Viral videos about celebrity plastic surgery created by plastic surgeons

When Demi Moore attended the New York premiere of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans in January, she appeared to have reverse-aged, but it wasn't her five-step nighttime skincare routine that caused a stir on TikTok. It was praise for the doctor who might be behind her youthful appearance. “I'm not, but part of me wishes it was,” joked Dr. Anthony Youn (@tonyyounmd), a Detroit-based plastic surgeon who speculated to his 8.4 million TikTok and 1.3 million Instagram followers that Moore has undergone numerous procedures. Another TikToker, Dr. Jonny Betteridge (@drjb.aesthetics), gushed about Moore in another speculative video with 2.8 million views: “Surgery, when done skillfully and artfully, can change a person's appearance and still make them look natural.”

While these doctors didn't know for sure that Moore had gone under the knife, they joined a chorus of people who have scrutinized the actress throughout her 40-year career. The only difference is that this time, the attention didn't come from a tabloid your mom might pick up in line at the grocery store. The rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels has brought the discussion of plastic surgery to the social media stage. And the people speculating about it are often some of the best qualified to offer their opinions: the Botox injectors and scalpel-wielding surgeons themselves.

Take Betteridge, a UK-based doctor who opened a clinic specializing in non-surgical treatments like fillers in 2022. In January, he posted a video speculating that Brad Pitt had undergone surgery. The video went viral, garnering more than 14 million views on Instagram. Since then, he has posted content speculating on how stars like Sarah Jessica Parker, Bradley Cooper and Martha Stewart maintain their good looks.

“My goal is not to be an influencer,” says Betteridge. “When I create content, I make sure it's educational.” But it's his posts about celebrities that get the most clicks. “That's how you reach a wide audience,” he says. He estimates that at least 80 percent of the 3,000 inquiries he's received from potential patients this year have come from his social media.

Coco Chanel may have said that “it's up to you to earn the face you have at 50,” but Hollywood has long known that all it takes is a few grand and a tolerance for needles. Yet information about the best doctors and cutting-edge procedures is passed on mainly through whispers on red carpets and over lunch at the Polo Lounge. “Most of the time, my best work has never been seen,” says Dr. Ben Talei (@drbentalei), a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon whose patients include Sia. Or rather, it has been seen, but not recognized, and certainly not attributed to him.

Social media – which first introduced the masses to face filters and the resulting dysmorphia – has thrust the cosmetics sector into the spotlight. Today, when a public figure shows off a stunning transformation on the red carpet, an army of cosmetics experts with social media consultants and marketing teams are on hand to evaluate the work.

The doctors who are spilling the secrets of celebrity plastic surgery on TikTok and Instagram say they're not doing it to be salacious (that wouldn't be very good for business, after all), but to raise awareness about the possibilities – and limitations – of cosmetic procedures. “People are desperate for honest information that isn't tied to bias,” says Beverly Hills-based Dr. Daniel Barrett (@drdanielbarrett), who has 2.4 million followers on TikTok. “The more transparent we are about what these procedures actually are and what it looks like to have plastic surgery, the more positive that is.”

Many also feel a responsibility to explain to their followers that most A-listers don't just wake up in the morning looking red carpet ready. “It's hard to find a celebrity these days who hasn't done something,” says Betteridge. Youn adds, “They're not just smearing olive oil on their skin to make them look 30 when they're only in their mid-50s.”

The most successful videos about cosmetic procedures are often a mix of entertainment and education, with a dash of celebrity intrigue thrown in. Molly Bailey, a St. Louis-based injectable specialist with 10,800 followers on her TikTok account @BaileysBotox and 74,000 on her Instagram account, recently used photos of Anne Hathaway to explain how to make Botox look natural. “I suspect that Anne has experimented with Botox despite her glassy skin and lack of expression lines, but she does it in a way that is almost invisible, and as an injectable specialist, I personally think that is the best method,” she says in the post before launching into a tutorial on balancing the dosage of Botox to reduce wrinkles without restricting facial movement.

Bailey says a 30-second post can require hours of research, including trawling through photos of public figures to analyze how their faces have changed over time. And not all of her videos advocate for surgical procedures. In one post, she examines photos of Margot Robbie over the years to show how people naturally lose facial fat as they age.

She admits that her videos can be polarizing. “I probably get more negative comments than positive ones when I post these videos,” she says. “It's misconstrued that I'm attacking them.”

When stars talk about the work they have done – like Megan Fox, who said Call her daddy that she had a nose and breast job early in her career but swore she had “never had a facelift of any kind” – the reaction is often a mixture of praise and criticism. Few celebrities like to be scrutinized, like Kylie Jenner’s recent breakdown on The Kardashians — where she cried about the “nasty things” people have said about her full lips, full breasts and other possible augmentations — became clear. Bailey once received a direct message from an early 2000s reality star who asked her to delete a post. She agreed, although she was not obligated to do so. “I don't want to be mean or make anyone feel like they're being spoken to,” she says.

But there is a general consensus among doctors and needle donors active on social media that public figures should be more open about the treatments they receive. “I can empathize with celebrities who try to keep their treatments secret,” says Barrett, who has posted less prominent videos in recent months. “At the same time, I feel like they owe it to themselves to be a little more honest about things they may have had done.” (Representatives for the stars mentioned in this article did not comment or respond to a request for comment.)

Still, being a TikToker who gets plastic surgery can sometimes get awkward in real life. After Barrett posted a video in 2020 implying that Hailey Bieber had plastic surgery, E! News reported that a lawyer for the model-turned-beauty entrepreneur sent Barrett a cease-and-desist letter accusing him of “blatant and deliberate violation” of Bieber's rights. Not a problem—until Barrett spotted Bieber at his local farmers' market. “She could have walked up to me and slapped me if she wanted to,” he says, laughing. “I wasn't wearing scrubs or anything, so she probably didn't recognize me. At least I hope not.”

A version of this story first appeared in the August 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.