Lindsay Lohan and the illusion of "aging backwards"

She looks great, but she also doesn't look like herself.

Lindsay Lohan has become America’s darling once again after a 10-year hiatus from Hollywood. While her latest holiday movie and new life as a mom are buzzy enough to keep her in the headlines, it’s her dramatic facial transformation that has captured everyone’s attention.

Open Instagram or TikTok, and you’ll come across several videos dissecting her appearance. I’ve seen content creators speculating that she got an endoscopic facelift, a lip flip, and fat grafting. Others believe she got full-face Botox, as well as dissolved her filler from the past and re-injected new filler in different areas.

But while everyone is hyper-focused on her incredible metamorphosis, I’m troubled by the lack of perception and spell everyone is under. The images and videos used to showcase Lindsay’s face are all filtered, Photoshopped, and curated to perfection, meaning we aren’t seeing a real representation of what she looks like. And the discrepancy between what’s real and what’s an illusion is shockingly huge.

Take a closer look at a recently un-retouch photo of Lindsay (which I discovered is extremely hard to find), and you’ll see wrinkles etched in the corners of her eyes, you’ll find divots in her jowls, and bunny lines forming between her cheeks and nose.

And I’m not pointing this out to say, “Hey, she doesn’t look as great as you think.” I’m bringing it up because we’ve somehow lost the plot. We’ve forgotten that wrinkles, pores, smile lines, and saggy skin are NORMAL. It’s part of living and being human, and no amount of cosmetic work is going to make it disappear IRL. We’re also inundated with highly curated, edited, and airbrushed content of not just Lindsay, but celebrities and influencers alike that we believe their Instagram selves are their true selves.

When I see commentary about Lindsay, Demi Moore, and Christina Aguilera (both of whom are in the same boat as Lindsay with their new appearances), the conversation is all about how they’ve cracked the code on aging backwards. Yet, their unfiltered photos tell a different story. Heck, I’ve seen many of these celebs in person, noticing that their skin is lumpy, leathery, and sometimes worse off than had they done nothing at all.

And I’m losing my mind because it feels like I’m the only one who sees through the facade. Instead of being in awe over their transformations, I’m concerned. I’m worried that young women and girls are seeing the praise and admiration of these drastic changes, thinking it’s necessary to maintain their value and worth through plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancements. (I just saw a video of a 24-year-old girl talking about her facelift, BBL, veneers, and jaw-shaving procedures.)

And what these young girls and women might not realize is that doing all of this work won’t always lead to great results. For instance, Demi’s face has never been the same since she (allegedly) got cheek implants in 2021. Even now, she mostly poses on her right side, hiding the disfigurement of her protruding left cheek.

It’s also scary to me that Lindsay, Christina, and Demi look almost identical to each other and have lost the characteristics that once made them special. It’s like they all walked into the same plastic surgeon’s office, asked for the same model template, and walked out with the same features, body, hair, and makeup.

Not to mention, the upkeep required to maintain their new appearance is no small feat. One missed laser treatment and their skin may stay rough, bumpy, and textured from their filler and Botox injections. Or worse, all of this continued cosmetic work is stretching and loosening their skin, leading to future complications and disfigurments later on.

And what no one will tell you, but I will is that the more work you get, the more work you need. That’s why the illusion of aging backwards is bullshit. It’s a fantasy we’ve started perceiving as a reality due to the constant airbrushed images and filtered videos we see every. single. day. But, despite getting all of these procedures, many of these celebrities are still aging normally. Their skin isn’t as soft, smooth, or sculpted as you think. In truth, their skin is far from perfect.

As if this illusion weren’t bad enough, we’re being gaslit into thinking celebrities’ major transformations are minor lifestyle adjustments. An “insider” recently told The Daily Mail that Lindsay’s new appearance is “due to her healthy lifestyle.”

“She does not do drugs, eats really well, loves to do cleanses,” they added. “She is constantly getting facials and other natural beauty procedures. She is also doing Pilates and working out. She is in better shape than she has ever been.”

This deception may have worked 20 years ago when we didn’t have access to plastic surgeons, dermatologists, estheticians, cosmetic chemists, makeup artists, and influencers revealing these trade secrets. Hell, some content creators are clocking what Lindsay may have done because they’ve undergone the same procedures.

It’s also silly to deny cosmetic work and credit a healthy lifestyle when we all know that eating clean, working out, and a good night’s sleep doesn’t magically paralyze your forehead muscles, give you fuller lips, or sculpted cheekbones.

It’s only a matter of time before the line between what’s real and what’s an illusion will no longer be distinguishable. The only thing that will trigger doubt is the feeling that something doesn’t quite look right. Like Morpheus says in The Matrix, “What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it…there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”