Written by Staff Writer Caroline Ponticelli

Why do celebrities feel the need to lie about body augmentation? Regardless of your personal opinion on plastic surgery, most of us can agree that lying can be harmful. Lying about getting cosmetic work creates unrealistic body images and promotes  negative mindsets, and can create dangerous trends. Most influencers can’t even achieve many of their beauty standards naturally, so how does a 12 year old little girl know that she can’t either? 

Kylie Jenner is a prime example of this pattern. In 2015, then 18 year old Jenner got her first dose of lip filler. She then falsely claimed that her new lips came from the lipsticks she makes and sells under her makeup brand, Kylie Cosmetics. Later that year, Jenner released her “Kylie lip kits.” Each one contained a liquid lipstick and lip liner with the corresponding color. 

Following this release, the Kylie Jenner lip challenge instantly took off and created an online phenomena. Teens would stick their lips in a small glass, such as a shot glass, to give themselves the famous Kylie pout. The problem with this trend is how dangerous it was. Some of the glasses broke while still attached to the person’s lips, causing deep cuts, serious bruising, and much more. Jenner later admitted to having gotten work done but that didn’t stop the craze—in fact it only fueled it.  

Jenner went one to become one the youngest millionaires ever, with a whooping net worth of $700 million, partly due to her ownership of her company, Kylie Cosmetics. Of course fans know that her lip kits aren’t going to give you lips like hers, but the craze of the possibility caused a lot of teens harm. 

I was nine in 2015, and I tried the Kylie Jenner lip challenge. This shows how people, especially kids, are easily influenced by trends that can be very dangerous. 

What people don’t realize is how detrimental online influencers and their beauty standards can be to teens. One concrete impact of this is the prevalence of eating disorders among teens. Eating disorders are a lot more common than expected, affecting 9% of people world wide; 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder once in their lifetime. A common trigger of eating disorders is a feeling of responsibility to look a certain way. 

If celebrities came clean about their cosmetic work, teens wouldn’t feel so bad about themselves. While it won’t solve the problem entirely, it would definitely give some comfort and perspective to people dealing with impossible beauty standards. It’s best to just tell the truth and make sure you’re not the reason some little girl hates her body.