What does yassify mean?
To yassify an image is to digitally edit it using a beauty filter or other AI-powered tools (usually in an over-the-top and unmistakable way). Yassified photos of people often feature exaggerated make-up, hair, and facial features such as eyes and lips. Yassify is also sometimes used more broadly to mean “to improve the appearance of” or “to make more glamorous.”
Examples of yassify
A lady at the airport brought her own personal tube of mayonnaise. I’ve yassified her to maintain anonymity but she’s my hero.
—@michcoll, X (formerly Twitter, 18 Feb. 2023
There’s a trend on Twitter where you overly edit people to “Yassify” them. I decided to try it on the Frasier cast
—Reddit (Frasier forum), 24 Nov. 2021
Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, for whatever reason, decided to tweet out this picture of … a JD Vance who looks nothing at all like actual real-life JD Vance. He’s got furrowed eyebrows, a pointy chin, and cheekbones that could cut glass—a bold move considering that the non-yassified picture is so widely available.
—Robyn Pennacchia, Wonkette, 3 Oct. 2024
The Prequel app is yassifying our selfies into hot cartoons
—(headline), Mashable, 27 Jan. 2022
Where does yassify come from?
Yassify is likely a combination of yass, an interjection (used to expressed great excitement or enthusiasm for a thing) that arose in New York City’s Ballroom scene, a Black and Latino LGBTQ+ subculture, and the suffix ify, “make or form into.”
How is yassify used?
Yassify is usually used humorously, befitting a word for the act of messing around with images on the internet for laughs. There is also evidence of its use expanding beyond describing app-manipulated images:
I tried to draw a dinosaur for Jon once and, she was THICC 😂 I think I’d yassify even a stick figure.
—@jasky, Blue Sky 16 Feb. 2025
Make a list. Check it twice. It’s time to yassify spring shopping.
—Town & Country, February 2022
cosmetic surgery is yassified taxidermy for alive things
—@45percenterthen, Tumblr, 30 June 2022