Rising Rates of Plastic Surgery: The Complexity Behind Appearance Alterations
Emily Cobb | October 28, 2025
When scrolling through social media, it’s hard to escape the plague of the “iPhone face” and carefully curated appearances. One cannot avoid trudging through the endless posts about the hottest product you NEED to look 10 years younger, or the new plastic surgery you can get to elevate your appearance. Feel good about yourself? Don’t worry, 15 minutes on Instagram Reels will change that!
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), plastic surgery originated in India over 4,000 years ago, with procedures like skin grafts and nasal reconstruction. Its modern name, coined by Edward Zeis, emerged in 1838, stemming from the Greek adjective Plastikós, meaning moldable. In the early 1900s, plastic surgery focused on reconstruction services spurred by military injuries. With the industrial revolution and the creation of synthetic plastic, the options provided by plastic surgeons expanded.
What we think of as plastic surgery today began in the late 1900s with surgical advancements in procedures like liposuction, fat grafting and breast augmentation. In the blink of an eye, plastic surgery was covertly being performed on the famous and normal alike. Kylie Jenner popularized the plump lips of the late 2010s, Kim Kardashian popularized having a large butt and many celebrities helped to “normalize” plastic surgery. Now, through social media, influencers can use a false sense of relatability to shape the current global landscape by setting the beauty standards and creating viral beauty trends.
This promotion was felt on a multitude of levels, including by Marren Dougherty, a senior on the Farm Crew, who got a rhinoplasty at just 16.
“I used to get picked on for having a big nose,” Dougherty said. “I think at an early age, I was very aware of my appearance and felt pressure to perform and be beautiful, especially as a young girl in this world.”
She cited YouTube videos as how she discovered rhinoplasty.
I would have probably never considered plastic surgery [without the media],” Dougherty said. “I wouldn't have even thought, ‘Oh, you can change your face.’…This beauty standard of a small, petite, little nose, little face, tiny features definitely influenced me.”
But how much has plastic surgery increased in recent times? Comparing the range of years of 1999-2003 and 2014-2018, the rate of plastic surgery procedures in America more than doubled. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, there was an increase in plastic surgery by 5% and injectables, like Botox, by 7%.
Freshman Isabella Love got a breast augmentation at the end of her senior year of high school, saying it was a surgery she had wanted since she was young.
“At first, it was definitely, ‘I need to look like everyone else, and I feel like I need to get this,’” Love said. “But later on, closer to getting the surgery, I was like, ‘I want this for myself. I just want to be confident in myself,’ and that didn't really have to do with anyone else.”
Plastic surgery contains more services than one might think, including gender affirming care procedures, such as “top surgery.”
An anonymous nonbinary freshman, who will be referred to as A, recently underwent top surgery to address dysphoria with their chest.
“[The surgery results] make me feel more comfortable,” A said. “There are so many things that I couldn't wear before. I mean, I could, but I didn't.”
A also cited the current political climate as why they got the surgery when they did, citing increasing dysphoria as well.
“I feel like, very soon, [gender affirming care] could be very much a thing that's not gonna be covered at all,” A said. “I could not afford that… [The dysphoria] just got to the point where I had a really hard time looking at myself in a mirror without a binder on or a sports bra. I could recognize that's me, but it's still like I'm aware of how the outer public perceives me.”
Another anonymous student, Anonymous B, who identifies as a transgender male and also had top surgery, spoke on the importance of access to this care. To B, the surgery changed his life.
“[Access] is so important,” B said. “I think for a lot of people, it is a really serious situation, mental health-wise. It's distressing to not have access to that care when you know it's what you need… The biggest thing that I noticed was that my life got so much easier after [surgery] in a way that I didn't anticipate. Not just with my self-perception, I felt like I became a lot more social and happy and active.”
B feels that anyone should do what is best for them if they have truly evaluated it, and for B, gender affirming care is not just for transgender people.
“When we talk about gender affirming care, there's sort of an immediate image or perspective conjured up of someone who's trans that's getting transitional surgery,” B said. “But there are so many things that fall into the umbrella of gender affirming care that not just trans people do…like women who go through menopause and take supplemental estrogen, that's gender affirming care. Guys who take minoxidil and finasteride when they start to go bald, that's gender affirming care…The issues aren't as separate as they seem. So when we talk about legislation that harms trans people, it doesn't just harm trans people, it harms all sorts of people.”
Additionally, although the interviewees expressed overall positive feelings about their decision to undergo surgery, they all pointed out issues in the current culture surrounding the services and trends. They’re not alone, with many online discussions speaking about the ties between conservatism, fatphobia, wealth and overall appearance standards.
“I think it can be seen as very superficial to [use] money to look a certain way,” Dougherty said. “When I think about the aesthetics of dressing yourself, people put money into wearing certain clothing, or making their house look a certain way. It's a showcasing of wealth, but I think [surgery] is such an intense way to do that. Body modification [is] permanent.”
All interviewees had similar sentiments that younger and younger people are getting plastic surgery and discussed how the “body positive” trend has fizzled out in recent years. However, all agreed that the cycle was escapable.
Originally, Love described herself as “hooked” on the plastic surgery trend, wanting a rhinoplasty and hairline-lowering surgery as well. But after the long and painful recovery process, she decided not to. Dougherty also feels their surgery was a one-and-done sort of deal.
“I mean, I think I'm very satisfied with my appearance,” Dougherty said. “I still have these demons, but I'm much more body neutral… I have no idea if I would be satisfied with myself now if I didn't get the surgery…I don't know if I regret it; it's complex. I feel sad for my younger self, and I think I have a lot of gratitude that I could even have that procedure, and I recognize that's a privilege.”
So what’s next in the world of plastic surgery? ASPS predicts a rise in appearance alterations, including breast and buttocks augmentations, rib removals for a thinner waist and facelifts. When this steadily increasing trend dies off is hard to say. For now, the pendulum is swinging towards politically conservative trends like the rise of “skinnytok” and the unavoidable pushing of Ozempic. But who’s to say the late 2010s popularity of body positivity won’t swing back again?