Botox Babies – The Quest For Eternal Youth Goes Too Far

Sadly, there are an increasing number of young women, and even men, who are succumbing to Botox at a ridiculously early age. Sure, this is something we might expect from the image-obsessed Hollywood scene, but this is happened outside of LA.

Hillary Duff - so-called Botox Baby rumoured to have had the occasional injections
Hillary Duff - so-called 'Botox Baby' rumoured to have had the occasional Botox injections

Sadly, there are an increasing number of young women, and even men, who are succumbing to Botox at a ridiculously early age. Sure, this is something we might expect from the image-obsessed Hollywood scene, but this is happened outside of LA.

In the UK, where Botox can be injected at your hairdressers, the number of women resorting to this muscle paralyzing poison and similar treatments has jumped by 15 percent in a year. And, according to a Mintel report, of the five million people in the US who had Botox last year, nearly 30 percent were under the age of 30.

And we’re not just talking late 20s here. Casting out minds back, the Talent Management team are all reminded of the 19-year-old model who received Botox injections from Manhattan dermatologist Howard Sobel. The teen model, who apparently wanted to stop the natural crinkling of her face when she smiled for photoshoots, may have been a “special case” according to Sobel, but he has since revealed that he likes giving Botox early “before the line is etched”. He told The New York Times: ”They don’t want to look like their mothers. The idea is not to get there.”

At 19, 20, 21, it’s no wonder these kids are known as the disturbingly affectionate term ‘Botox Babies’. Teen Botox is a worrying trend and it doesn’t seem to disappearing any time soon with celebrities continuing to boost needle fever among impressionable youths by setting a bad example.

So-called Botox Babies rumoured to have had the occasional injections include 25-year-old Hollywood bad girl Lindsay Lohan and 24-year-old Hillary Duff. Teenager Charice Pempengco, who plays foreign exchange student Sunshine Corazon in Glee, was also reported as saying she wanted Botox “to look fresh on camera”.

Being one of Europe’s leading modelling agencies, we at Talent Management are all too aware of the many skewed perceptions of beauty and the pressures models are convinced they face to maintain a youthful profile.

But times are changing and we for one are not interested in seeing a face so pumped it can’t move, a cosmetically induced trout pout that can’t enunciate – ahem, Katie Price – or a breast augmentation that leaves us wondering whether the footballs in the backyard have been nicked.

Let’s just hope the ‘Freeze-Face Generation’ doesn’t continue to grow.