{"id":5564,"date":"2026-08-15T18:21:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=5564"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:21:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T18:21:58","slug":"a-young-bodybuilders-rise-preceded-the-looksmaxxing-movement-his-legacy-feels-more-relevant-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=5564","title":{"rendered":"Zyzz Was the Original Looksmaxxer. His Rise and Untimely Death Feel More Relevant Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Depending on your perspective, Zyzz can be regarded as the original \u201clooksmaxxer<\/a>\u201d\u2014though the term had yet to be coined\u2014or one of the earliest forefathers of the manosphere as we know it today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really see this as a cautionary tale,\u201d Poster Boy<\/em>\u2019s director, Selina Miles<\/a>, tells WIRED. She notes that Shavershian\u2019s meteoric rise and untimely death left a huge impression on Australian millennials, and that his legend continues to reverberate today. \u201cHe had his transformation, and his story has really resonated with a lot of people,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to stay curious as to why. Why has he had this impact on men?\u201d<\/p>\n

Through a mixture of Zyzz\u2019s archival content and interviews with close friends as well as his older brother, Said Shavershian\u2014a professional bodybuilder to this day\u2014the documentary circles the question of his outsized appeal during a key shift in human communications. At that moment, few imagined YouTube<\/a> (launched in 2005, when he was 16) or Facebook<\/a> (first available to him the following year) as a means to notoriety, let alone financial success. Indeed, Zyzz\u2019s earliest videos amount to little more than a kid playing around in his bedroom; later, he and his pals experimented with showing off their abs and biceps at music festivals and nightlife hot spots, hoping for reactions of any kind.<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n

Courtesy of Stan<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

While Zyzz promoted values of inclusion and mutual support for men looking to become the best version of themselves, he also began to feed off those who insulted him, online and off: \u201cU mad?\u201d and \u201cCome at me brah\u201d were two of his recurring catchphrases. He understood sooner than most how controversy drove clicks, and even maintained fake social accounts to amplify the war between himself and the haters. \u201cHe made this page on Facebook that was, like, \u201810,000 likes and I’ll bash Zyzz,\u2019\u201d Miles says, describing an incident that didn\u2019t make it into the documentary\u2019s final cut. \u201cWhen the page was doing well, he switched the name of it to be promotion for his protein brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

His rhetoric turned homophobic and misogynist, contemptuous of anyone who had not optimized their physical form. A 2010 post on his Facebook page read: \u201cid rather be dead than \u2018normal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, we learn from the film, Zyzz had more followers on the platform than the prime minister of Australia at the time.<\/p>\n

Behind the bravado, however, Zyzz seemed psychologically unprepared for the limelight. In addition to using steroids to sculpt his Renaissance-worthy physique (he and the fitness personalities in his orbit were known as the \u201cAesthetics Crew\u201d), he took Xanax to deal with the stress and paranoia that came with being mobbed in public, where he was also frequently menaced by young men looking for a fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Depending on your perspective, Zyzz can be regarded as the original \u201clooksmaxxer\u201d\u2014though the term had yet to be coined\u2014or one of the earliest forefathers of the manosphere as we know it today. \u201cI really see this as a cautionary tale,\u201d Poster Boy\u2019s director, Selina Miles, tells WIRED. She notes that Shavershian\u2019s meteoric rise and untimely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[345,1189,294,141,657,649,204,160],"class_list":["post-5564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-apple","tag-documentary","tag-facebook","tag-health","tag-influencers","tag-mental-health","tag-social-media","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\nZyzz Was the Original Looksmaxxer. 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