Abstract: Social media has changed the way beauty brands communicate with consumers, with influence now coming not only from brand advertising but also from peers, micro-influencers, and everyday users. The psychological consequences of such influencer content for young women particularly the internalisation of narrow beauty standards and the erosion of self-esteem remain theoretically underexplored within an integrated conceptual framework.

    This paper presents a conceptual model that synthesises three complementary theoretical perspectives: the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974), Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954), and Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the findings of existing papers. Drawing on these frameworks, the paper argues that beauty brand influencer content functions activate upward appearance-based social comparisons that progressively normalise narrow beauty ideals among young women. Social comparison is proposed as the primary mediating mechanism through which exposure to influencer content shapes beauty standard internalisation.

    The conceptual model advances three theoretically grounded propositions addressing psychological outcomes of influencer content exposure, the mediating role of social comparison. By integrating these dimensions within a single framework, this paper addresses a significant gap in existing literature, which has largely examined beauty standards, and self-esteem as independent phenomena. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions, proposed conceptual framework, practical implications for marketers, policymakers, and mental health professionals, and a research agenda for empirical validation.

Keywords: influencer content, beauty standards, self-esteem, social comparison, social media.