Young women have shared videos discussing their “pretty privilege,” saying they’re showered with free gifts and attention simply for being really, really, really good-looking.

Source: Attractive women reveal benefits of ‘pretty privilege’

Long ago, I read Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers, where he highlights that different people have many kinds of privileges, without even realizing it. This post looks at many kinds of privileges, and eventually looks at “pretty privilege” – which is the notion that attractive people benefit from their looks, and that this attractiveness helps them achieve success and has become more important in a world of social media. At the time I wrote this original post, “pretty privilege” was not yet widely established; since then, pretty privilege is now recognized as a bona fide issue. I have therefore updated this original post with new material.

The Time of the Year You Were Born

In Outliers, Malcom Gladwell pointed out that to be great in sports – and have an opportunity to play professionally as an adult – you need to be born at a certain time of the year. Sounds crazy until you think about it … if you are born just after the age cut off to attend elementary school in the fall, you do not start for another year. With your start delayed by a year, you are up to one year older than other students (who say were born in the summer) in kindergarten once you begin school. This one-year age advantage is detectable into college particularly for those involved in sports and becomes a cutoff that has impacts on sports participation opportunities for life. Most pro-sports competitors seem to have this advantage; if you don’t have it, you probably will not achieve success in sports.

There are oddities about the time of the year in which you were born – those born in March are more likely become career pilots! A June birth is best to become a CEO or win a Nobel Prize. Those born in September are more likely to reach 100 years of age. There are differences in children born in the winter versus those born in the summer (those born in the winter months are more likely to have allergies – which could be due to the age at which they are first exposed to allergens). These associations sound random, but like the sports player example, there may be bona fide reasons for these associations – it might not be silly astrology.

Where You Were Born

Where you are born has benefits. It may not matter if you move later! There is a correlation between where you were born and future success.

Two Parent Privilege

Children growing up with two parents generally do better in life than children growing up in a single parent household.

The Year You Were Born

The year you were born is very important – if you eventually enter the job market in a recession, this can stunt your long-term career aspirations for years as you accept a less than desirable first position to even have a job. It also affects your opportunity to take advantage of big trends – like say, the growth of tech in the 1980s. All of the early big tech stars (e.g. Microsoft, Apple and Sun founders, etc) were born at a similar time in the early to mid-1950s. They came of age at just the right time to take advantage of these new opportunities that began to accelerate in the 1970s.

Health and Wealth Privilege

Health privilege is obvious. As is growing up rich. Many children who grow up in wealth have access to private schools and attend private, elite universities. They may also travel much growing up, developing global skills, and then have study abroad experiences in college.

Related to health privilege is weight privilege. Those who are overweight tend to be shunned, and physically, might be unable to participate in some activities. Thin people are seen as ambitious and harder working.

Age Privilege

In many fields, one’s age may present a privilege. In say, law or medicine, being older is associated with greater knowledge and competence (this might not be true but it is a common thought). While in software technology, being older is often associated with being “dated” and not up on current technology. In software, the pace of change is rapid such that experienced software technologists are experienced in technologies that have become obsolete; hence, the ideal software developer has about 5-7 years total experience. Beyond that, the experience is dated and no longer relevant. Thus a 45-year-old software engineer is no more valuable than a 28-year-old software engineer – each has the relevant 5-7 years of experience.

Thus, age can denote privilege, based on context. Sometimes younger is a privilege and sometimes older is a privilege.

Your Name

Your name is a privilege too – people with hard to pronounce names may have a difficult time advancing in their careers.

Your name also affects the grades you receive in school:

Immigration Privilege

A popular media meme is that Americans can pack up and move to most any country in the world. Every week sees stories about how this individual moved to country X from the U.S., or this retired couple moved to country Y where their retirement costs so much less.

Most of these stories leave out critical details – about 2/3ds of those in the stories had “immigration privileges” that you do not have. The reality is most Americans cannot readily move to another country.

Immigration privilege takes many forms:

• The individual was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents, and by virtue of having a parent that had citizenship in another country, they are eligible for “dual citizenship” in both the U.S. and their parents’ country. If that country was in the EU, they are free to move to any country in the EU without an additional visa required.
• Some countries extend residency or citizenship to those with recent ancestry; in the case of Ireland and Italy, this extends back to grandparents and sometimes even further. If your great grandparent had Italian citizenship, then you are eligible to apply for a “right of descent” residency or citizenship.

I reviewed about 300 “moved abroad” media stories and found about 1/3d of those who moved abroad obtained their visa via marriage and about 90% of those were young American woman who married a foreigner. The “marriage to a foreigner privilege” may extend mostly to young American women.

If you do not fall into the above categories, some, mostly young, with the right job skills (typically STEM or health care) can obtain a work visa. Many countries use a “points-based” immigration system where you get points for your college degree, language skills, and so on, but lose points for each year over age 35-45. Some countries even ban immigrants who are age 50 or 55 or older.

A small number of wealthy individuals purchase a “Golden Visa” via investment (these are starting to be phased out, or their minimum investment set much higher).

About 38% of Americans who live abroad, live in Mexico or Canada – and not in exotic European destinations. And a majority of those living in Mexico may have dual citizenship by virtue of being born in the U.S. with one or both parents being Mexican citizens also.

Regarding the “retire abroad” stories, between 0.7% and 1.3% of Americans retire abroad (which is close to zero). About half of those did so because they already had dual citizenship and family connections and returned to their “home” country, or they were American who had worked abroad for years, owned a home there, and chose to retire where there existing home was located.

I have about half a dozen former colleagues who took advantage of their US/EU dual citizenship or dual residency for work – they can work freely in North America or the EU without any visas required – making it easy for employers to hire them as staff or consultants. This is a definite career privilege!

Some companies specifically seek out international workers – to work domestically or remotely – as a way to meet diversity goals: Everything You Need to Know About Hiring Foreign Nationals (msn.com)

In the tech sector, an evolving meme is that immigrants are smarter and harder working (based on comments from Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Grant Cardone and others in December 2024). This assertion has taken on a life of its own – and is becoming “conventional wisdom” and used to justify an alleged need for US companies to hire more foreign workers over American workers. (The facts do not support this contention, but this meme has taken hold.) This gives an advantage to certain workers merely because of where they were born and their immigration status.

Immigration privilege is real – but most of us do not have immigration privilege.

A corollary is that “international privilege” is also real – in some fields, being international or global in your background is a positive. You will not rise up the ranks unless you have global experience in your background – this is true for businesses that are international in scope. This gives an advantage to those who were born abroad and/or educated in multiple countries, or who have work experience in more than one country.

Height Privilege

There are other types of privilege. For example, there is “height privilege” – taller people are more likely to advance in leadership positions. 58% of male US CEOs are 6 feet or taller, yet only 15% of men in the U.S. are six feet or taller.

For “every 2.5 inches of extra height”, men earned $1,600 more per year and were more likely to have better jobs.

Another study found that every inch above average height added $789/year in income (as of 2004) with the greatest value going to those in management and sales. 

Women saw income of $4,200 less per year for each 4.6% increase in weight. (This is the thin privilege mentioned earlier in the health privilege category.)

In other words, being tall and thin is a privilege.

Being Attractive

That study also found people rated attractive make more money over time. Those with more social contacts are viewed more positively (attractive people may have more social contacts). Other funny observations – smile, wear bright colors, and have a dog – people with dogs are more likely to make social contacts even if not judged attractive.

“Pretty Privilege”

• Pretty People Really Do Have It Better | TIME
• What is ‘pretty privilege’ and why is it such a problem? | My Imperfect Life
• 10 benefits of being attractive, according to science | Business Insider Africa
• Pretty Privilege and Social Media: The Influencer Effect (mycloudkitchen.net)
• Pretty People Really Do Have It Better | TIME
• ‘I Have Pretty Privilege, But There’s a Dark Side’ – Newsweek
• What Do People Mean When They Talk About Pretty Privilege? (studybreaks.com)

Because there are without doubt some universal commonalities among ‘pretty’ people—most, if not all, people who experience pretty privilege will embody European beauty standards; you know, white, tall, thin, likely blonde.

“If you conform to the beauty ideals of the culture you associate with, then it is likely that you will have benefited from this in some way, due to the inherent biases that many individuals within that culture will hold,” Dr. Sarah explained.

What is ‘pretty privilege’ and why is it such a problem? | My Imperfect Life

Pretty privilege attributes are different for women versus men:

….pretty privilege isn’t exclusive only to women; men experience it too albeit in different ways due to traditional gender roles associated with attractiveness being largely based around masculine ideals such as physical strength or athletic ability rather than facial features alone like for women. Men are viewed through a dominant lens where success is achieved through violence or aggression instead of charisma and charm like women typically receive benefits from when leveraging pretty privilege on social media platforms specifically tailored towards female audiences (i. e., Instagram).

• Pretty Privilege and Social Media: The Influencer Effect (mycloudkitchen.net)
• Attractive faces influence fairness decisions, reducing negative reactions to unfair proposals (msn.com)

Being Male or Female, Depending on Context

Being male or female bestows privilege in differing contexts; being a minority can be a disadvantage or a privilege depending on context.

Being male or female, and having the right appearance can also impact the education experience:

The above linked source also goes into how attractive young women use their privilege to connect with middle aged males for marketing/sales of business products and services. Basically, they ask to connect on LinkedIn, get accepted at a higher rate, and then offer to discuss their business’s products and services.

Having Blonde Hair

A study in Australia found that women with blonde hair (real or dyed) earned 7% more than brunette women, and this extended to their male partners who also earned more than males whose partners were brunette. (This may not apply to other societies, but the pattern has been found in other studies.) On the flip side, some women moving upwards dye naturally blonde hair to dark colors to “look more professional”. This is thought related to stereotypes about how we think people are supposed to look in some fields, and this varies by age. This points to hair color (which is now change-able) as being a privilege. And while it is not a career advantage, blue-eyed men (about 8% of the world’s population has blue eyes) are more likely to be married.

More here: Which Hair Color Induces the Strongest Physical Attraction? | Psychology Today (Men tend to view brunettes as more intelligent but are attracted to or notice women with blonde hair more than other hair colors.)

These patterns have also been seen in research on restaurants and wait staff:

… research shows that more attractive waitresses get higher tips than less attractive waitresses, regardless of the level of service.

• Waitresses with larger breasts get higher tips.
• Waitresses with blonde hair get higher tips.
• Tips increase as a waitress’ body size decreases (again, being overweight leads to discrimination)
• Waitresses who wear makeup receive higher tips from male customers but not from female customers. 

Six Tips to Get Higher Tips | Psychology Today

Per that story, attractiveness of male servers had no effect on tip sizes, thus there may be a privilege bias that works to the advantage of female wait staff. Restaurant tipping is an entire subject unto itself – wait staff at high end restaurants are more likely to be male, while wait staff at low end and casual restaurants are more likely to be female.

• Why Blonde Privilege Is Real, From Barbie to the White House (chicmi.com)
• Full article: Introduction: the ‘blond issue’ (tandfonline.com)

“For reasons unconnected with biology, blonde hair in society is seen as ‘an essentially female colour’, with dark hair ‘primarily a male colour’,”

Social Media and Being Female

On some social media platforms, up to 75% of posts are from women, typically selfies, typically head shots with eye contact. Guys more commonly have full body photos or group photos and are more likely to lack eye contact with the viewer.

This leads to the observation that highly visual social media platforms – notably Instagram and TikTok have “pretty privilege”. It is said that TikTok videos have about 2 seconds with which to hook the viewer. Having a pretty person with direct eye contact is a powerful hook.

Social Media, Attractiveness and Appearing Rich

Some social media platforms intentionally demoted viewership of those judged overweight, too thin, or too old:

Leaked documents have suggested that TikTok has policies limiting the exposure of content creators based on their physical appearances and the quality of their surroundings.

The physical appearances ‘flagged’ include: ‘“abnormal body shape,” being “chubby,” “obese,” or “too thin,” missing teeth, the presence of “obvious facial scars” and being an older person with “too many wrinkles”’ (Yahoo 2020).

In fact, Tiktok’s internal documents said they were to “suppress posts by ‘Ugly’ people and the poor”.

Their internal documents said those who posted undesirable content should be punished by discouraging views of all their videos.

These policies were in effect through at least 2019. We know that early platform adopters are the ones most likely to achieve longer term platform success. This means less attractive early adopters were hindered from the very beginning. Even if Tiktok removed these policies later, they permanently harmed the ability of those who did not meet the “pretty privilege” standards to achieve success. It is much harder to obtain online success once a platform is saturated with content producers.

Last winter, I searched Youtube for videos about “study abroad”. Based on a sample of over 100 videos returned from Youtube’s search, at the time, just 8% of videos appeared to be from males, and the rest were from females[1]. About 2/3ds to 3/4s of study abroad students are female (little known fact – women have been a majority of college graduates in the U.S. for decades), and with up to 75% of social media posts coming from women, it is not a surprise that most study abroad videos are from young women, typically attractive.

([1] I redid this survey in November of 2022 and just 4% of videos were from males and the rest from females).

And sometimes, the pretty privileged social media influencers point out they are pretty and this makes them more important: TikToker caught cutting line at Nashville event, claims she can because she’s ‘beautiful’ and has ‘70,000 followers’ (yahoo.com)

The Attractiveness Privilege

Attractive people are usually more desirable to employers as they appear to have other attributes that may appeal to employers. The “attractiveness privilege” appears to take hold within seconds of first contact. Attractiveness privilege can have benefits that start young and continue into adulthood by conveying benefits early that last a long time. It may result in increased confidence or other attributes, such as extroversion, that can be seen as a positive for many jobs. It can affect who becomes your social partners and mentors, long term, as well. A side effect of this observation is that some hire a professional photographer for their LinkedIn profile photo. Indeed, some professional workers today hire professional consultants to advice on all aspects of appearance including wardrobe, hair style and color.

‘Pretty privilege’: Attractive people considered more trustworthy, research confirms (msn.com):

In today’s fiercely competitive job market, the economic advantages of beauty are undeniable. Numerous studies have shown that attractive individuals benefit from a beauty bonus and earn higher salaries on average. Certain high-paying professions are built around beauty (such as show business) but what is more surprising is that for almost any kind of employment, beauty can lead to a positive halo effect. Beautiful individuals are consistently expected to be more intelligent and thought to be better leaders, which influences career trajectories and opportunities.

What’s more, winners of the genetic lottery go on to enjoy numerous benefits as they move through life. Beautiful people are more persuasive, have more sexual and romantic partners, seem more trustworthy, and make more money — approximately 12% more, in fact. 

Pretty Waitresses Earn Bigger Tips — From Women (businessinsider.com)

Is pretty privilege a thing? Seems logical it would be. Does it benefit females more than attractive males? Does the visual focus of IG and TikTok favor attractive women over attractive men?

There is a concern that social media recommendation algorithms are biased towards pretty people. The algorithms figure out what leads to more views – and if people are watching or following attractive people, the algorithm notices this attribute and reinforces it by increasingly recommending photos or videos featuring attractive people.

How to Be Successful on Social Media

To be successful on social it helps to fall into a few categories, and preferably all of them:

• Be attractive (with a bias towards being female too)
• Show wealth (even if you are not wealthy)
• Be unique

Thus, we have examples of young attractive people with travel videos (illustrating wealth), or young attractive people “homesteading” in Alaska or the north (being unique). I found many successful social media accounts fit these simple metrics. Sure, there are some that do not fit the profile – but it seems that young/attractive, implying wealth and uniqueness are key attributes for many in social media success.

UPDATES

More here: A unique take on “Pretty Privilege” – which explains much about Instagram – Social Panic

And:

Two influencers say they were denied entry to a club because of their size (nbcnews.com)

Related to that last item, one of my daughters, and a former college flat mate of hers from Europe, were walking down a street in Las Vegas when they were intentionally invited into a club and offered free drinks, a show, and food – just to occupy a table. Why? Because they are attractive. The proprietor knew that having attractive people – typically young women – sit in prominent locations was a key to attracting attention and clients to the club. It’s called pretty privilege.