Are peptides all over your feed, too?

0:07This episode of Stylish is brought to you by Maya. Topshop has returned to Australia and it's landed exclusively in-store at Maya. Hello, happy Friday. If you're new here, I'm Madison Sullivan Thorpe. I am joined as always by my lovely co-host and dear friend Rhiannon Joyce. Look, if you don't know by now, this is the corner of Stylish where we focus on brand, campaigns, the how did they get their career stories, a few little giggles in between for good measure. And Rhiannon, I'm not even going to pretend that this is not the most excited I've ever been to step in the studio together. I am chomping at the bit to finally be able to have this conversation with Mike.

0:47And I know we say this all the time. We always have these conversations at the wine bar, but actually sometimes we have them on walks and at coffee shops and having a salad or a sandwich too. The community's going to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. You're bringing it from off mic to on mic. No, this conversation, not even just between us, is dominating so many of my friendship groups at the moment. It is peptides. Peptides are everywhere. And I feel like the news cycle is really picking up on this as well. I saw a piece dropped from the cut last week. We'll reference a few other pieces throughout this episode.

1:15But honestly, I cannot escape peptides. No. And I think what's so important to preface is we're going to get into it, define all of it, explain what they are, because we put a bit of a call out on each of our personal channels, just wanting people to let us know what they thought about it, if they were seeing it, if they weren't. What became really clear to us was we're in a bit of an echo chamber. Yes, which does happen sometimes. Of course. And, you know, Ray and I have a lot of shared friends. We like doing a lot of the same things. We are served very similar algorithms and content, usually hilarious memes we're sending each other.

1:44But this is something we keep seeing and that people are having discussions with us about personally, and then we're seeing professionally. But we acknowledge that some people aren't being served this. So if you don't know what a peptide is, hold tight. We'll explain it all. Buckle up, dolls. We've got a full breakdown. We've got a full debrief. You said it so succinctly the other night when we were on the phone going, no, no, no, we need to save this for the mic because we do have a habit of spiraling and talking about all the things before we get in here. What you did say was that this is an ever evolving conversation.

2:11Yes. And I don't think this will be the last time we talk about peptides. No. And to be honest, I don't know if I will actually get to the end of this episode and have a conclusive outcome of where I sit and what I think because it is ever evolving. Like right now, what I'm saying and saying with my chest might be very different six months down the line. So I'm just going to say what I genuinely think right now, but also want to be given the grace that maybe that will change. I think that's so important to say because so often I feel that we consume media looking for the author or the podcast host or the TV presenter to really have a firm opinion.

2:40I have opinions and thoughts. I mean, I've always got opinions and thoughts. But I don't know that I will either get to the end of this and go, I said what I said, full stop. You know, I'd never go back and revisit that. And I also think as individuals and people, it's important to revisit stances that you have. It's okay to change your mind. I just don't know that the climate right now really lends itself to giving people the grace to do it. I fear that I might be pulling the cart before the horse, but a lot of people in the DMs, I would say the majority I received lent more to this being a negative trend or having a negative perspective of what is going on right now.

3:13It was sprinkled with a few positive experiences, but I would say the majority of my DMs weren't great. Yeah. I also had randomly like quite a few people sort of responding, probably speaking about peptides in a different way to where I thought they would go. and we're going to get into all the different peptides. But before we do, Rhi, word of the week. Word of the week. And again, I'm back with one word, bitches. Well, not really because it's actually two. Hey, hey. Technically, it's – okay. Don't you neg me straight off the top, okay? I've been trying really hard to bring the one word back.

3:45Yeah. So I'm going with my one word, which is Rolodex. Technically, Rolodex media. Because if I said shameless and not shameless media, how would you feel? I would be correcting you. I'd be like, it's Matt's shameless media. You know how I feel about that. So for those of you who don't know what Rolodex Media is, it is a media company that is really doing a great job at capturing the mood of the internet. They just recently ran a piece, community is a buzzword. Really similar themes to the episode that you and I did about community and how brands are really hijacking this word. God, when was that?

4:16Almost a month ago now. Yep. I love, love, love their content. They also have a really great Instagram page that serves a lot of that bite-sized snackable sort of conversation. Similar, it reminds me of business of fashion, like how they really capture their pieces and how they use strong visuals and headlines to bring you in. Yeah. But I think our people would really get around this Instagram page. I know you follow it because every time I go to read something, it's Madison Sullivan Dorp has already liked this. Oh, good. I'm ahead of the curve. You're ahead of the curve, my chronically online friend.

4:44I am chronically online. I really like them. I actually started following Mufaro, who is one of the co-founders. I believe there's two founders. she is awesome on tiktok she has like incredible content she really pulls a look together I loved following her and then sort of saw her breadcrumbing this you know how much I loved that article that she um published make australia ambitious again I honestly think I've revisited that 10 times over actually discovered that article through sophie hood who uploaded a tiktok talking about it she is the founder of saltonic the electrolyte recovery drink brand um and also just sound like a cool person to follow on TikTok, but love everything they pen, think there's a really critical lens and deep analysis that still feels fun and light.

5:26Also good to have a localized perspective. I think I really gravitate to a lot of international pages. It's good to have people on our homegrown soil. A lot of the girlies in the Shameless Media office subscribe to their sub stack and follow them on Instagram. So I feel this will be a popular one for our community. I think it's a great one. I would argue that it's like kind of overtaking a lot of the ones that I loved. Like I'm a big business of fashion. Yeah. Consumer. I love the cut. I don't know. Maybe there is just like I like the local lens. I think it's the local lens, but also a lot of the traditional media outlets that I consume here being the AFR, skew a bit older, also can be a bit highbrow where they don't capture a lot of the fashion beauty.

6:04I don't want to say Zeitgeist. I feel like guys breaking the fourth wall here. Zeitgeist has been banned in our office as a word of jargon. I'm not allowed to say it. Yeah. Also someone DM'd me and was like, say Zeitgeist one one time either of you I do and I scrolled up that also sent me like a lot of other mean DMs I was like okay get it really making you feel uncomfortable I don't get that many mean DMs maybe it's because people just saying it behind my back and not to my face but that's fine keep doing that please I'm not interested in you coming to my uh my DMs in my safe space glad to report that they're mainly nice mainly okay well yeah Zeitgeist is banned but yes internet culture what is the alternative send your alternatives to Zeitgeist thank you but let's finish it there Great page to follow, great sub stack to subscribe to.

6:46If you like this podcast, you'll probably like Rolodex Media. Before we dive into this discussion, we really do want to flag that in this episode, we are going to be focusing on the rise of unregulated peptides as a health and wellness supplement and how that's exploded in popularity. Mostly on TikTok, I've seen this, not really hitting my Instagram, if I'm being honest, but we're focusing on oral and injectable peptides. And I just want to say, big, bold underline on unregulated peptides. A lot of these haven't been regulated or tested. For those that have, they have to be prescribed by a doctor.

7:19So in the context of this conversation, we're solely focusing on the unregulated, illegal, oral and injectable peptides. Yeah, we're not going to be getting into tropical peptides. No. That's completely separate. So if you're thinking about peptide lip balms or serums, it's a completely separate thing. They are not hitting the bloodstream in the same way. Park that discussion. We are talking oral and injectables. Yeah, and those, very clear distinction. are tested and are approved and a lot of skincare brands are utilising peptides. And look, I want to flag peptides as a skincare ingredient are fantastic.

7:52Tick, tick, tick. And worth disclosing as well that we have in the past worked with sponsors that have skincare lines that contain peptides. This is completely different from that. Yes, very important distinction, Mads. Next, we'll be explaining what peptides actually are, but that will be right after a word from today's sponsor. Okay, major fashion news incoming. Topshop has returned to Australia and it's landed exclusively in-store at Meijer. If you, like us, have been waiting years for this announcement, you'll know it's cause for celebration. Topshop is one of the world's most recognisable fashion brands.

8:26In fact, it's been influencing trends since way back when, with its iconic denim, sharp tailoring and fashion-led pieces. I'm guessing you have some vintage pieces in your wardrobe, but the revival of Topshop in Australia marks an opportunity to get more creative with our personal style for the years ahead. And Maya is giving us the perfect platform to do just that. They've recently launched their latest fashion campaign featuring style icons Olivia de Young, Bella McColdrick and Guy Verdas as they inspire us to shop with intention, curate unique looks and own our personal style. Maya is a one-stop shop bringing together the most recognisable fashion brands and now that includes Topshop.

9:04Shop Topshop now in store or online and a huge thank you to Maya for making this episode as stylish possible. Okay so up the top I think it's really important we note that peptides are classified as a schedule for prescription only medicine here in Australia. This means it's illegal to possess them without a prescription and there will be a lot of words and jargon I think we use today that maybe it feels like we're over explaining, but we do feel like the context is really important. We will be using the term the TGA a lot. That is an abbreviation for the Therapeutic Goods Administration. So they are the governing body here in Australia that oversee supplements, ingestibles, medicines, SPFs, all of the claims and registrations for those products as well.

9:47Yeah, they've come up quite a bit when we've spoken about advertising on the podcast and brand campaigns going wrong. Usually the TGA gets involved famously or not so famously. We have spoken about the broader issue with choice when they were doing all the SPF testing and the likes of ultraviolet were part of that. So you would have heard us talk about the TGA before. I think it's important up top that we acknowledge that the TGA is also covering this already and they're very much across the challenges of peptides. So the TGA has issued several safety advisory warnings about unregulated peptide use and in 2024 a Victorian was actually fined for allegedly importing unapproved peptides.

10:23So they're a cross set. They're very much aware of it. It's interesting to me that this conversation is surging and going back and doing the research that there is action being taken. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see more crackdowns locally from the TGA on the misuse of illegal peptides. But let's start with the basics because there is a bit of medical jargon for us to get through to make sure that we're doing our job properly. So peptides are short chains of two or more amino acids and amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and are essential for certain bodily functions, including things like skin health and cell signaling.

10:56Yeah. And WebMD says that our bodies make peptides that serve important functions in some of your body's necessary processes. For instance, insulin is a 51 amino acid long peptide hormone that helps your cells take in sugar from your food to use for metabolism and store them in your liver. So peptides, I think safe to say, are very important. Look, I would say that most peptides that people are familiar with are in relation to weight loss. So GLP-1, Monjaro, these are actually a form of peptides. I didn't know that until we started researching extensively for this episode. Did you, Mads? No. She's shaking her head.

11:30No, I did not. I also may or may not have in our editorial like pre-call gone. No, what we need to differentiate is GLP-1s and peptides. And then I think someone on the call that might have been head of podcast, Lucy, or our senior podcast, which is Kate, was like, I do think GLP-1s are peptide. I was like, please hold, call while I was giggling. I was like, ah, yes, yes, yes. Yep, yep, yep. I think because for me, one feels like this rogue cowboy item and one felt like it was being prescribed by doctors. That's exactly what it is. So one is like available in the black market. One is not. We did a call out on socials for commentary for an experienced doctor in this field.

12:06And we were lucky enough to receive a response from Dr. Sophie Hogan, who's a GP registrar working in New South Wales. For a little bit of context, a GP registrar is a fully qualified doctor who's undertaking further specialist training to become a GP. Dr. Sophie has previously worked in clinical trials testing the safety and effectiveness of GLP-1 type medications. Look, there's so many that fall under this. So many. One that you have likely heard of if you're kind of in the peptide sphere. Yeah. It's just being served on socials. Is it Redder Ride? Redder Retired? I feel like I'm like... Anyway, call it Redder.

12:40That's what keeps coming up on TikTok is Redder. Totally. I would say 99 % of people who know about some form of peptide would say it's Redder that they're hearing about. So Dr. Sophie said, aside from GLPS, peptides that I have come across people taken are BPC157, which claims to help with athletic performance and recovery healing. I'm seeing this a lot from the gym bros. IGF1LR3, which supposedly helps with muscle growth and TB500, which is meant to also promote fast healing. There are others out there too that claim to do a whole host of other things. A lot of the videos that I'm seeing from creators online, you know, they're promoting these alleged benefits and they're sharing their own personal anecdotes and stories about how it's changed their lives, whether that be in a beauty, so more of a vanity capacity or if a health rejuvenation capacity, they then go one step further though.

13:30They do. And I've seen a lot of creators and a month ago, I would have said a lot of creators offshore in the US sitting here in February, 2026. I now say there are creators I've seen locally with links in their bios linking to either their own brand of peptides or other brands of peptides. And I feel that that's a really important thing for people to remember when they're consuming this content. These creators are likely monetizing and benefiting financially from someone purchasing these alleged benefits and alleged, you know, results. I have seen so many videos on TikTok from personal trainers, people who are going through their health journey, sharing that they have been doing this for that muscle, muscle, muscle, that muscle rejuvenation, muscle rejuvenation.

14:20But also someone I know who went to the Vogue Forces of Fashion event in Sydney, I was supposed to go, but then I had to pull out last minute because of work commitments, said that Hayley Bieber actually referenced BPC157 as a peptide that she takes as part of her routine. Yeah. And it was referenced in terms of recovery. Yes. And a lot of people DM'd me mentioning that they had injuries while training for things like marathons or wanting to get back into getting to their marathon date and that, you know, they were using this for muscle recovery and ailments along those lines. Which is wild to me.

14:55BPC-157 is not TGA or FDA approved for human use. We got Dr. Sophie Hogan to also give us some quotes. And look, these are really long quotes, so bear with me because they might sound a little bit clunky. But She spoke a lot about the process of testing before a medication becomes available. I thought this context was really helpful. She said, it takes a very long time and is very comprehensive to ensure that only medications which actually do what they claim to do make it onto the market. Some of the peptide medications which are being advertised have only been tested on animals and have not even made it to phase one trials yet.

15:27She goes on to say, this means we really have no idea at all if they actually do anything beneficial and what kind of harm they might do both in the short term and the long term. No doctor with any integrity would recommend a medication as unresearched as these are. Even with medications that have had phase three trials and are on market like semaglutide, we still don't know what the long term effects might be. Mic drop. There's a lot of mic drop moments in this. I think that's the main thing that I keep coming back to is that uncertainty around what will this look like in the future and also how will this actually affect people?

16:02we don't know. It hasn't gone through enough vigorous testing. If people are experiencing positive results, how long will they sustain for? How long do you have to keep taking this? How long do you have? Is it a forever thing? Is it a lifetime drug? Is it something you take for a year and it retrains your body and your muscle? We don't know. We have no idea. Rhi, I know that Dr. Sophie had also said some interesting things about the GLP-1s that are approved and registered and available if given a prescription. So she told us people who otherwise might have had sugars that were out of control and increasing their risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, et cetera, now are getting sugars that are in the non-diabetic range.

16:39They really can be life changing when they are used correctly as prescribed by a medical professional. And again, coming back to the DMs, I maybe had one or two people share with me that they had had really positive experience since they were prescribed GLP-1. But again, the distinction for me is that that is medically proven. It's been trialed. It's been issued out to address real health issues. Yeah, absolutely. And I probably had a lot more than that, to be honest. Yeah, okay. Probably think I had about 25 people who told me they were on GLP-1 medications that they had been prescribed by their GP.

17:12And it was a really positive experience for them. I don't want to come at this conversation at any point with shame or judgment, because there are people who it has immensely helped on weight loss journey to get them into a place where they are not susceptible to strokes or heart attacks and things like that because the harm and side effects of obesity cannot be denied and this drug is now proving to help people who are as defined by a medical professional considered obese or for those obviously struggling with diabetes who have been dealing with this for years. This is, you know, an insulin assistance drug.

17:45I think that's a very important distinction, Mads, and I really want to preface that it's not about judging the people who are taking these. I will get into my actual gripe about this conversation after a word from today's sponsor. I know so many of you are going to be very excited about Topshop being officially back in Australia. And yes, it's as good as you remember. You can expect all the classics, Topshop's iconic denim, sharp tailoring, and of course, those trend-led pieces. The best part, it's available exclusively at Maya, which means you can mix and match your Topshop finds with so many other recognizable brands all in one place.

18:18Maya really is the home of Australian style. You can shop Topshop and all the new season arrivals in-store or online now. and a big thank you to Maya for making this episode of Stylish possible. So after Ray's cliffhanger, what we really want to get into is why if a peptide is illegal, you might be seeing it all over your feed. I can't keep up with all the names. I'm going to start by saying that. I was trying to talk about this with a couple of girlfriends on Friday night at a dinner and I was like, the CMYKU, and they were like, what are you saying? I was like, I don't even know. It's blue. I've seen it.

18:52CKCY. I know the redder one. I've seen that enough now. I just say pepies. Yeah, I say the pepies too. I'm seeing the pepies everywhere, babe. And it's all over social media. I am seeing them talk to me about it like they're talking to me about a blush from Morphe. It's just very bizarre to me. And I would have had no idea that they were illegal up until that point. But we did ask a lot of you if you were seeing it in your feeds. And a lot of people responded being like, I don't even know what the hell these are, but they're everywhere on my feeds. The majority of the people in my DMs did agree with what I take an issue with.

19:22And my biggest gripe is a lot of these people on the internet, predominantly TikTok, are promoting the illegal use of peptides and showcasing what they take, how they take. They have no medical certification to be doing this. No, they don't. And it was much the same for me, right? A lot of people going, look, I'm not going to sit in my, I had so many people say, I'm not going to sit in my ivory tower. And I was like a real day one listener, but they were saying, I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm not intrigued by it. Anything that could potentially make me fitter, increase muscle mass or make my skin look better.

19:51Like I'm sitting up and listening. Yeah, I understand that. But they were like, do I want to hear it from an influencer? No, I would like to be sitting in a doctor's room having them tell me it's safe to use. And they were like, this is wild. I didn't even know that they were illegal until I started falling down a Google rabbit hole because they were seeing it so much from content they were interacting with. One of my DMs said, the normalization of injecting yourself on camera for beauty results in a TikTok is wild to me. I cannot believe some creators' posts are still live when others have posts removed that are nowhere near as damaging.

20:21Let's talk about the SPF thing, because this has come up so much between us, but also wider friendship groups. We cannot believe that you cannot promote or advertise SPF, which is proven to help prevent skin cancer. Yet people are on the internet and on TikTok promoting and injecting themselves with illegal peptides and nothing's being done about it. And I want to put a caveat on what you're saying. You are allowed to talk about SPF on the internet. You are not allowed to talk about the benefits outside of the UV claim. So what you couldn't get on and say as a creator or an individual, this is not just, you can't be a girl with a hundred followers in your bedroom saying this, that it feels nice on the skin, that it sits well under makeup.

21:03You can't say that it gives your skin a nice natural sheen. You can't say that it gives you a glowing effect. What you can say is whatever is on the carton, UV 50 plus, UVA, UVB. You cannot get on and talk about material benefits of an SPF. So it is wild, like wild. This isn't, you can't say it sits nice under makeup, but you can get on and spook of blue peptide and talk about how your skin's like been transformed in 30 days. We also don't know that. It could be placebo. Look, I'm a big believer in placebo. Yeah, me too. I always have been, but I'm not getting on TikTok and then promoting that to other people.

21:41It's just such a grey, murky area for me, particularly, as I said up top, that none of these people have medical certifications to be doing this. I do want to say as well, obviously, when we reached out to our communities, we promised them anonymity. So there are a lot of conversations I had with a lot of very interesting, well-informed people in this space that I can't disclose. But it was very interesting speaking to people who work in or own supplement businesses. So collagen powders, like you can't get on and say a lot of things about that. It's very hotly, heavily regulated by the TGA. I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be selling like hair, skin and nails or collagen powders and watching all of this play out right now when you're held to such a high standard and feeds are being inundated with this kind of content as well because it's pretty wild.

22:28It's wild. Also, I had a look on a few videos that kept coming up for me and there were some consistent creators who I was seeing it come from. The comment sections were mostly positive. It really shocked me because same. There was probably one video I saw, which I am going to bring up, which was a girl taking clean needles from a safe injecting clean needle dispensary site. That is the only peptide related TikTok I would say I've seen really negative and justified comments. I want to bring back to the medical professionals who were in your DM ads because you actually had a nurse reach out to you and say some interesting things.

23:02I did. So this nurse said, as a nurse myself, I feel skeptical of online injections to be done at home. I'm always after a more youthful look and I do Botox filler to achieve this. I do worry about being left behind the curve due to being worried about it. And when everyone else seems to be doing it, it's crazy. It's become so normalized. This feels very similar to like what is going on in my head. Yes. I want to speak very candidly. I'm 33. I am very conscious of aging at the moment and I do get injectables. I do get Botox. This feels like the next iteration. This is going to be normalized as part of a standard beauty routine in order to prevent aging.