Many people who seek a cosmetic surgery procedure ask for the most-envied features of today’s most famous celebrities. From Angelina Jolie’s signature pout to Beyoncé’s radiant glow, it’s certainly not uncommon for someone to want to look like his or her favorite modern-day stars.
But the fact that one woman recently spent $30,000 on plastic surgery procedures to look just like 90s Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson might have you thinking it’s 1995, not 2015.
According to In Touch Weekly, 28-year-old Carolyn Anderson, a native of Liverpool, England, said she has dedicated two decades to transforming her look through various procedures, inspired by her dad pointing out her resemblance to Anderson when she was just 10.
Anderson — who isn’t related to her idol, despite their shared last name — has had eight breast augmentations, wears blue contacts, bleaches her hair a platinum-blonde shade and routinely gets Botox injections to achieve Pam’s pouty-lipped look, according to Complex.
And unlike that one British man who spent $150,000 on cosmetic surgery to look like Kim Kardashian, it’s safe to say that Carolyn Anderson’s efforts to look like Pam Anderson were largely successful.
It’s not just celebrity culture that is exerting its influence on people’s decisions to go under the knife — popular photo-sharing app Instagram is also leading more people into the cosmetic surgeon’s office.
According to research from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, there has been a 33% rise in the number of cosmetic procedures influenced by one’s social-media awareness since 2013. This trend has largely been spurred on by the rise of the “selfie,” a photo one takes of one’s self with the intent of posting it to social media.
With Instagram and other photo-editing apps, an individual can alter and improve his or her selfies by applying one of the app’s photo filters to them — and more people want to look as good as they do in their Instagram photos all the time.
As a result, more and more cosmetic surgeons around the world are receiving requests for social-media makeovers that replicate a real-life photo filter on one’s appearance.
“Clients are not trying to look like a whole different person anymore,” Dr. Andrew Miller, an Edison, N.J.-based plastic surgeon, told PJ Media. “We always stress taking what you have naturally and making it better. Otherwise, people can look really weird, with lips that are too big, a jawline that’s unreal.”