Young Women and Botox

Young Women and Botox

At the end of March, Katie Price stated that she would allow her daughter to have plastic surgery when she turned 21. This reignited an ongoing debate surrounding the number of young women undergoing cosmetic procedures.

Aging is the fear of every woman! Anyone that watches television would be afraid of growing old. However, what goes unrecognised is that this fear of aging starts from a very young age. Every woman at some point will feel that the mirror is no longer her friend,but the sad fact is that this is now also occurring for women in their teens.

Due to these fears, large numbers of young women are now pressing to have botox treatment. What makes matters worse is that plastic surgeons are more often than not happy to provide their services. These measures to deter any form of aging are now coined as “preventive Botox”.

However, Dr Michael Fiorillo, a plastic surgeon admits, that no study show that it is preventive. He states that if you were to start at a younger age it will weaken the muscles and it may prevent wrinkles as you age. Although he has not seen anything in writing that shows this.

Reality TV shows arguably desensitise us from the serious nature of cosmetic procedures. This has been seen in a number of shows such as TOWIE’s Botox party, not only this but several cast members of TOWIE, which has an average of more than a million viewers per episode, have contacts with cosmetic clinics to endorse their services on Instagram and Twitter. In fact the show TOWIE is so influential in encouraging young women to get cosmetic surgery that it has been cited 16 times in the United Kingdom’s Department of Health research as an example of how reality TV is swaying teenage attitudes towards non-surgical cosmetic procedures.  

In the United Kingdom the law says that you must be a qualified surgeon to perform invasive surgery such as facelifts and nose jobs etc. However for non-surgical procedures such as botox, laser treatments, fillers and peels, it is a completely different story. The Department of Health’s Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions found that there was no restrictions over who may perform these procedures, no accredited training courses and no legal responsibility for suppliers to produce safe products. This puts everyone at great risk.

Many surgeons state that many young women do not need botox as it is highly unlikely that they overuse their forehead muscles.


It is sad that culture today now accepts cosmetic surgery particularly when starting at such young ages, as it is now become the norm. I feel we need to reevaluate our attitudes and ask ourselves what harm this will do us in the future. Should we really be trying to fight the natural way our bodies progress?


Nina is in her Honours year at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow studying History. She loves keeping fit and healthy at the gym and singing to her hearts content. Because of Nina's love of all things history related, she has a passion for reading, writing and researching. Nina is the Editor-in-Chief for an online magazine for female students at Strathclyde called Her Campus Strath and wants to continue her passion for writing after graduation.