Disclaimer: The practices described in this article, such as steroid misuse and physical harm are dangerous to your health and will cause long term health consequences. Medical professionals strongly advise against any of these behaviors and this article is written as an informative piece and not a promotion of any of the mentioned practices.
Braden Peters, a popular looksmaxxer on TikTok, has been the center of discussion on social media after a video was released of him being brutally framemogged by an Arizona State University Fraternity house Leader. In early February, a fan posed for a picture with Peters on the ASU campus. Peters’ shoulder width and height paled in comparison to Varis Gilaj, the fan who skyrocketed in popularity after he exposed how small Peters really was.
On social media like TikTok and X, Peters is better known as Clavicular, and his whole platform promotes “ascension”, making yourself look better to fit a facial and body aesthetics. Clavicular gained popularity in 2024 after he became a prominent figure in the community due to the extreme measures he had taken to change his appearance. He took steroids and crystal methamphetamine that got him expelled from University, bonesmashed, and injected substances that aren’t FDA approved, all before the age of 20. His growing influence has led to the growth of the looksmaxxing community, and to fans that follow in Clavicular’s footsteps to reach the same results.
The entire event has been clowned on social media because of the seriousness behind Clavicular’s response, but it also resulted in the integration of looksmaxxing into mainstream media.
For instance, on February 19th, Clavicular was invited for an interview with Piers Morgan, a popular broadcaster known for his show Piers Morgan Uncensored. Morgan asked Clavicular about bone smashing and whether he has done it before and encourages it. He answers “Uh the problem is there is sort of a barrier to entry to all this stuff that comes with just, you know, intelligence, right? So if you tell people about bone smashing uh and they’re super low IQ, they might, you know, hit themselves in the eye and cause a lot of trauma or, you know, sever harm to themselves. So like these are things that could be very dangerous if, you know, done improperly, but also things that can have a lot of benefit.”
Bone smashing is the practice of smashing your cheekbones or jawline with a blunt object to reshape the bones to fit the coveted proportions. In 2023, the University of Nebraska Medical Center published an article titled “‘Bone smashing’ TikTok Trend, Here are Dangers of Hammering Your Face”. According to the article, supporters of bone smashing cite Wolff’s Law. The law says “Applying mechanical force or physical stress to your bones can actually increase the rate that such remodeling occurs, and in the process, result in stronger, thicker bones.” This helps justify the concept of weight-bearing exercises, because they maintain bone strength and prevent bone loss. However, by hammering the bones already there, you are only weakening and potentially breaking them. It seems unlikely that users would do this, but influencers that post “real proof” of bone smashing convince many to follow and trust their advice. The issue has become so large that if you type in “Bone smashing” on TikTok, it says “You’re not alone” and gives you the Suicide and Crisis lifeline and text line.
Furthermore, under one video of an influencer posting their bone smashing results, a user commented “I hit a nerve and had to take out 2 healthy teeth out”. Nerve damage is damage to neurons (brain cells), and it is severe because brain cells do not grow and divide like other cells in the body. This could raise ethical concerns about how this content is still allowed to be viewed on the app.
Apart from social media apps an official looksmaxxing website for rankings and tips, is uncensored and available for anyone to access. The website has over 25 million posts, with people asking questions that range from “How can I get rid of my Face fat/Bloat on my cheek?” to “Where can I get retatrutide?”, a drug that hasn’t passed phase III clinical testing for FDA approval. Influencers livestream themselves ranking people that post their pictures on the website, based on features they find to be symmetric and appealing, like hunter eyes and a prominent maxilla (jawbone). Promotion of this uncensored website also increases the amount of children that know about the standards that social media is pushing out.
Regardless, fans of Clavicular are still going to engage with his content and find methods to go through the same transformation he and other influencers have. On March 1st, another looksmaxxer from Australia, Androgenic, avenged Clavicular and framemogged Varis at ASU, resolving the issue for Clav and destroying Varis’ reputation.
