Troye Sivan Calls Out Body Shaming After Doctor Offered Advice to ‘Re-Twinkify’ Him

There are many reason I would suck at being famous. One of them is that, every time someone said something about my appearance, I would either descend into an inescapable pit of depression or would receive visits from my local law enforcement for making deeply uncouth comments in return. Troye Sivan, the singer and actor, has spent the lion’s share of his career dealing with this crap.

This week, he made his debut on Substack to discuss his body image issues and call out one such loser offering unsolicited surgical advice. He wrote, ‘I’m 30. I’ve struggled with my body image for a lot of my life, as i’m sure most people have. I’m historically famously skinny, and i’m not THAT skinny anymore. I’m historically famously twinky (I am still the google search result image for ‘twink’), and i’m not THAT twinky anymore. Oy vey.’

He also admitted to considering receiving some cosmetic procedures — the consultation alone was going to cost $3,000?! — and called out one specific TikToker and self-styled ‘aesthetics doctor’ for making a video about the work he ‘needs’. ‘What good is money and modern medicine if not to fix all of these flaws that this random sicko fucko plastic surgeon told me I have in an instagram reel?’

The reel in question came from Dr. Zayn Khalid, a London-based clinician who specialises in hair transplants and fillers. He uses social media to offer unsolicited advice to strangers, including celebrities, on the work he’d make them undergo, complete with before-after photoshopping. This doctor (yikes) said that Sivan was dealing with ‘twink death’ - a.k.a. ageing - and that he would advise him to get a ton of expensive crap done to ‘fix’ it. Again, he did not ask for this, nor did Callum Turner and Joe Alwyn, who he also has videos on. He’s one of many medical professionals online who make content out of this stuff, poring over images of celebrities to either guess what work they’ve had done (largely to shame them) or suggesting procedures they should get (also to shame them.) It’s the darkest effing part of the internet, and that’s saying something.

It’s something we’ve all experienced, sadly. As Sivan noted in his Substack piece:

‘My all-knowing, eternally and deeply evil algorithm saw the opportunity in this moment of vulnerability, and pulled every lever and dialled every knob to 1000. I saw video after video of deep plane face lift recoveries, and ads for unapproved GLP-1 meds that now come in pill form (I weigh 59kg/130lbs at the moment). I hit the ‘not interested’ button a few times, and hoped for the best.’

I certainly relate to that. My Instagram feed, no matter how much I try to fix it, is forever overloaded with videos of injectors, plastic surgeons, veneers specialists, and ads for weight loss drugs. The yoga people I do follow have to deal with endless comments slamming their bodies. Celebrities are doing sponcon for their implants now. It’s inescapable. And it must be an even more insidious nightmare if you’re famous like Sivan and people can make promotional content for their services from your face.

Sivan added a note to his piece saying that he received ‘a really thoughtful and sweet message apologising.’ On his Instagram page, Dr. Zayn shared an apology, but only via Stories, so he can quickly pretend none of this happened once the dust dies down. Fortunately, I saved the image. Note to the world, but if your entire business relies on making people feel worse about themselves, you don’t get to claim that you ‘create content that is honest, educational, and grounded in empathy.’ Again, there are still videos on his account doing the same thing to other celebrities as he did to Sivan.

(Image via Instagram.)

I’m glad Sivan called out this creep. I hate that the new normal is for these people and companies to act like wacky relatable influencers in the name of body-shaming for purposes of profit. We’re stuck in the midst of a crushing beauty crisis where the standards for acceptability have grown ever-more stifling. How is anyone supposed to get out of this in one piece? You should be able to do whatever the hell you want with your body. It’s your meat sack, you enjoy yourself. But making those decisions in a context where you’re endlessly shamed for your weight, face, age, etc, and told you’re morally failing or unemployable for looking like an average person is a minefield. If I was a celebrity and had everyone, from my own team to randos on the internet, telling me I was getting old and haggard and I had to fix it, I’m not sure I’d be able too stand up for myself. Everything is content, including your misery.

As Sivan put it in his piece, ‘It’s us vs species-endingly-insatiable corporate greed, with access to addictive brainwashing technology. Good luck!!!!’ Thanks, Troye. We’ll need it.