Glow-Up Plans for Mental and Physical Health: Using Self-Care to Build Teen Confidence and Emotional Well-Being
Teens today are growing up in a world where self-care and well-being are a regular part of the conversation in a way they never used to be. But with all this awareness comes a constant feeling that you should be improving.
Get fitter, be calmer, act more confident – basically, “be perfect.” For many young people, this constant pressure to improve can be overwhelming.
“Glow-up plans” seem to have entered the equation as a softer response to this pressure. These plans don’t ask for endless self-optimization; instead, they focus on short bursts of change that can kickstart your wellness journey.
This page can help you understand Glow-Up plans for mental and physical health by focusing on:
- What a Glow-Up Plan is
- What types of teen Glow-Up plans are popular
- Whether or not teen Glow-Up plans actually work
- If there are any downsides to teen Glow-Up plans
- How to make sure you’re safe while doing a Glow-Up plan
- Where to get help for teen mental health issues
What Is a Glow-Up Plan?
We’ve all made holiday itineraries before: Eiffel Tower at 1 pm, then the Louvre, and Notre Dame, before finishing up with a traditional dinner at 7 pm. We don’t always tick everything off the list, but if we do most of it, the day still feels amazing.
A Glow-Up plan works in a similar way to this itinerary; just take away the holiday and swap in yourself.
Laid bare, a Glow-Up plan is a way to plan out your steps for self-improvement. But rather than trying to fix everything all at once, the idea is to make small, intentional changes that leave you feeling better in yourself. It’s fine if you hit all your goals, but these plans should also be flexible enough not to be the end of the world if you don’t hit all your targets.
Glow-Up plans are also simple to do: you pick an area you want to work on and map out a plan that gives you some structure and direction. This could be a short timeframe, perhaps one week, or a slightly longer one that lasts a few months. It all depends on your needs and goals.
The best part of Glow-Up plans is that they can be set for any issues you may be facing. Maybe you feel like your acne is out of control and want to put together a skincare routine. Or perhaps you’d rather work on feeling more confident, so choose to build a plan around daily habits that lift your self-esteem.
Whatever the focus, there’s a Glow-Up plan you can shape to fit your own goals. We discuss some examples of these plans in the following section.
What Types of Teen Glow-Up Plans Are Available?
As mentioned, you can pretty much make a Glow-Up plan for anything. You can even take an existing plan that someone made, such as online, and tweak it so it’s more tailored to you. Below, we take a quick look at some of the popular Glow-Up plans available on the internet.
Skincare Glow-Up
If breakouts feel like they’ve taken over and are damaging your confidence, a skincare Glow-Up plan can give you back some control. Some people might build a simple routine or experiment with products that work for them. For instance, while a gentle cleansing program might give great results for some, others might benefit more from actives like salicylic acid.
Confidence Glow-Up
A confidence Glow-Up is less about looks and more about how you carry yourself. Some teens might choose to focus on affirmations, while others might wish to step into a hobby they’ve always wanted to try. Whatever the reason behind it, planning ways to add a little more confidence into your life is never a pointless goal.
Fitness Glow-Up
If you’re feeling drained or weighed down, a fitness Glow-Up can bring back energy and boost mental health. Something as straightforward as short home workouts or regular walks can help shift both mood and motivation.
Academic Glow-Up
An academic Glow-Up can ease the stress that can build when school becomes overwhelming. For instance, some teens might turn to using a planner for demanding schedules or focus on breaking assignments down into smaller steps to make everything feel more manageable.
Social Glow-Up
If loneliness has been creeping in, a social Glow-Up can help rebuild connections. This might look like reaching out to an old friend or finding a new group where you feel you could belong. This kind of plan is useful for someone who feels isolated or wants to expand their circle of support.
Do Teen Glow-Up Plans Actually Work?
There isn’t a huge amount of research that focuses on the term “Glow-Up plan,” but there are studies that look at activities that fit around the same kind of idea.
For example, one study explored what happened when 45 young people, aged 12 to 20, took part in a professional photoshoot.1 Researchers tracked the participants’ well-being before, during, and after the photoshoot, and found that the activity itself became a kind of Glow-Up moment. By giving teens the chance to see themselves differently, it helped many of them feel more confident and positive about who they were in that moment.
To break the findings down further, the boys in the study tended to show steadier improvements in mood and self-esteem, while girls often felt lifted during the photoshoot itself. These results go some way towards showing that Glow-Up style activities, like paying attention to grooming or experimenting with personal style, can genuinely shift how young people feel about themselves.
Researchers also noted that transformations may give teens something to look back on and discuss, which is very similar to how Glow-Up plans can induce conversations around confidence and coping.
This being said, the same study also highlighted some potential risks. Specifically, for some girls, appearance-focused activities made comparison with others feel even sharper, especially when social media was part of the picture.
With this information in mind, it’s important to keep your safety front and center if you decide to try a Glow-Up plan. In the next section, we’ll go over some of the downsides on a broader scale, so you can keep yourself informed and aware.
What Are the Downsides of a Glow-Up Plan?
While the study mentioned previously showed the potential benefits of a Glow-Up plan, it’s worth remembering that Glow-Up plans can involve all sorts of activities. And not all of these activities are free from risks. Depending on how you approach it, a Glow-Up plan can sometimes create new pressures instead of lifting you up. We discuss some of these pressures in the following sections.
Comparison Pressure
Social media loves to sell the idea that a Glow-Up has to be dramatic. Perfect lighting, filters, and quick before-and-after edits can make it look like everyone else is transforming overnight. When your own progress feels slower, it’s easy to slip into thoughts like My transformation isn’t good enough 2. This kind of pressure takes away from what a Glow-Up should actually be: steps toward feeling better in your own skin.Over-Focus on Appearance
Experimenting with style, fitness, or skincare can be fun, but problems can start when appearance becomes the entire focus. For example, you might catch yourself obsessing over flaws you never noticed before, or linking your worth to how you look on a certain day.
Unrealistic Expectations
Some Glow-Up plans go wrong because the goals are too unrealistic from the start. Daily workouts, strict diets, or expecting an overnight change can quickly turn into frustration when reality doesn’t match up. When this happens, instead of acting as something that boosts you up, a Glow-Up plan may end up weighing you down, leaving guilt or shame where there should be motivation.
The good news is that none of these downsides make Glow-Ups a lost cause. As long as you find the right balance and the mindset, they can still work as a positive step in the right direction.
How Can I Make Sure I’m Being Safe?
1. Keep the Plan Balanced:
If a Glow-Up plan only focuses on looks, it can start to feel pretty shallow. It helps so much more when you throw in things that look after your head, too, like journaling or even just talking stuff out. When you’re looking after both aspects, the changes actually feel like they can stick.2. Set Flexible Goals:
The quickest way to burn out is to set goals that are too strict. When there’s a lack of flexibility in your aims, it can feel as though the whole process is null and void when you stumble slightly. Smaller, more flexible steps can be kinder on you. For example, if you want to be a little more active, why not try setting a manageable daily step goal? This might be more productive and attainable than planning to spend three hours in the gym seven days a week.3. Celebrate Any Milestone:
It doesn’t matter how small or big your milestones are; give yourself a pat on the back when you achieve them. The little shifts, like finally sleeping better or noticing you’re not as stressed, are the ones that can actually make you feel good. These are wins worth celebrating.4. Guard Against Social Media Traps:
Aim to remember that most of the Glow-Ups you see online likely aren’t real. They’re edited and manipulated in just the right way, meaning that comparison to this is only going to drag you down. Your Glow-Up doesn’t have to look dramatic to mean something.My Glow-Up Plan Didn’t Help Me – What Can I Do?
Trying a Glow-Up plan and feeling like it didn’t work can be tough. After all, you’ve put in the hard work, anticipated big changes, but are left with a whole lot of…nothing.
So, does this mean you failed? Absolutely not.
Perhaps the plan wasn’t implemented at the right time, or maybe it didn’t fit what you really need. Life has a habit of getting in the way, so no failed attempt is your fault. Even if you didn’t get the big results you wanted, chances are you picked up a few skills along the way. Practicing habits ike sticking to routines or being open to trying new things might already be helping you without you realizing it.
However, for some people, a Glow-Up plan can shine a light on deeper stuff that was already there, like self-esteem struggles, body image worries, or anxiety. If this sounds familiar, it might be worth asking yourself a few questions, such as:
- Do I often feel like nothing I do is good enough?
- Has focusing on a Glow-Up made me more anxious about my appearance?
- Do I avoid social situations because I don’t feel confident?
- Have I been more stressed or overwhelmed since trying to change things?
- Do I compare myself to others so much that it messes with my mood?
- Am I stuck with low self-esteem, even when I hit small goals?
If you’re nodding along to a few of these questions, this doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you. It might just mean the Glow-Up plan has uncovered challenges that go deeper than habits or appearance. This information can be useful as it may show you where extra support could really make a difference. Talking about your feelings with someone who understands can help you work through them in a safe, supportive way.
Mission Prep: Getting Support Beyond Glow-Up Plans
If you’ve tried a Glow-Up plan and it didn’t work, or if it left you feeling more anxious than confident, it could be worth exploring this a little more. Glow-Ups can be motivating, but they can also bring up deeper struggles, like low self-esteem or worries about body image. When this happens, having some extra support can make all the difference.
At Mission Prep, we can help teens who feel weighed down by these challenges and need more than a quick reset. Therapy may give you the space to work through difficult feelings, build confidence, and learn healthier ways of coping.
We use CBT techniques for positive self-talk if negative thoughts keep getting in the way, and DBT skills for improving self-image to make day-to-day stress feel more manageable. For teens who need a break from the pressures of everyday life, our inpatient programs offer a choice of locations and could give you the structure you need to reset.
If your Glow-Up plan hasn’t given you the lift you hoped for, Mission Prep is here to help you take the next step toward something more lasting. Contact our team today for more advice and support.
References
- Winds, K., Kesternich, I., Meier, A., Peusch, J., Roessner, V., Schlegl, S., & Voderholzer, U. (2024). Glow up: Does a professional photoshoot intervention affect self-esteem and emotions among adolescent psychiatric patients?—A longitudinal intervention study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1310252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1310252
- Pedalino, F., & Camerini, A.-L. (2022). Instagram use and body dissatisfaction: The mediating role of upward social comparison with peers and influencers among young females. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1543. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031543
- Psychology Today. (2025, June). 4 wellness trends that can actually harm you. The Modern Brain. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/202506/4-wellness-trends-that-can-harm-your-brain