“Looks are the most important metric.”
That’s according to 19-year-old Braden Peters, who has been on a radical crusade to improve his appearance for years.
Peters, who goes by the online username “Clavicular”, is based in Florida in the US, and is part of the “looksmaxxing” subculture which has developed online among young men in recent years.
The trend generally involves young men finding ways to maximise their physical attractiveness by improving their appearance in every way possible. It can range from fairly normal and benign strategies, such as improving one’s fashion sense, haircut and skincare routine, to more extreme and controversial methods, such as “bonesmashing” to make one’s cheekbones more prominent.
Peters has gained notoriety online for falling into the latter category.
Starting off as a fairly normal looking teen, he has radically altered his appearance – but at the cost of using makeup, steroids, drugs, and more. He says he does this to avail of the “halo effect” – the observable phenomenon of attractive people doing better in all social sittings, from romance, to career opportunities, and more.
He says he is “definitely” on the autism spectrum, which he believes contributes to his single-minded focus on his looks.
With 147,000 followers on Instagram, he has an online coaching business wherein he touches other young men interested in looksmaxxing how to achieve the results he has.
In a recent interview with YouTuber Jack Neel, the looksmaxxing teen outlined how he is “seriously considering” spending $100,000 on “limb lengthening” surgery to increase his height from 6’2 to 6’6.
Justifying this, he said that exceptionally tall people have a “presence” which makes them more attractive.
“I’ve always valued presence super highly – if you walk into a room, people notice, right?” he explained.
“If you’re standing in the middle of a club, you’re an outlier.”
He said that while his current height of 6’2 is already taller than average, “that’s only in the 91st percentile” of men’s heights globally, whereas 6’6 is in the 99th percentile.
“I’m someone who wants to be the best, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there,” he added.
He noted that after receiving the surgery, he would have to be “out of work for six months to a year.”
“You’re going to be hospitalised for the first 3 weeks,” he said.
“You’re pretty much immobile for the first 3 months, and for the next 3 months after that, you’re really not going to be able to walk without crutches.”
He said it was a “treacherous” and “painful” surgery that involves breaking one’s legs at the femur and the lower leg, and then wearing a device that slowly help the bone to fuse back together longer under “the supervision of doctors.”
“We know tall is good,” he said.
“We know that every single inch you grow past six foot, you’re adding an additional $500 to your average annual income in America. So, we know that taller is better.”
“…We’ll see women [on dating apps] put their height filters on 6’3. And then you look at the percentiles and think ‘You just eliminated 95% of men right off the bat with one metric.’”
He went on to state that he is also on “crystal meth” to help himself lose weight.
“I use crystal meth – methamphetamine – as a stimulant, and to lean max,” he said.
“It’s very suppressant of your appetite it’s a very long acting stimulant, so this is something that I’ve started using in place of adderall.”
He explained that he was not using “street meth”, but “very, very low therapeutic dosages of D-methamphetamine, which is actually something that’s prescribed by doctors.”
“And I’m taking a very low dose of this, like 10 times lower than the prescribed amount, just as a a mild stimulant. It’s much more mild than adderall actually,” he added.
He also explained how he has been on steroids since the age of 14.
“I have always had the mentality that if something is going to get you to your goal quicker, then why not go for it, right?” he said.
“…I was like, ‘I’m going to get my physique going as quickly as possible. I do not care
about side effects, I don’t care about any implications of ‘uh oh, this guy’s using drugs’ – like none of that shit really phased me. I just wanted to get to my goals as efficiently as possible.”
He said he doesn’t think he’ll ever stop taking steroids.
During the 1 hour and 40 minute interview, he explained how he engages in “bone-smashing”, wherein before a night out, he intentionally bruises his cheekbones, causing swelling in his face. He then covers the redness with makeup, leaving his cheekbones higher.
“I could send you some pictures of how I look after a really hard session of bone smashing, and you might find it a little scary,” he said, adding that he has to lie in bed when doing it to prevent giving himself a concussion.
“If you’re not well-braced, things can go wrong and it can be horrible,” he said.
Outlining his philosophy, he said that he is not interested in “longevity” or worried about his long-term health, focusing only on his quality of life now.
His tactics have been met with controversy online, with social media users criticising his choices harshly.
“Easy to dismiss longevity at 19,” said one user.
“Consequences feel invisible until they’re not…seeing a kid talking so confidently about shit that’s going to bite him in the ass later is so sad.”
“We’ve become so shallow as a society,” said another.
“Social media has doomed us.”
Another person added: “Limb lengthening surgery is too far, $100k to cripple yourself and look like a fool to the rest of the world.”