It was hard to miss Ilona Maher at the Olympic Games in Paris this year. When she wasn’t impressing onlookers with her rugby tackles, she was making them laugh with her Snoop Dogg and cardboard bed TikToks. However, since leaving France, the 28-year-old has gone viral for something other than her athleticism and humor.

Maher has been modeling for since July Sports illustrated swimsuitcompeted Dancing with the stars and posed on the Emmys red carpet as her follower count steadily increased, which now exceeds 4.3 million on Instagram and 3.1 million on TikTok. While her humor is certainly part of the appeal, it’s her stance on body image and beauty standards that has made her a household name.

“All body types are important, all body types are worth it,” she said in a TikTok in July. “From the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball player, from a rugby player to a shot putter and sprinter, all body types are beautiful and can do great things. Really recognize yourself in these athletes and know that you can do it too.”

This video has been viewed more than 6 million times. Most of Maher’s body image content, much of which is accompanied by the hashtag “Beast Beauty Brains,” is gaining similar popularity, including a video in which she corrects a user’s inaccurate understanding of a user’s BMI. This has been viewed 8.4 million times and counting.

Maher’s growing success reflects broader shifts within the beauty world, says Ivanka Prichard, a health psychology scholar and associate professor at Flinders University.

“There is more awareness around celebrating the body for what it can do rather than what it looks like. Athletes like Ilona help with this,” says Prichard. “Ilona’s success on the field shows the functionality of her body and emphasizes the importance of looking beyond one’s appearance.”

Dr. Sarah Bonell, a psychology lecturer at RMIT, says this could be evidence of a departure from the secretly insidious ‘wellness talk’ of the past decade.

“Fatphobia and appearance-related stigmas are often cloaked in talk of wellbeing. People would say, ‘we’re worried about her health, so we’re shaming her.’ Athletes clearly don’t fit in there because they are super healthy, but usually look bigger, strong and almost traditionally masculine. They challenge that narrative.”

Other female athletes sharing a similar message include Australian swimmer Libby Trickett and Australian Rules footballer Sarah Perkins, both of whom have worked with health promotion charities such as the Embrace Collective. Elsewhere, American gymnast Simone Biles modeled Sports illustrated swimsuit twice (2017 and 2019), and members of the Matildas posed for Fashion‘s Nike shoot last year.

Thanks to initiatives like this and the online presence of certain female athletes, athletics is increasingly associated with beauty, says Melbourne fashion stylist Christina Robert.

“Physical strength is now considered sexy. So clothing brands sell this back to women with clothing that strengthens the muscles, such as racer back tank tops and the trend of wearing cycling shorts as regular fashion items. Even gym clothes are becoming more and more revealing.”

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This is closely linked to the rise of athleisure, a sector that has grown by 42 percent in the past seven years. By 2026, Robert says, the segment is expected to reach a value of $386 billion or more.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see fashion campaigns and catwalks with more models like Ilona with obvious muscle mass,” says Robert.

As perception changes, more and more women are turning to strength-based sports. Powerlifting coach Thomas Lilley says 36.5 percent of the Australian Powerlifting League membership in 2022 was female. Now it is 42 percent.

“Many of our female athletes got into the sport after being inspired by female strength athletes they followed on social media,” says Lilley. “This is being reinforced by more and more gyms offering women-only powerlifting competitions, demonstrating that powerlifting is not strictly a male sport.”

In addition to the health benefits of strength-based sports, such as improved bone density, muscle quality and the prevention of type 2 diabetes, exercise scientist and national champion Olympic weightlifter Dr. Mandy Hagstrom says that strength sports gave her more confidence as a woman.

“I felt most comfortable with my body after becoming a competitive lifter,” says Hagstrom. “I knew I was strong; I felt powerful, and this gave me strength everywhere. I work hard for my muscles. If someone feels uncomfortable about that, they should probably look internally at why that is.”

How promising it is to see muscular women like Maher on the cover Sports illustratedBonell says there is still progress to be made.

“Physically capable women are still quite shocking to people,” she says. “We have equalized the sexes in many ways, but one thing men still have is that they are generally physically bigger and stronger. We have to create space in which they realize that they don’t need that as a gender. Then women can enter that space without it being inherently threatening.”

‘Fitspiration’ content can also be just as harmful as ‘thinspo’ content, says Marika Tiggemann, emeritus professor of psychology at Flinders University.

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“Beauty ideals are shifting slightly to allow for bigger butts and thighs, to be tighter all over and no longer skinny, but that’s actually just as difficult for women to be. It takes a lot of work in the gym. And unfortunately, people still often think about looking strong instead of being strong.”

Dr. Emily Matheson, associate consultant at Everybody Consulting, led the development of Body Confident Sport and says we may be moving towards healthier body image messages online, but much of the content can still reinforce body image concerns.

“In 2022, the Dove Self-Esteem Project found that 90 percent of girls followed at least one social media account that made them feel less beautiful,” says Matheson.

“And it is still very common for thinness to be associated with overall health and performance, and for girls and women to feel ashamed of their bodies, especially those who live in larger bodies.”

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