How a 20‑Year‑Old From New Jersey Became the Unhinged Prophet of the Looksmaxxing Movement

Looksmaxxing, jestermaxxing, mogged. A bizarre corner of the internet has breached containment.

BY MARÍA JOSÉ GUTIERREZ CHAVEZ, EDITORIAL FELLOW

Braden Peters, also known as “Clavicular”. Photo: Getty Images

Massage the inside of your mouth for sculpted cheekbones. Smash your jaw with a hammer for a more defined look. Do some meth to stay lean. Then, inject yourself with testosterone before puberty, even if it leaves you infertile. 

This is the life of Braden Peters, better known by his online handle, Clavicular. He’s a 20-year-old in the pursuit of one thing: to be as hot as possible. 

Raised in New Jersey to a businessman father and a former bodybuilder mother, his upbringing was seemingly unremarkable. Nothing in his background obviously explains how he came to be the most famous disciple and evangelist of the phenomenon known as “looksmaxxing”. But it’s fair to say that the transition from Braden to Clavicular is what happens when an extremely online young man becomes excruciatingly aware of being perceived and of the value society places on good looks. 

Once unknown outside of the niche looksmaxxing internet community, Clavicular is suddenly everywhere. The New York Times profiled him. Playboy called him the “radical submissive.” GQ followed him around for his New York Fashion Week stint as he walked for provocative fashion designer Elena Velez, calling it a “thirsty tour.” His stardom might even result in a Hulu documentary, Page Six reports.

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This media takeover might seem to come out of nowhere. But Clavicular—Clav to his fans and hangers on—has adroitly positioned himself as the pioneer of the complex looksmaxxing movement: our generation’s own narcissus, except Narcissus may have never put in this much effort.

Clavicular established himself last year on looksmax.org, a corner of the manosphere devoted to male appearance optimization. But it’s his presence on Kick, a streaming platform alternative to Twitch, that brought him to the masses. Kick has more relaxed moderation than other streamers and often hosts more questionable characters, or as one Reddit user puts it, “some of the worst streamer scumbags you can find.”

On Kick he’s mastered the art of clipfarming — doing something unhinged enough on livestream to go viral. His streams feature slurs, brutal commentary on women’s looks, and that one time he appeared to hit someone with a Cybertruck while streaming (he is essentially never not streaming) and said he hoped the man had died. In January, he sang along to Ye’s “Heil Hitler” at a Miami club with far-right influencers, Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes, though he claims to be apolitical. Yes, he said he’d vote for Gavin Newsom over JD Vance, but that’s just because Vance is “fat”.

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