A Gen Z woman’s TikTok video has sparked a viral conversation about beauty standards and aging after she asked one simple question: How old do I look?
Bella Falcone (@bellaaafalcone), a 27-year-old Pilates instructor from Arizona, took part in a popular trend on the platform where users invite strangers to guess their age based on appearance. But when the guesses came in, many placed her in her 30s or even 40s, leaving Falcone stunned. Her video garnered 3 million views and 92,400 likes on TikTok.
“I honestly made the video because I saw a trend of people doing it. I honestly never could’ve predicted the negativity that came with it,” Falcone told Newsweek.
“At first, I was shocked. I think like a lot of people say they didn’t expect to go viral with a certain and I definitely felt that way. I definitely was hurt by some of the responses that just went straight to tearing apart my appearance since I never asked for the opinions. I just simply wanted to know what people thought of my age and I guess that gave people the feeling that they could pick apart my looks.”
In the video, Falcone looks directly into the front-facing camera, clearly displaying her face before opening up the floor to guesses. The comments section quickly filled up with a wide range of responses, some constructive and others far from kind.
“Forty-two. It’s the lips,” said one user, while Erica Moyer wrote: “34-36.”
“You look 28-31, anyone saying differently is a bitter troll,” chimed another.
“Twenty-seven because you don’t have other signs of aging. Your lip filler does make you look a bit older but not as old as people are saying in the comments,” added another commenter.
While many comments focused on perceived age indicators, Falcone said she appreciated the unexpected solidarity from other women.
“I was surprised by some of the other women sticking up for me in the comments. I didn’t think that would happen but it definitely made me feel good that I had strangers sticking up for me,” she said.
Falcone reflected that age remains a particularly charged issue for women. She said that women are often criticized whether they show signs of aging naturally or take steps like Botox or fillers to preserve a youthful appearance.
According to her, society tends to scrutinize women’s choices no matter what they do, and this double standard can be disheartening.
“I think people love to pick apart women specifically because if a man did this he wouldn’t have received as much negativity as I did,” she added.
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