To be upset that young women feel they have to mutilate themselves like this

Yes, it sucks.

However, to add my take, botox injections hurt and its uncomfortable not to be able to look down for four hours after. Fillers, more me anyway bruise for up to a week so if I didn't need to, I probably wouldn't bother.

A good practitioner should also be assessing 'need', and general er, blendability as at the end of the day we all just want to look nice. My lady is very good and won't overfill anything. I have my lips done at the hospital, they won't touch anywhere else as they say that its 'cosmetic'.

For every good practitioner out there, there are bad ones who will inject filler meant for men's jaws into young women who just want a little bit of a lift. That's not helping anyone really.

Also - social media is a scourge upon the earth for making people feel less than or inadequate. I can see why there is a drive toward 'skincare' and filler.

I know a 19yo who gets Botox for her apparent wrinkles.

I absolutely hate it, it makes me so sad.
So many say they regret it later on.

Whenever I watch old movies or videos of people, I am always shocked how beautiful they are - then I realised it’s because they’re real and don’t all look similar.

I love natural teeth. I have never seen turkey teeth that look attractive - it looks like someone has drawn them on. Teeth aren’t meant to be perfectly straight and white like that.
Give me a man with longer canines or a girl with a gap in her front teeth.

Even something like the series friends for example - they had real teeth, real hair, real boobs, real lips etc and they look amazing for it.

I am not against people getting things done but it’s sad that everyone wants to look identical to everyone else.

It used to be that you do something on one particular area but now it’s multiple things even if you don’t need it done and it’s now almost seen as just something that everyone does from the age of 16.

I remember scrubbing away at my face with Clearasil and St Ives Apricot Scrub in the 90s for years, before I bought an expensive moisturiser from Lush which got rid of all my spots. So I guess at least they aren't using the equivalent of paint stripper like we all were!

However I can't relate at all to doing anything to my face and I'm in my 40s. Who am I supposed to be impressing with a lineless forehead and big lips?

Gosh yes, hear you on the mean girls. I remember some awful school loo graffiti... but I could get away from it at home, I wasn't carrying around a device capable of showing me how inferior I was 24h per day. It was just the actual real life mean girls- not the make believe shit girls today have to put up with.

( maybe my love of barrel legs is a conscious rejection of actually caring to wear something that flatters my figure? )

Only because their stupid mothers (and it will be the mothers) let them.

No teen (or woman in her 20s) needs anything more than sunscreen (other than those who may have bad acne and need something to counter it, otherwise concealer does the job).

What I do think is needed is much tighter regulation of these industries to ensure they are as safe as possible

I had to stop watching The Apprentice for this reason. Identikit young women with huge lips and shiny foreheads.

I long for the individuality of Ruth Badger.

Fair enough. But do the maths on the historical fashion allusions on my post and you'll see I too was growing up way before the internet and social media. Not that the mean girls weren't bad enough on the subject of one's appearance and clothes-- because non-digital mean girls have been with us since time immemorial.
(I will only wear barrel jeans when my legs actually look like barrels.)

I'm sorry to hear that 💜

Nothing like today.

There didn't use to be filters. Cosmetic surgery was something for burns / trauma victims. No one took a photo of me in a club or a pub. People didn't scroll these images for hours on end, swiping left or right. I really dont think its the same but I might be significantly older than you.

( I love barrel jeans 😊 )

Excellent point.

I remember when I was younger (teens/20’s) commenting on hard it was for celebrities etc always having to be en pointe because of the paparazzi and how draining it must be not being able to just pop out on their sloths.

But you are 100% right that SM has created this environment for so much more people in society and driven some to become uptight about their appearance.

Sometimes I worry. A lot of people in my life think I should just accept how I am.

I completely agree.

I agree with you OP, I have no judgement at all to make about older women who choose these procedures - although I won’t be joining them - but I find it both worrying and sad when very young women do it. They are damaging themselves and risking their health. There has been a trend in the past decade towards a level of patriarchal pressure on young girls that I’d hoped not to see again. They don’t feel like they are enough, and some of them feel that their primary function is to be attractive to men and submissive to male preferences. It’s starting earlier and earlier - primary school girls with skincare fridges in their bedrooms - and I find it incredibly depressing.

You cant (and never have AFAIK) been able to get your boobs done in the high street?
Tweakments , fillers etc are available in beautician and dentists, its a lot more easily obtainable than a boob job.

It’s only hard if you think ‘youth’ is the only bit of your life that counts.

It’s not something I would ever do but I also find it hard to judge people if that makes them more confident. I had my ears pinned back at 11 which was a massive boost to me - yes it it may have been cosmetic but they were starting to have a negative impact on me.

If someone having some Botox works for them then fair enough. I’m embracing the wrinkles but I’m also lucky to not have many yet!

It can be incredibly hard to watch your youth fade away and so tempting to get little tweaks here and there to try and put it off a little. Eventually though, you do have to come to terms with ageing. You most certainly can't fight the tide.

Of course you do. Why wouldn't you?

It’s not really any of your business what they choose to do.

Actually we all grew up under pressures (although maybe not involving such extreme body modification) to look a certain way, whatever our ages. I am still proud of myself for not succumbing to the dread hot pants and the even dreader feather cut in 1971. And for giving the evil eye to barrel legged jeans in 2026.

Absolutely this.

You are not being unreasonable for preferring decoupage to knitting.

I blame Instagram.

So happy I grew up before all this pressure to look a certain way- a way that doesn't even really exist in real life.

I agree OP, it's sad. I worry for my daughter growing up in this climate.