Insight: Sept 27

This week on SBS, Insight asks ‘Why are so many young Australians seeking out cosmetic procedures?’

Increasingly, younger generations are those most willing to pay money to change their appearances – the most popular treatments being anti-wrinkle injections (Botox), fillers, laser, breast augmentations and liposuction.

Demand for dermal fillers, like injectable lip and cheek enhancements, has increased by 25% since 2014, and Australians are now spending over $1 billion on non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

The motivation behind many instances of cosmetic surgery has shifted away from ‘how do I become beautiful again?’ to ‘how do I become more beautiful now?’

Kurt Coleman began getting cosmetic injections at just 18: Botox, lip-fillers, jaw line and chin enhancements. He’s been using fake tans since he was 10. Rita Abdou started her own changes at around 19, with lip fillers and Botox – so far spending $15,000 on the procedures – and hopes to get a breast augmentation in the future. Summer Wilson, at just 17, has had her lips enlarged.

Who is influencing this trend? Is it the “Kardashian Effect”, where the famous sisters have normalised cosmetic enhancements and established a new measure of beauty? Or is it a more insidious pressure from peers, even loved ones, and wider society that is increasingly felt at younger and younger ages?

For some, cosmetic procedures are less clear-cut. Growing numbers of young women are opting for labiaplasty, seemingly to sculpt their bodies according to porn ideals. But for Emma*, the surgery has helped heal emotional wounds too. Gemma Kirby recently travelled to the Philippines to have an abdominoplasty and a breast augmentation – to help remove excess skin after she lost 55kg in 18 months.

But is this a dangerous cultural fad, driven by today’s beauty trends? Clinical psychologist, Sarah McMahon, worries that people beginning procedures so young starts a slippery slope into a normalised lifestyle of augmentation and enhancement.

Guests include:

Kurt Coleman – Instagram personality. “I don’t have all these things to, you know, make myself look better. I just do it because it’s creative to me, it’s like just playing around with what you look like.”

Summer Wilson – Had lip fillers at age 17 with permission from her mother, Lisa. “If other people are getting them done, then why not me? Because it’s going to help me feel better about myself.”

Rita Abdou – Describes herself as “plastic positive” – likes an augmented appearance from cosmetic procedures. “I feel like it’s very empowering to be able to say that yes, this is not 100 per cent me; that I did not wake up like that.”

Emma* – Underwent a labiaplasty. “It made me feel like there was something wrong with me, like I was abnormal, like I shouldn’t look the way I do.”

Sarah McMahon – Clinical psychologist specialising in body image issues. “I do think that we have a responsibility to help young people to feel safe in their own skin.”

*Pseudonym used.

Tuesdays at 8.30pm on SBS.