You’re on TikTok, scrolling as you always do – and you’ve been doing it for 45 minutes. You’ve watched a dozen make-up tutorials, Love Island recaps and videos of cats doing very cat things when you stumble upon a video of Kendall Jenner.
But it’s not a clip from Keeping Up With The Kardashians, or even Kendall modelling on a catwalk. It’s of her face being analysed by a surgeon. You’re watching a doctor tell you what operations she has or hasn’t had. They’ll tell you that she’s had fillers in her lips, Botox and a “secret” rhinoplasty (aka nose job).
Click through to the doctor’s page and suddenly you’ve entered the world of celebrity plastic surgery videos. There’s been a surge of these videos appearing on my ‘for you’ page in recent months. The hashtag #plasticsurgery has 13.3 billion views, while the hashtag #celebrityface has 1.6 billion views.
When I typed “Did Kendall Jenner have plastic surgery?” into my search bar, hundreds of videos popped up. Some from cosmetic professionals, others from regular users, all picking apart her face. It’s no surprise that these videos are dominated by women. Celebrities like Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Khloe Kardashian and Zendaya also get their faces examined on a daily basis.
Even teenagers like Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, 18, are scrutinised on TikTok – although one detailed blog about her face admits that “the changes people are nitpicking could just be her growing up” and better make-up.
So why are these clips so popular? It could be that celebrities don’t often reveal what work they’ve had done – leaving their fans to guess.
