Why the #KylieJennerChallenge and plastic surgery rumours need to stop
It’s come to this: in the wake of teens trying to blow up their lips to emulate Kylie Jenner, the 17-year-old has had to step in and ask that they stop.
“I’m not here to try & encourage people/young girls to look like me or to think this is the way they should look,” Jenner tweeted on Tuesday. “I want to encourage people/young girls like me to be YOURSELF & not be afraid to experiment w your look. [Emoji hearts]”
So, in other words: she would like you to stop taking the #KylieJennerChallenge and quit sticking your lips into shot glasses (and then sucking all the air out) because it’s dangerous. Which makes sense. Our obsession with Kylie Jenner’s face, however, does not.
Let’s be real: since she started sharing the stage with her older sisters, Kylie’s face (nay, lips) have undergone a transformation. And because of that transformation, Jenner’s been accused of undergoing plastic surgery, and she’s had to defend herself, on top of asking human adults to stop talking about her lips. This is especially weird, since more than a few makeup artists have stepped up to explain how you can achieve fuller lips via liner and technique, which means there’s no reason to preoccupy ourselves with Kylie’s lips in any way. And there’s especially no reason anybody should be hurting themselves when a few beauty products can achieve the same look (minus the bruising and pain — so, like, bonus).
So what’s the deal? Granted, we’ve all practiced questionable beauty techniques as kids (see: straightening my hair with an actual iron and buying bad box dyes), and we’ve all aspired to look like somebody else. But unlike the aforementioned, the Kylie Jenner Challenge is actually dangerous. Not only can the glass break under the pressure (shattering, and sending pieces of glass into your face), dermatologists have also warned against permanent disfigurement and scarring.
When you’re young, you do stupid things. And the last thing you tend to consider are the long term effects of most things. Which is also why it’s up to adults to step up and send a different message about Jenner than the one they have been.
Kylie Jenner’s aesthetic transformation should be a lesson in respecting somebody’s choices as opposed to romanticizing or criticizing them. As adults who are in no way associated with this 17-year-old girl, it’s none of our business what she does to her face, how she does it, or why. To crucify her for surgery she’s denied having is as invasive as publicly scrutinizing the sexual behaviours of teen pop stars (like we did to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera once upon a time — and we all saw how that turned out). And to shame her for wanting to change her look is to penalize her for trying to figure out who she is, at a time when she’s supposed to be figuring out who she is. Because, hello: how many of us look and act and dress the same as we did when we were 17? (RIP Modrobes.)
The Challenge is upsetting, of course. But Jenner hit it on the head when she tweeted about the importance of being one’s self as opposed to aspiring to someone else. At no point during Kylie’s time in the limelight have we simply accepted her face. Instead, we forget how difficult it is to be a teen, and we zero in on what we can criticize. We don’t commend her for her makeup skills (which are on point), or her experimentation with hair colour; we focus on the work she’s (maybe) had done, and why it’s bad.
That’s why the Kylie Jenner Challenge is less about her actual lips and more about the impossible standards we hold young women (especially celebs) to. Would teens participate in the Challenge if we shut up and commended Kylie for successfully navigating an industry that’s nearly impossible to wade through? Would they be so obsessed if we acknowledged that Kylie looks different now, but that’s fine, because she’s a thinking person with her own sense of self? If we championed the makeup technique as opposed to making fun of it? Probably not.
Ultimately, Kylie Jenner’s lips are none of our business because they do not belong to us. And to police her face or her choices not just sends the message that “If you look this way, we will talk about you.” It tells women that we’ll hold them to impossible beauty standards from which they dare not stray.
 on Dec 16, 2014 at 1:06pm PST
It’s come to this: in the wake of teens trying to blow up their lips to emulate Kylie Jenner, the 17-year-old has had to step in and ask that they stop.
“I’m not here to try & encourage people/young girls to look like me or to think this is the way they should look,” Jenner tweeted on Tuesday. “I want to encourage people/young girls like me to be YOURSELF & not be afraid to experiment w your look. [Emoji hearts]”
So, in other words: she would like you to stop taking the #KylieJennerChallenge and quit sticking your lips into shot glasses (and then sucking all the air out) because it’s dangerous. Which makes sense. Our obsession with Kylie Jenner’s face, however, does not.
Let’s be real: since she started sharing the stage with her older sisters, Kylie’s face (nay, lips) have undergone a transformation. And because of that transformation, Jenner’s been accused of undergoing plastic surgery, and she's had to defend herself, on top of asking human adults to stop talking about her lips. This is especially weird, since more than a few makeup artists have stepped up to explain how you can achieve fuller lips via liner and technique, which means there’s no reason to preoccupy ourselves with Kylie’s lips in any way. And there’s especially no reason anybody should be hurting themselves when a few beauty products can achieve the same look (minus the bruising and pain -- so, like, bonus).
So what’s the deal? Granted, we’ve all practiced questionable beauty techniques as kids (see: straightening my hair with an actual iron and buying bad box dyes), and we’ve all aspired to look like somebody else. But unlike the aforementioned, the Kylie Jenner Challenge is actually dangerous. Not only can the glass break under the pressure (shattering, and sending pieces of glass into your face), dermatologists have also warned against permanent disfigurement and scarring.
When you’re young, you do stupid things. And the last thing you tend to consider are the long term effects of most things. Which is also why it’s up to adults to step up and send a different message about Jenner than the one they have been.
Kylie Jenner’s aesthetic transformation should be a lesson in respecting somebody’s choices as opposed to romanticizing or criticizing them. As adults who are in no way associated with this 17-year-old girl, it’s none of our business what she does to her face, how she does it, or why. To crucify her for surgery she’s denied having is as invasive as publicly scrutinizing the sexual behaviours of teen pop stars (like we did to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera once upon a time -- and we all saw how that turned out). And to shame her for wanting to change her look is to penalize her for trying to figure out who she is, at a time when she’s supposed to be figuring out who she is. Because, hello: how many of us look and act and dress the same as we did when we were 17? (RIP Modrobes.)
The Challenge is upsetting, of course. But Jenner hit it on the head when she tweeted about the importance of being one’s self as opposed to aspiring to someone else. At no point during Kylie’s time in the limelight have we simply accepted her face. Instead, we forget how difficult it is to be a teen, and we zero in on what we can criticize. We don’t commend her for her makeup skills (which are on point), or her experimentation with hair colour; we focus on the work she’s (maybe) had done, and why it’s bad.
That’s why the Kylie Jenner Challenge is less about her actual lips and more about the impossible standards we hold young women (especially celebs) to. Would teens participate in the Challenge if we shut up and commended Kylie for successfully navigating an industry that’s nearly impossible to wade through? Would they be so obsessed if we acknowledged that Kylie looks different now, but that’s fine, because she’s a thinking person with her own sense of self? If we championed the makeup technique as opposed to making fun of it? Probably not.
Ultimately, Kylie Jenner’s lips are none of our business because they do not belong to us. And to police her face or her choices not just sends the message that “If you look this way, we will talk about you.” It tells women that we’ll hold them to impossible beauty standards from which they dare not stray.){kind=link}