A 16-year-old girl known as “China’s youngest plastic surgery addict” claims to have undergone no less than 100 invasive cosmetic procedures over 3 years, in a bid to improve her looks.
Zhou Chuna, a young Chinese influencer with over 300,000 followers on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, has built her online career on plastic surgery, documenting her extreme transformation from a normal-looking girl to a doll-like idol over a period of three years. She’s not the only girl to have turned to cosmetic enhancements at a very young age, but Zhou Chuna’s case is considered unique because of the sheer number of procedures she has had done (around 100) in a relatively short period of time (3 years). Despite claiming to have experienced severe side-effects due to her addiction to plastic surgery, like memory loss and permanent scarring, the 16-year-old says it’s all worth it.
Zhou always tells her online followers that she used to be very ugly before she discovered plastic surgery. She described her eyes as too small, and her nose as too big, and reminisced about how her colleagues made fun of her because of her appearance. They gave her humiliating nicknames, made cruel jokes, and always gave her the hardest tasks on class cleanup duty, while the pretty girls always had it easy. She quickly realized that her life would not get better unless her looks improved.
At age 13, Zhou Chuna started pestering her parents to pay for a double eyelid surgery, a popular surgical procedure among Asian women, and despite early resistance, she got them to finance her dream. People tried to discourage her, saying that the plastic surgery would make her look too old for her age, but she only noticed an improvement in how people treated her.
“Everyone’s attitude towards me became more friendly after the double eyelid surgery, and I tasted the sweet fruits of plastic surgery,” the young girl told her followers, adding that it wasn’t long before she went under the knife for the second time, then the third, and so on.
Over the last 3 years, Zhou Chuna allegedly underwent around 100 different cosmetic procedures, from simple fillers, to ear cartilage rhinoplasty, “Barbie eye surgery”, breast implants, and liposuction. She slowed down the rate at which she went under the knife when the pandemic hit China, but she still had 20 procedures in the last year alone, and she’s not planning on stopping anytime soon.
The girl claims to have spent a small fortune on her plastic surgery addiction, 4 million yuan ($620,000), most of which came from her parents, who own a profitable company. What kind of parents would support this sort of behavior, you may ask, but Zhou claims that she never gave her family much choice. She threatened them that she would quit school and still find a way to pay for her surgeries, if they refused to support her. This way, at least they know she gets operated on by professional doctors, at certified clinics.
“I will never be satisfied with my appearance,” the 16-year-old said. “I always think I will look better after the next plastic surgery I get. Someone once asked me if I have any regrets about my plastic surgeries, but the only regret I have is not having started them sooner.”
Despite her seemingly unrepentant attitude, Zhou Chuna says that her transformation has come at a cost. Liposuction has caused skin on parts of her body to become saggy, the high number of incisions has caused scarring, some of which will never heal, and most worrying of, the frequent anesthesia has caused memory loss. It’s hard to prove that it was the anesthesia that caused her memory to degrade, but she certainly believes so. Still, these problems are not enough to make her quit her habit.
“It’s impossible for me to not get plastic surgery,” China’s youngest plastic surgery addict said. “I’m ok if I don’t eat or drink water, but I can’t live without plastic surgery. No, I like plastic surgery and I don’t mind anesthetics. When I wake up, I know that I will more beautiful in just seven days.”
“I am never afraid of pain, I am afraid of ugliness,” Zhou concluded.
