Australian music darling, YouTube OG and Substack writer Troye Sivan has slammed an aesthetics doctor who claimed he was “experiencing twink death” due to his physical appearance.
In a new Substack entry, originally titled fuck this guy!!!, Sivan opened up about his struggles with body image and how ageing has impacted the way he sees himself.
“I oscillate constantly between feeling like I’m ageing in a good way, getting ‘sexier’ with time, and then feeling like Gollum’s very close pop-singing relative. So decrepit, somehow both skinny and fat at the same time,” the singer began.
“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.”
Sivan delved deeper into the pressure surrounding his looks, which he divided into “two prongs”.
The first prong is his advocacy for body positivity, which stemmed from his childhood of growing up on woke Tumblr.
“I am body positive to my core and believe that every body is beautiful. I’m grateful for mine (and yours, sexy), and that it allows me to do all the things that I want to, free of pain and illness. It’s also cool to age,” he wrote.
“I heard this piece of advice (anecdotally) from a person at the very top of the fashion world — ‘stay ugly’. Ie. Don’t fuck with your face. How cool!! When everyone else has the same nose and no wrinkles and no smile lines and filler that’s migrated all the way down to their necks, you’ll be so happy and chic and weathered and wise.”
The second prong delved deep into cosmetic enhancements, including procedures that have been suggested to him, the cost, and the flaws highlighted by Dr Zayn, a London-based cosmetics doctor who made a video on Sivan’s most recent red carpet appearance.
“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?” Sivan penned alongside a screenshot of Zayn’s video.
In Dr Zayn’s video, which has since been removed from his TikTok and Instagram accounts, the cosmetics doctor recommended a series of procedures, including skin boosters and dermal fillers that will “re-twinkify” Sivan.
“Troye Sivan is looking slightly different these days. He does appear more older-looking. You could argue he’s experiencing twink death,” Zayn said in the now-deleted video before dissecting Sivan’s physical appearance.
In response, Sivan admitted he always hated red carpet photos and explained what it was like hearing Dr Zayn’s unsolicited advice.
“I knew on the night of the NGV Gala that I did not feel like I looked good on the red carpet,” Sivan wrote.
“I checked my Instagram tags and was definitely like… oh. It wasn’t great. Hearing this unsolicited medical advice given publicly by a doctor I do not know pushed me toward Prong two for a fair few days.
“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.”
The “Rush” singer concluded his incredibly candid post, explaining that “it’s us vs species-endingly-insatiable corporate greed, with access to addictive brainwashing technology” before wishing readers “good luck”.
In an edit to the Substack post, which acknowledged the title has been changed to “feeling a bit uggo (ugly)”, Sivan revealed that Dr Zayn reached out to apologise for the video.
“EDIT: The doctor in the aforementioned video removed it, and sent me a really thoughtful and sweet message apologising. The title of this post was ‘fuck this guy!!’ and is now ‘feeling a bit uggo (ugly)’. No hard feelings from my side whatsoever. Thanks for all the love, guys,” Sivan wrote.
Although the video is gone, Dr Zayn hasn’t publicly addressed Sivan’s Substack article.
This isn’t the first time someone in the cosmetic surgery field has been reamed for suggesting procedures towards an individual on social media.
In 2022, aesthetic nurse practitioner Miranda Wilson deleted a video listing cosmetic procedures she would give Stranger Things star Natalia Dyer after she rightfully copped backlash for her unsolicited advice.
Aiyiyi. It’s the audacity for me.
