What’s Up with Plastic Surgery Social Media and was Doja Cat Right to Call Them Out?

On top of taking over the world both with her music and TikTok videos, Doja Cat took out time from her busy schedule to call out YouTuber Lorry Hill last week. Lorry Hill is a popular YouTuber with over 300,000 subscribers who makes videos about celebrities’ plastic surgery procedures. She uses before-and-after comparisons to showcase how subtle the surgery can be. Her video about the procedures Ariana Grande had done to change the shape of her eyes garnered 1.4 million views.  

Last month, Hill published a video discussing Doja Cat’s plastic surgery, comparing pictures of the singer from eight years ago to today. The video, which is now removed, was called “Doja Cat Looks Different Than Before”. Doja Cat took to Instagram live to voice her displeasure at having her appearance so closely scrutinized. 

Before getting to her own critiques, Doja called out Hill for also making a video about Megan thee Stallion’s alleged cosmetic alterations. On the topic of her own supposed plastic surgery, Doja says: “I’m mad because there’s lies about me.” Among other changes, Hill claimed in the original video that Doja had reshaped her nose. 

Doja has long been firm about not having any surgery. Her frustration brings up an important question about the kind of content Hill is creating. After all, she is not alone in making a name for herself for identifying celebrities’ procedures. Many Instagram accounts have gained hundreds of thousands of followers by exposing the kind of procedures celebrities get in side-by-side pictures. CelebFace and CelebPlastic are just two examples — the first has 1.4 million followers while the second has 119,000.

Then there’s Dr. Anthony Youn, who has nearly one million followers on Instagram and 7.6 million followers on TikTok. His main content focuses on debunking the idea of “natural” beauty in Hollywood, pointing out the procedures that A-listers buy to appear young. 

It seems in an age of photoshop and FaceTuning, we’re more interested than ever in what is real and what is altered. But the question has to be asked: are these accounts doing more harm than good? 

Early-2000s media culture made the appearances of celebrities their focus. Gossip blogs and newspapers tabloids alike focused on A-listers — mainly, young women like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan — to critique everything from their behavior to their appearance. This 2013 article published in Metro that zeroes in on Victoria Beckham’s “wrinkly” hands is only an example of the kind of misogynistic critiques lobbied at women in the past. Are these social media accounts any different today? 

In an interview with i-D, Dr. Youn states that plastic surgery accounts, like the ones he runs, can help normalize plastic surgery and increase the number of people getting procedures such as Non-invasive facial treatments in Frisco (which can be dangerous if they choose to go to cheap, inexperienced surgeons). However, learning that celebrities use plastic surgery and photoshop to achieve their beautiful looks can also help normalize the younger generations’ beauty expectations. 

Still, it’s hard to blame celebrities like Doja Cat for being upset. Being overly analytical about celebrities’ appearances, especially as they age, runs the risk of bringing us back to the time where we publicly shamed celebrities for gaining weight and having wrinkles. 

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