An Era of Authenticity (or Something Like It)

New York Times

28-07-2025

When Kylie Jenner and her mother, Kris, admitted last month that they had gotten plastic surgery, it was hailed by many as the start of a new era in celebrity transparency around beauty.
'445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!! silicone!!! garth fisher!!! hope this helps lol,' Kylie Jenner had responded to a fan asking for the exact specifications of her breast augmentation.
The moment — casual, off the cuff, peppered with internet speak and made in the comments of a TikTok — immediately became a hot topic on social media, just as her mother's discussion of her face lift a few weeks earlier had.
Other celebrities, naturally, jumped on the bandwagon.
Kristin Cavallari, a former star of 'The Hills,' shared her own breast implant specifications on Instagram, while the real estate tycoon and 'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran revealed a whole host of procedures she's had done, including three face lifts, a neck lift and a 'lower eyelid skin pinch.'
Last week, Khloé Kardashian admitted that she used to 'heavily Photoshop' her photos until she looked like a 'cartoon character.'
'There was a time that I was around some people that would make me feel like I needed to,' Ms. Kardashian said on her podcast, 'Khloé in Wonderland.' 'I also think it was the era, too. I felt like a lot of people were Photoshopping or heavily Photoshopping more than they do now. I do feel like there was a time that we all just got consumed in this filter lifestyle and we couldn't see ourselves without a filter.'
The beauty standards themselves are inauthentic — that is, unnatural and impossible to attain without surgical or technological intervention — but the open discussion around how to achieve them has been praised as a form of authenticity by fans, many of whom felt they had previously been gaslit by celebrities claiming their perfect forms were the result of diet and exercise.
According to Dr. Kelly Killeen, a plastic surgeon based in Beverly Hills, Calif., the open discussion of plastic surgery has resulted in an uptick in patients asking for the exact same procedures their favorite celebrities have gotten.
'I'm seeing so many patients coming in with, like, a Burger King order,' Dr. Killeen said in an interview. 'They're like, 'I want the Kylie Jenner.''
The plastic surgery admissions, oddly enough, have come from stars who have seemingly built their careers on omissions and obfuscations.
Between lavish birthday parties, multimillion-dollar mansions and unattainable bodies, there has been nothing less relatable and authentic in recent years than celebrities like the Kardashians. This is not the first time people have sought escapism in being a voyeur of luxurious lifestyles — think Paris Hilton in the early aughts, as Wall Street crashed — and as economic anxiety rises yet again, Dr. Killeen said the trend offers a chance to change the discussion around the celebrities.
'The Kardashians love to rage against the machine they created,' she said.
In this case it seems to be working, possibly because the act of being open about their plastic surgeries and proclivities for Photoshop appeals to Gen Z — a generation that values, according to a 2023 report from the consulting firm EY, 'being authentic and true to oneself' more than anything else.
'More than 90 percent rated authenticity as very or extremely important,' the report said. 'This is driving a backlash against 'perfectionism,' or trying to conform to be like, look like and sound like the idealized versions of oneself shared through filtered selfies and retouched photos. Gen Z, instead, is increasingly embracing their authentic, unedited view of themselves and the world around them — and expecting others to respect them for the same.'
'We've left the Instagram era of perfectly crafted and edited photos into the era of TikTok, where people just pick their phone up and look the way they look and act the way they act, and share their experiences,' Dr. Killeen said. 'And I think especially Gen Z has transitioned into this era of, 'I'm not trying to be perfect. I'm just being myself.''
There is, however, some nuance to Gen Z's approach to authenticity. Despite an expressed desire to be true to themselves, members of the generation have said they care less and less about authenticity from influencers — perhaps because the efforts to appear relatable have fallen flat. Naming the aesthetic helpers, whether the celebrity in question is using plastic surgery or semaglutide drugs, may also demystify them, and make the celebrity's quest for perfection less interesting and, in turn, less relevant.
But for now, the trend seems to have hit the pause button on celebrities pretending they 'woke up like this.'
'I think that young women understanding that these things aren't achievable without surgery is really important,' Dr. Killeen said. 'I hope that we don't go so far as young women starting to think you need these things, which is always a fear, but at least now people know, and it's not like the J. Lo, 'I look like this because I use olive oil on my skin.''
'I mean, come on,' she added.