How Self-Isolation and Social Distancing is Messing With Our Sense of Self – Dazed (April 2020)
What these people can teach you about accepting yourself – Women’s Health (print) (August 2019)
Why women feel pressured to shave - CNN Style (March 2020)
Do French Women Really Have the Secret to Aging Gracefully? - Vogue (February 2020)
Books That Changed Me: Bri Lee - The Sydney Morning Herald (January 2020)
Investigation of Beauty and Body Image Short But Sound - The Sydney Morning Herald (December 2019)
The Age of Instagram Face - The New Yorker (December 2019)
Exploring the Mind-Body Problem and Rise of Body Anxiety - Dazed Digital (October 2019)
Attack of the Insta Clones – Daily Mail (August 2019)
Beauty is no Longer Just About a Beautiful Body, and that can be Dangerous – Trouw (July 2019)
'You'd be gorgeous if you lost weight' - People share their worst body-shaming experiences - Birmingham Live (June 2019)
Is our obsession with a healthy glow more complicated than we think? - Dazed Digital (May 2019)
Beauty Without the Beast – Heather Widdows - Festival Chronical (May 2019)
Mermaids: Drawn to Scales - Big Issue North (April 2019)
What Beauty Demands: An Interview with Heather Widdows - Imperfect Cognitions (March 2019)
100 Best Books to Read in a Lifetime (2019) - Edarabia (February 2019)
Heather Widdows: The Ugly Side of Beauty - Guernica magazine (January 2019)
The 19 Best Books of 2018 - The Atlantic (December 2018)
Generation selfie: How is Instagram Altering our Understanding of Beauty? - The Bod Edit (July 2018)
The Case of 'Dr Bumbum' Shows that Beauty has been Regarded as a Moral Virtue - BBC News Brazil (July 2018)
My Visit to the World's First Gym for Your Face - The New Yorker (June 2018)
Make-up: Have YouTube Stars Boosted Beauty Sales - BBC News, Business (June 2018)
You Don't Have to be Beautiful to be Successful - but the World Makes us Feel That Way - Refinery29 (June 2018)
I Feel Pretty's Intentions are Good, but it Fails to Deliver an Empowering Message - Huffington Post (May 2018)
A pretty little double standard Boston Globe (May 2018)
'You Can't be Hairy, Fat and Ageing': Why Beauty is Becoming a Moral Imperative for Us All - ABC News, Australia (April 2018)
Why Amy Schumer and Kate Middleton can't win - Sydney Morning Herald (April 2018)
When Beauty is a Troll - The Atlantic (April 2018)
'I Feel Pretty' and the Rise of Beauty-Standard Denialism - New York Times (April 2018)
The rise of Non-Surgical Beauty: ‘My Mum Said my Lip Looked Like a Rubber Dinghy’ - The Guardian (April 2017)
Unthinkable: Why are Beauty Standards Becoming More Onerous? - The Irish Times (May 2016)
Is Cosmetic Surgery the New Acceptable Face of Womanhood? - The Guardian (June 2015)
"AI 'Chubby' Filter Causes Outrage on TikTok," - Newsweek (March 2025)
"My father had plastic surgery. Now he wants me and my mother to get work done," - The Guardian (January 2025)
"‘People think that looking better means you will have a better life’: why gen Z spends so much on beauty," - The Guardian (August 2024)
"We're In Micro-Insecurity Hell," - allure (August 2024)
"Why do we see beauty as virtuous and ugliness as a problem to be fixed?" - ABC News (February 2024)
"Januhairy: What embracing body hair says about the beauty ideal," - euronews.culture (January 2024)
"We were never supposed to see our own faces this much," - Dazed Beauty (September 2023)
What your new year's resolution says about you - Bustle (January 2023)
The Harms of Lookism - The Herald (December 2022)
Is it bad that I still want to be ‘beach body-ready’? - Evening Standard (July 2022)
Social construction, or the product of evolution? The intense debate around our attraction to the “Instagram face” - Le Monde (July 2022)
Can lip filler make you happy? - Slate (July 2022)
Interviewed on Lookism – Vogue Japan (September 2021)
How young people fell for cosmetic surgery - The Times (September 2021)
Image Isn’t Everything, Sussex Express (print) (November 2020)
How Isolating in Quarantine Has Been Detrimental To Our Body Image – Seventeen (October, 2020)
Ask the Expert: How can I persuade my teen not to edit her photos on social media? - The Irish Times (October 2020)
Heather’s comments in support of the Mental Health Foundation briefing paper on Image-editing apps and mental health were quoted in 264 outlets directly (PDF list available on request). Including: Image editing apps: The problem for our mental health - Happiful (October 2020), Call to limit body-editing apps for children - BBC Newsround (October 2020), Mental health experts call for restrictions on image-editing apps –Mail Online; Express and Star; Belfast Telegraph; Central Fife Times (September 2020).
Zoom is making us hate our faces - Mic (September 2020)
Why wellness is a $6 trillion confidence trick - Financial Review (July 2020)
Why do women feel pressured to shave? - Newsdio (June 2020)
The dark side of the wellness industry - New Statesman (June 2020)
The dark side of the video call boom - The Telegraph (June 2020)
What’s the Next ‘Instagram Face’? – Paper Magazine (May 2020)
Dr. Ourian on Cosmetic Surgery’s Holy Grail – Paper Magazine (May 2020)
How Self-Isolation and Social Distancing is Messing With Our Sense of Self – Dazed (April 2020)
What these people can teach you about accepting yourself – Women’s Health (print) (August 2019)
Why women feel pressured to shave - CNN Style (March 2020)
Do French Women Really Have the Secret to Aging Gracefully? - Vogue (February 2020)
Books That Changed Me: Bri Lee - The Sydney Morning Herald (January 2020)
Investigation of Beauty and Body Image Short But Sound - The Sydney Morning Herald (December 2019)
The Age of Instagram Face - The New Yorker (December 2019)
Exploring the Mind-Body Problem and Rise of Body Anxiety - Dazed Digital (October 2019)
Attack of the Insta Clones – Daily Mail (August 2019)
Beauty is no Longer Just About a Beautiful Body, and that can be Dangerous – Trouw (July 2019)
'You'd be gorgeous if you lost weight' - People share their worst body-shaming experiences - Birmingham Live (June 2019)
Is our obsession with a healthy glow more complicated than we think? - Dazed Digital (May 2019)
Beauty Without the Beast – Heather Widdows - Festival Chronical (May 2019)
Mermaids: Drawn to Scales - Big Issue North (April 2019)
What Beauty Demands: An Interview with Heather Widdows - Imperfect Cognitions (March 2019)
100 Best Books to Read in a Lifetime (2019) - Edarabia (February 2019)
Heather Widdows: The Ugly Side of Beauty - Guernica magazine (January 2019)
The 19 Best Books of 2018 - The Atlantic (December 2018)
Generation selfie: How is Instagram Altering our Understanding of Beauty? - The Bod Edit (July 2018)
The Case of 'Dr Bumbum' Shows that Beauty has been Regarded as a Moral Virtue - BBC News Brazil (July 2018)
My Visit to the World's First Gym for Your Face - The New Yorker (June 2018)
Make-up: Have YouTube Stars Boosted Beauty Sales - BBC News, Business (June 2018)
You Don't Have to be Beautiful to be Successful - but the World Makes us Feel That Way - Refinery29 (June 2018)
I Feel Pretty's Intentions are Good, but it Fails to Deliver an Empowering Message - Huffington Post (May 2018)
A pretty little double standard Boston Globe (May 2018)
'You Can't be Hairy, Fat and Ageing': Why Beauty is Becoming a Moral Imperative for Us All - ABC News, Australia (April 2018)
Why Amy Schumer and Kate Middleton can't win - Sydney Morning Herald (April 2018)
When Beauty is a Troll - The Atlantic (April 2018)
'I Feel Pretty' and the Rise of Beauty-Standard Denialism - New York Times (April 2018)
The rise of Non-Surgical Beauty: ‘My Mum Said my Lip Looked Like a Rubber Dinghy’ - The Guardian (April 2017)
Unthinkable: Why are Beauty Standards Becoming More Onerous? - The Irish Times (May 2016)
Is Cosmetic Surgery the New Acceptable Face of Womanhood? - The Guardian (June 2015)
