Kylie Jenner Challenge

About

The Kylie Jenner Challenge, also known by the hashtag #KylieJennerChallenge, is a viral trend where teenagers post videos or photos of themselves attempting to temporarily enlarge their lips by a suction technique called “the shot glass effect” in order to imitate the look of model and socialite Kylie Jenner^[6]. The trend has been criticized due to the fact that the intense effect can lead to permanent disfigurement and scarring.

Origin

The exact origin of the hashtag is unknown, however Kylie Jenner’s lips became a subject of teen fascination as the model rose to fame. In a November 15th, 2014, interview with E! News^[1], Jenner credited cosmetics for her lip’s appearance, stating:

“I feel like everyone has been talking about it for months, so I’m kind of sick of it…
…My pictures, I pout them out a lot. I think big lips are awesome.”

Earlier, on October 24th, 2014, Jenner tweeted:

how long are we gonna talk about this lip thing lmao
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) October 28, 2014

The term “Kylie Lips” was later submitted to Urban Dictionary^[2] on December 6th, 2014.

On January 8th, 2015, makeup tutorial YouTuber Jenna Marbles uploaded a parody video called “Kylie Jenner Lip Tutorial” which jokingly told viewers to use the shot glass suction method to get bigger lips. As of April 21st, 2015, the video had over 4,400,000 views.

Spread

On April 17th, 2015, Vine star and teen heart throb Alex Ramos tweeted:

IM GONNA DO THE#kyliejennerchallenge how long do I have to put my lips in the bottle
— Alex Ramos (@sorryimalex) April 18, 2015

The tweet was followed by another where Alex summoned his fans to do the challenge and then send him photos and videos.

okay let me rephrase that, do the #kyliejennerchallenge and then show me your #kyliejennerlips
— Alex Ramos (@sorryimalex) April 18, 2015

These two tweets combined summoned hundreds of replies, and Alex retweeted many of the photos and videos he received, creating even more viral power. The night of April 17th, there were 2,380 mentions of the hashtag, many of them retweets and replies to Alex Ramos. Two days later, on April 20th, 2015, there were more than 164,000 tweets^[3]. In addition, there were more than 500 posts on Vine using the hashtag^[4] and more than 42,000 posts on Instagram^[5].

In addition, some YouTube videos of young people trying the suction technique. One video, titled “The Secret to Bigger Lips,” which gained the top spot on subreddit /r/videos, garnered more than 433,000 views as of April 21, 2015.