Your body is not a trend

Breast implants, lip fillers, nose jobs, Brazilian butt lifts we're a nation obsessed with our looks. But many believe such risky, painful procedures in the name of fashion may be hiding deeper questions about our impossible beauty standards

Skye Doherty was sitting in the chair at her cosmetic surgeon's practice, gritting her teeth through the intensely painful experience of having her lip filler dissolved, and thinking, "This is not who I am. How did I end up here?"

The veterinarian nurse had never been one to follow trends. She bought clothes that suited her, rather than what the It-girls were wearing. She wasn't on Twitter or Instagram and she couldn't tell one Kardashian from the next. That's why she was surprised when, in 2016, she found herself desperately wanting lip-filler, inspired by singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey.

"I just thought she always looked so sultry and sexy," the 31-year-old tells marie claire. "And at the time lips were the thing everyone was getting. I wanted to have juicy lips too." The procedure was painful but, as the saying goes, beauty is pain, and Skye was eager to see the results. Her initial reaction was shock. She hadn't expected them to be so ... big. "They'll go down," the aesthetician assured her. "They're extra swollen now."