“When you think of exercising, you don’t really want to think of puking, tears, and pain”: young adolescents’ understanding of fitness and #fitspiration

Adolescents access information about fitness, including content labelled as #fitspiration, through social media. Seventy-seven adolescents (M age = 12.49; SD = 0.55; Girls = 27) participated in semi-structured focus groups to explore their perspectives on #fitspiration and fitness more broadly. Through inductive thematic analysis, four themes were developed: (1) Fitness enhances physical function and appearance, but these are not always linked, (2) Fitness is transformative but requires hard work, (3) Fitness should be an intrinsically motivated personal choice, (4) Pain in the pursuit of fitness. Findings highlight young adolescents’ complex understandings of fitness negotiated through their critical interpretation of #fitspiration.