Let's talk about her new face

Yahoo

4 hours ago

When Kris Jenner debuted her dramatically refreshed face on Instagram in May, the internet predictably erupted. Commenters praised the 69-year-old matriarch's sculpted jawline, lifted cheeks and youthful complexion — so youthful, in fact, that several outlets said she looked exactly like her daughter Kim Kardashian. Within days, photos of Jenner's new look had gone viral, the subject of countless articles, speculating about which procedures she underwent and which doctor she saw to achieve her 'new face.'
Jenner isn't alone. Anne Hathaway created a similar wave of speculation after she stepped out at the Met Gala in May, and Lindsay Lohan's noticeable glow-up in the 2024 holiday Netflix movie Our Little Secret has been such a hot topic of conversation for the past six months that her publicist publicly called for an end to the speculation in a recent cover story for Elle magazine.
Still, the discourse marches on, driven in part by influencer plastic surgeons who have built massive online followings dissecting the possible procedures behind these so-called new faces.
This fascination isn't entirely new. But he tone and depth of these conversations have transformed, largely due to social media's accessibility. In the past, tabloids controlled the narrative about celebrity cosmetic procedures. Now plastic surgeons themselves are openly sharing their expert opinions online, creating a new era of transparency — whether celebrities welcome it or not.
Dr. Daniel Barrett, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon with over one million Instagram followers and another 2.6 million on TikTok, has a simple theory for why these videos perform so well: human curiosity.
'People love to know what other people did,' Barrett told Yahoo Entertainment. He is among several plastic surgeons who regularly post videos speculating on celebrities' appearances that attract tens of millions of views, with fans frequently commenting on stars' looks and speculating on potential cosmetic work. It's not work that Barrett, who calls himself the 'natural plastic surgeon' in his social media bios, necessarily enjoys: 'It's gossipy. I feel like a gossip magazine,' he admitted. 'But people eat it up.'
Another prominent voice is Dr. Jonny Betteridge, a nonsurgical aesthetics doctor in London, who has posted content on his social media platforms about celebrities' changing aesthetics ranging from Anne Hathaway and Taylor Swift to Brad Pitt and Rob Lowe. Betteridge said the significant impact these videos have on his business makes posting them a 'no-brainer.'
'I've grown my following from I think 7,000 to over 500,000 [across Instagram and TikTok] in the space of about three years,' Betteridge told Yahoo, 'and a lot of it has come down to celebrity content.'
For example, the four posts he made about Kris Jenner garnered 50 million views across both platforms in just one week.
His 2024 video analyzing Brad Pitt's appearance attracted more than 15 million views. 'My business would not be where it is today without these videos,' he said.
While there's no doubt the videos are powerful marketing tools, both Barrett and Betteridge say their motivations for making this type of content extend beyond business growth. They also post them to demystify beauty standards and set realistic expectations for the general public.
'Celebrities often set the standards for the industry, and many people look up to these individuals who think that they've achieved this new look or this transformation naturally,' Betteridge said. 'But there's so much that goes into it. It's very curated. They've got professional help, both from aesthetic doctors and surgeons.'
One significant challenge, according to Betteridge, is that today's cosmetic procedures are so advanced, they are nearly impossible for the untrained eye to detect. And it gets even harder when celebrities claim that their transformations are simply due to chia seeds.
'Lindsay Lohan coming out and saying it's just skin care and a healthy lifestyle, that for me just fosters harmful beauty ideals," said Betteridge.
Dr. Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon in Michigan with more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram and 8.5 million on TikTok, agreed. 'I get irritated when celebrities who have obviously had a bunch of work done say, 'Oh, it's just olive oil,' he told Yahoo. It's disingenuous and unfair for women to have to live up to a certain beauty standard that is unrealistic without having the resources of multimillionaire celebrities.'
Despite his frustrations, Youn, who has covered celebrity procedures since the 2010s, appreciates what he says is a noticeable shift in how people talk about celebrity cosmetic surgery.
'It used to be about botched celebrities, not celebrities who look incredible,' he said. 'This is one of the first times I remember where the stories are basically very positive about how amazing certain celebrities look, with the acknowledgement that they must have had actual plastic surgery.' Youn says his patients frequently ask him about celebrities' faces and use photos of them as inspiration.
As Youn's online reach has grown and he has become more well known in the industry, he's stopped posting as much celebrity-related content. But in 2022, he produced a TikTok series called 'Real or Sus,' in which he openly debated the kinds of procedures celebrities had done and said the comments were all very positive. 'It was a 'I want what she's having' type of situation.'
Tally Singer, a personal assistant in North Carolina, tuned in to Youn's TikToks. Like many of his followers, she was intrigued and impressed by the transformations of familiar celebrities like Lohan and Jenner. "I'm just fascinated by people's evolution,' Singer told Yahoo. 'And I'm happy when they look good. Good for them.'
She also values the open dialogue around cosmetic procedures fostered by influencer surgeons. "All of these people on Instagram and TikTok doctors, they make it so it's not so secretive and scandalous. It's open and you can be proud of it,' she said. 'It destigmatizes it.'
But the broader acceptance of celebrity cosmetic work doesn't necessarily erase the anxiety and societal forces that also appear to underpin interest in what happens behind the scenes. If anything, the collective obsession with these procedures and their outcomes speaks volumes about our fears of aging, our complicated relationship with self-image and the relentless cultural pressures that shape both.
'The public jury and scrutiny of these women's appearances. … It's hard. I love to see it,' Singer said. 'But the bottom line is that it just breeds insecurity.'