A new research letter published by JAMA Dermatology analyzes People magazine's World's Most Beautiful list to compare standards of beauty in 1990 with the present day.
Neelam A. Vashi, M.D., of the Boston University School of Medicine, and coauthors compared 50 celebrities from the 1990 list with 135 celebrities from the 2017 list. Researchers extracted information from the list for age, sex, race, skin type, hair color, eye color and any visible dermatologic conditions.
The authors report:
"As evidenced by our data and contrary to our hypothesis, at present, a wider variety of skin colors and inclusion of older age groups are represented among those deemed to be the most beautiful. ... The mass media platform has for years introduced certain criteria for what constitutes beauty. Through an examination of the WMB [World's Most Beautiful] issue of People, we found that these beauty standards are evolving as people learn how to integrate the effects of media with exposure to new cultures and different norms," the article concludes.
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For more details and to read the full study, please visit the For The Media website.
(doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.3693)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
JAMA Dermatology