Chinese app tells you what others really think

Miko Hayashi had red hair and dark eyebrows until she went on Xiaohongshu last month for glow-up advice, which for those who’ve never had it is advice on how to look better, or even “your best self”. A lot of people suggested she make her hair and eyebrows the same colour, so she darkened her hair and set it off with a pair of big white snowflake earrings. Arna Guolaugardottir got advice via Xiaohongshu for a perm, more mascara and hot red lipstick. She took it all. Xiaohongshu is Chinese for Little Red Book. Not to be confused with Mao’s, this one is a Chinese app that promises honest but not hostile advice on anything users ask about including their appearance, and for that honesty it’s catching on fast, including outside China. It has 300 million monthly views. One hashtag, meaning “listening to advice”, has accumulated half a billion. Presumably the next step is for the whole thing to be banned in the US by Congress.