Instagram Made Me Think I Needed A BBL––Now I'm Back To Reality

I love to get in a workout almost every day. It’s been a part of my life since the ‘80s when Jane Fonda flashed her leg warmers with her collection of workout videos. Back in those days, you saw women who looked lean with literally no junk in their trunk.

Now, when I scroll through Pinterest or Instagram to get workout inspiration, I’ve noticed something that I never saw a few short years ago: There are lots of tips on how to grow your butt and get rid of hip dips because apparently those are so last decade.

Now, I have hip dips, I always have and probably always will. My cheeks don’t resemble a peach, and are a lot closer to two pancakes.

I am a confident woman (most of the time) and have never hated my butt or thought anything was wrong with it. Also, I kind of liked my hip dips.

I can’t lie to you, though: Looking at so many of these posts on how to gain a butt, seeing pictures of women with perky, full booties, and all the talk about having a firm bubble butt has gotten in my head a bit. I started to look at my ass more than I ever have and wondered what I could do to give my sugar cookies a lift.

Those popular leggings on Amazon which give you the appearance of having a Brazilian butt sell like Starbucks lattes for a reason (yes, I have several pairs): we all want that Big Butt.

It’s funny how social media can fuck you up like that. I mean, I’ve never said to myself that I want a bigger bum, but suddenly since it’s all the rage and I keep seeing images of tiny waists with a voluptuous booty, I feel like the butt I was born with isn’t good enough.

I am not built to have an ass which resembles the “peach” emoji. Period. But somehow that didn’t stop me from looking at before and afters of Brazilian Butt Lifts online.

There’s something you should know about the fastest growing surgery in the world, though (numbers of this surgery have spiked by over 77% since 2015) and it’s not something anyone should overlook: Getting a BBL is the riskiest cosmetic surgery you can get. In fact, one out of every 3,000 people who go under the knife to lift their bum end up dying.

It sounds appealing — a BBL is performed by taking the fat from various parts of your body and injecting it into your bottom to make it round and full. However, USA Today reports, “From 2013 to 2018, just one Florida clinic had at least eight patients die.”

Arthur W. Perry, MD, FACS, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York and New Jersey, who refuses to perform the surgery despite getting many requests for it, thinks the procedure should be banned. He tells USA Today, “The high BBL death rate among properly trained surgeons is startling — these are the cream of the crop doctors who spend six years in residency and pass certifying exams. When rogue doctors perform BBLs, I shudder to think about what their real death rates are because they are not reported anywhere. Worse, lay practitioners who inject silicone caulk from hardware stores are killing unsuspecting women in garages and hotel rooms.”

Plastic surgeon Patrick Hsu explains that grafted fat procedures are so risky because “Hitting a blood vessel can cause massive fat emboli (which is when the fat enters the bloodstream), which can be fatal.”

There are other side effects to be aware of, too. You can scar badly and get a serious infection which can include skin loss. You may get lumps under your skin, and some have had to get the surgery for a second or third time as there is a chance the injected fat won’t take properly.

If you ask me, these are all pretty big gambles. Not to mention, the average BBL cost is around $5,000.

There’s no shame in wanting to improve a part of our body, or work on our fitness. And big butts may be beautiful, but so are small butts, flat butts, and everything in between.

It can be tempting to think if you can just throw down some money, someone will give you your dream body by sucking fat out of unwanted areas and plumping up others. Clearly that’s not always the case when it comes to a BBL, and it’s important to know the side effects while undergoing something like this.

Also, if social media and television is making you feel bad about yourself, or changing your perception about your body (especially about parts you used to be fine with), it’s a sign to put down your phone and fill your mind with something positive.

Believe me, your ass is mighty fine just the way it is.