Health | Psychology | Fashion
Has YouTube Incentivized Eugenia Cooney to Starve Herself?
The problematic case at the cross-section of mental illness and free speech.
Society is failing Eugenia Cooney.
She’s a public figure who, like many young women, makes videos about fashion and makeup. Sadly, like many YouTubers, most of her fame is derived from controversy — and more specifically, her alarming weight.
Eugenia is caught in a terrible cycle — where her virality is intimately tied to her illness.
Self-destructive content generation
If you go to Eugenia’s channel, it’s hard to even hear what she’s saying about her toner, lipstick, or outfits.
She sways in a perpetual state of emaciation, standing 5’7 and weighing less than 90 lbs. It is hard not to conclude you are staring at the unmistakable face of an eating disorder.
She has more than 2.11 million subscribers on YouTube. Her channel has 277 million views as of today, which, at a low estimate, has earned her nearly…
