What is mewing on TikTok? Beauty trend becomes problematic gesture among school students

Mewing is one of many beauty trends to go viral on TikTok. However, it has gained unique attention as teachers have reported seeing students turning the trend into a problematic gesture.

Thousands of videos are published on TikTok every day. While most of them only manage to get a few likes, some manage to go viral and sometimes even become new trends.

There have been countless beauty trends on the platform – some less problematic than others. From broccoli freckles and vampire skin to bone smashing, you really don’t know what the next fad will be.

Mewing has taken the app by storm recently, but it has left many confused about what it means. Here’s everything you need to know.

TikTok mewing trend explained

Mewing started as a beauty trend, which involved flattening the tongue against the roof of your mouth to lift the jawline and alleviate jaw and mouth muscle pain, Healthline reported.

Despite the trend having been disproved by places such as the American Association of Orthodontists which claimed changing your tongue’s placement “isn’t enough” to reshape someone’s jawline, it still rose to popularity on TikTok, where there are over 349.8 thousand videos that mention the trend.

The trend quickly reached young school children, who have made the trend their own by making the action into a new gesture.

Teacher Teresa Newman took to the video-sharing app to tell people how her students are using the gesture in the classroom – and she’s not impressed. The gesture involves putting their finger over their mouth before sliding their finger down their jawline, as a way of indicating that they don’t want to answer a question.

“The problem that I have with mewing in the classroom and at school is that kids are using it as a way to be disrespectful to their teachers, without their teachers understanding what it is they’re doing,” she said.

“It’s a non-verbal gesture. It doesn’t really signify anything specific unless you know exactly what it means and why they’re doing it.”

According to Newman, this gesture is students’ way of signaling that they “don’t care” about what their peers and teachers have to say, or that they’re “too busy being silent” because they’re doing the “mewing” technique.