What started as a simple self-love ritual for many has morphed into a full-fledged trend, and like most trends these days, it's also been co-opted by consumerism. The Hot Girl Walk—a movement that strove to foster personal empowerment through movement and body confidence - is another trend that, like many wellness trends before it, has become a way for mega-corporations to cash in.

Whether from water bottles to athleisure, it seems like everything related to the Hot Girl Walk comes with an additional cost. Now that Hot Girl Walk has taken off, one thing remains uncertain: are we walking for ourselves or the algorithm?

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The Rise of the Hot Girl Walk

The Hot Girl Walk became popular on Instagram when users began documenting that they were going to walk for one hour or more—usually recording it with the intent to "feel good" - physically and mentally. The idea is so simple—go for a walk, appreciate the scenery, get in some fresh air, and do something that makes you "feel good" physically and mentally. The basic premise was to make the walk a practice of self-love that was free from the anxiety of trying to perfect the now common phrase "Hot Girl Walk".

There was no need for squat racks, free weights, or even a gym membership. All you needed was your body, your mind, and the space around you.

But like most things wellness-related, the Hot Girl Walk was quickly hijacked by influencers and marketers. This was no longer a walk but a sort of product.

Users show off their perfect curated content across social media channels like Instagram and TikTok through walks in a scenic park, along the beach, or city streets, drinking out of a branded water bottle and fashionable athleisure bottoms. Ultimately, it's a sad reality, that, the Hot Girl Walk was stripped of empowering qualities only to be taken over by brands ceaselessly pressing into you, how you should present yourself in alignment with a very specific portrayal of "wellness".

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The Wellness Industry Capitalizes

It's no longer a mystery that wellness culture has become commodified. Self-care has been commodified in all different ways: yoga mats, protein shakes, and countless "products" marketed to help you feel better about yourself. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that brands quickly came aboard when the Hot Girl Walk went viral. Influencers began posting "must haves," like matching sets, slim water bottles, and "Hot Girl Walk" playlists.

The wellness industry is always scanning the horizon and gauging consumer interest to monetize it. The Hot Girl Walk, per se, was simply the next logical step in the commodification of wellness practices. The Hot Girl Walk is no longer just the walk; it is the associated accessories and lifestyle that go along with it. Brands quickly rushed to place themselves at the center of the "perishable experience." The simple exercise of walking quickly became a by-product of consumerism, and the push to buy in was always there, albeit subtly so.

Nowadays, we see the “perfect” Hot Girl Walk everywhere, with advertisements and influencer posts popping up to project a “certain” aesthetic surrounding the perfect Hot Girl Walk gear — the chic water bottle, a matching workout set, and sneakers that can go from the gym to brunch. These items have become more than just products; they've become representations of the "hot girl" lifestyle. Everything is about being Instagrammable. The purpose isn't just to walk, but to perform it to an audience.

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Is It Still Self-Love, or Is It Just Consumerism?

The change from a personal ritual into a branded spectacle brings about an important question: are we really walking for ourselves or walking for the likes, comments, and shares of an algorithm? Are we walking to showcase our brand-new leggings, or are we walking to improve our mental health, or because we want to curate an edited version of ourselves for the world?

The Hot Girl Walk was first conceived as a way to create a routine that made you feel confident and in control, a practice rooted in mental and physical health. But as the Hot Girl Walk has become commodified, we are noticing people are walking to be seen instead of feeling. The algorithm rewards polished content that is easy to share.

Aesthetic influencers who do the Hot Girl Walk in the most aesthetically pleasing order, in the trendiest neighborhoods, and with the best camera angles, often win. In this social scene, self-care is not just about the individual; it is also about the feed.

But here’s the crux of the problem: this transformation isn’t good or bad. There’s nothing wrong with a stylish athleisure top or feeling confident while wearing it for social media. What’s important to acknowledge is that the Hot Girl Walk, like many wellness trends, is a product of our environment. Many of us have found that the boundary between self-care and contextual external image has blurred, and now we walk for approval as much as enjoyment from the walk itself.

The Dark Side of Wellness Culture

Even though it may seem innocent enough, there are broader implications to the commodification of wellness. With the addition of social media and the pressure to be perfect, we risk making wellness trends, such as the Hot Girl Walk, less about wellness and more about looking good. The curated nature of these wellness practices, the implication often being that if you're not exactly following the trend with the right water bottle or the matching set, you're doing it wrong, turns something that is meant to be about inner peace into something that feels extrinsically performative.

Importantly, this trend (like every trend that has come before it), also excludes individuals who can't afford the luxury of acquiring, or copying the aesthetics of these trends. Through its indicative packaging and commodification, wellness culture loses sight of the reality of many lives. For incident, wellness culture is not particularly accessible to many who cannot afford to “opt-in” to the latest gear, or latest trend, these movements can often become more alienating than they are empowering.

The Algorithm: Our Unseen Boss

The question is: are we engaging in self-care for ourselves or for the ever-hungry algorithm? Social media is becoming a larger part of how we view our own realities, and our wellness rituals — including the Hot Girl Walk — can end up being less about personal and inner development, and more about fronting. Algorithms reward all kinds of content, much of which (when it comes to wellness) is visual, appealing and refined.

If your Hot Girl Walk includes these elements, you will probably also attract greater engagement rates. In this way, we are not only doing the Hot Girl Walk to enjoy the benefits to our mental health, we are also doing it to appease the content cycle and seek social recognition.

Walking for Ourselves

The Hot Girl Walk was meant to be a solitary and intentional self-love practice with mental clarity and self-identification. It was meant to be something that was done for the individual, not its own social media audience. So yes – as capitalists see a chance to monetize anything and everything, even the simplest practices of self-care have been cross-referenced with capitalism today.

The simple challenge that we need to face now is working towards balance. Can we still engage in the Hot Girl Walk without being in need of packaging it up as a lifestyle?

At the foundation, the Hot Girl Walk is about confidence, self-care, defining oneself and taking time for oneself. Whether you walk for pleasure or walk to share your experience, it is important to acknowledge that true self-love is not external – it is born of you. The real exercise is in the walking itself – not in the product logo on a branded water bottle or matching sets.

So next time you go for a walk, ask yourself: is this walk for me? Or is it for the algorithm?