Citations:glow-up

Noun: "(slang) a major and impressive transformation in appearance, talent, power, etc."

 * 2018, Hannah Jewell, She Caused a Riot: 100 Unknown Women Who Built Cities, Sparked Revolutions, and Massively Crushed It, unnumbered page:
 * Let us now marvel at a lady who achieved one of the most impressive glow ups in the thousand-plus-years history of the Byzantine Empire: Empress Theodora.
 * 2018, Betches, When's Happy Hour?: Work Hard So You Can Hardly Work, pages 20-21:
 * Over time, society got a few glow-ups and eventually became all industrialized and shit, and as a result, there have been a number of important milestones for women in the workforce.
 * 2019, "The Top 10 Skincare Products", Modish, April 2019, page 8:
 * 2018 was the year for all of us, because these ten products got released into the market, and they were responsible for so many of our glow-ups.
 * 2019, Alana Sullivan, "The Myth of the Glow Up", Kitsch (Cornell University), Spring 2019, page 10:
 * At some point during our society's love affair with physical transformations, before-and-after photos and, most recently, the Instagram "glow-up," we concluded that the internal selves of those who undergo physical changes must necessarily also be transformed.
 * 2019, Megan Bianco, "At the Movies: 'The Farewell' is Bittersweet", Dana Point Times, 26 July 2019 - 1 August 2019, page 8:
 * Nora Lum, also known as Awkwafina, has to have one of the biggest "glow-ups" in modern pop culture.
 * 2020, Kelly Small, The Conscious Creative: Practical Ethics for Purposeful Work, unnumbered page:
 * Let's publicly celebrate the ethical “glow-ups” of our colleagues, clients, and suppliers who are making changes to their practices by taking action against injustice and improving conditions for all people.
 * 2020, Marissa Sandoval, "Jonas Brothers", in "Best of 2019", Beyond the Stage, January 2020, page 26:
 * At some points, the video seems to be showing off the brothers' glow ups, but if you were married to Sophie Turner, I'm sure you'd show her off as well.
 * 2020, Sarah Bahr, "Powerful Women Of Newfields", Newfields, Spring 2020, page 8:
 * As the country's foremost fountain fashioner in the early 20th century, this Hoosier gave the gardens of wealthy Americans their glow-ups.
 * 2020, Sarah Bahr, "Powerful Women Of Newfields", Newfields, Spring 2020, page 8:
 * As the country's foremost fountain fashioner in the early 20th century, this Hoosier gave the gardens of wealthy Americans their glow-ups.

Verb: "(slang) to undergo such a transformation"

 * 2017, Rebecca Noel, "Senior Glow Ups", Lecacy (The Kinkaid School), 11 May 2017, page 29:
 * We've all changed quite a bit since freshman year (thank goodness), but some people have particularly "glowed up."
 * 2018, @agerenesh, quoted in Express, 14 June 2018, 15 June 2018, page 32:
 * “Every single person in the 'Degrassi' cast somehow glowed up in the best way.”
 * 2019, Alexis C. Madrigal, "No, You Don't Really Look Like That", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 February 2019, page 18:
 * Speaking as a longtime iPhone user, I find it undeniable that Portrait mode — a marquee technology in a recent edition of the most popular phones in the world — has been glowed up.
 * 2019, Alana Sullivan, "The Myth of the Glow Up", Kitsch (Cornell University), Spring 2019, page 10:
 * "Wow, damn u really glowed up. Holy shit. Ur not even the same person! I barely reckanize{{sic} you in that pic."
 * 2019, Sydney Lo, Amanda Ngo, Celina Sun, Anita Sheih, & Julian Towers, "Family Moments", Post- (Brown University), 17 October 2019, page 3:
 * Reflected back to me off my father's beaming smile, the new things in my life filled me with pride. It was a kind of pride they hadn't given me before. I wondered if I hadn't, deep down, glowed up just for him.