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TikTok and gender dysphoria

Since around 2018 clinicians worldwide have reported a sharp rise in adolescents — particularly girls — presenting with gender dysphoria and citing TikTok content as a source of self-recognition.

What is happening

Since around 2018 clinicians worldwide have reported a sharp rise in adolescents — particularly girls — presenting with gender dysphoria and citing TikTok content as a source of self-recognition. TikTok's algorithm serves users with interest-tuned videos, so gender channels can quickly take a central place in a user's feed.

Research

The Cass Review explicitly cites social media as a factor in the changed patient population. Research on peer influence and social contagion in adolescent identity formation lends indirect support to a role for platforms like TikTok.

Clinical implications

International recommendations stress the importance of a developmental perspective: taking time, examining social context, and not automatically proceeding to medical interventions for a newly expressed gender wish in adolescence.