#CosmoInEverySize: Does the 2025 definition of "self-love" include injectables, tweakments, and Ozempic?

The idea of the “perfect body” has always been a moving target. But today, it feels less like a destination and more like an optical illusion. In the world of filters, glow-up reels, and heavily curated transformations, the old divide between “natural” and “enhanced” is almost meaningless. Lip fillers, Botox, chemical peels—once whispered about, now flaunted on Instagram—are no longer shameful secrets. They’re style statements, as much a part of self-expression as a haircut or a red lipstick. And here’s the reminder that matters most: you were beautiful before—and you’re beautiful after.

From secrecy to celebration

For decades, cosmetic treatments were dismissed as vanity projects or hidden away like guilty pleasures. Now, they’re part of the everyday language of self-care. As a board-certified dermatologist and cosmetologist, founder and medical director of Bodycraft Clinics, Dr Mikki Singh puts it: “Treatments such as Botox, fillers, microneedling, and body contouring—what we call ‘tweakments’—are now a part of everyday self-care. What was once taboo is as common as discussing skincare.”

Aesthetic dermatologist, founder and director of Yavana Skin & Hair Clinic, Dr Madhuri Agarwal, points out how normalised cosmetic treatments have become: “Patients come in for Botox or chemical peels during lunch breaks and return to work right after. Social media has played a huge role in reducing secrecy; people see these procedures openly discussed, even by public figures, and it's slowly losing the stigma that once surrounded them.”

Self-care has expanded its borders. A clay mask and a green juice still count. But so do dermal fillers.

Enhancements and self-love? Yes, they can coexist

The most common critique of cosmetic work is that it erases “authentic” beauty. But isn’t that just another way of telling women what they should or shouldn’t be doing with their bodies?

“Self-acceptance and self-improvement can coexist,” says Dr Singh. “A bit of filler doesn’t erase natural beauty; it can help people feel their best. More and more, people choose these procedures the way they choose makeup or fashion: as self-expression, not pressure.”

Dr Agarwal reminds us that the real question isn’t whether you should enhance, but why: “Enhancements don’t diminish your natural beauty. What matters is whether the choice is yours, or if it comes from external pressures or unrealistic expectations.”

The truth is simple but radical: loving yourself and wanting more for yourself are not opposites. They’re two sides of the same coin.

The glow is about confidence, not contour

When celebrities undergo a “transformation,” headlines frame it as reinvention. But the real change often isn’t just about the sharper jawline or smoother forehead, it’s also about the confidence that follows.

Dr Agarwal recalls a young woman who had lived with acne scars since adolescence. They weren’t severe, but the impact on her self-worth was crushing. She avoided meetings, dodged cameras, and shrank from social situations because of it. After a few sessions of microneedling and skin regeneration treatments, her scars softened. But more importantly, so did her self-doubt. “She started making eye contact, updating her profile photos, even acing presentations she had once postponed,” says Dr Agarwal.

Dr Singh has seen the same pattern: “One of my patients, a young woman who couldn’t meet anyone’s gaze because of her acne, became visibly more comfortable and confident after treatment. I see this shift again and again.”

The real flex? Owning your Ozempic

It’s not just the face. The entire body is part of this conversation, too, cosmetic treatments and weight-loss medications alike. Case in point: Serena Williams’ recent endorsement. When Williams admitted to using a GLP-1 medication (like Ozempic) for postpartum weight management, she literally dismantled a myth in real time: that the value of physical discipline and cosmetic enhancements are total opposites.

Here is an athlete whose entire career is built on strength and consistency, who is saying plainly: “GLP-1 helped me enhance everything I was already doing... eating healthy, working out. I feel like a lot of people can relate.” Her candour made something very clear: embracing enhancement tools doesn’t erase hard work. It reflects a fuller, more honest picture of what strength and self-care can look like.

When celebrities set the tone

Hollywood and Bollywood have long been the mirrors in which society checks its reflection, and lately, they’ve been cracking the veneer of perfection.

Anushka Sharma openly acknowledged that her fuller lips were for a film role, shrugging off the trolling with a simple reminder in an interview, stating: “I’m human and not perfect.” Kylie Jenner, who once denied and later confessed to her lip fillers, didn’t just normalise cosmetic tweaks; she turned them into a pop culture currency, and today getting lip fillers is as common as buying one of Kylie’s lip kits. Salma Hayek, ever the nonconformist, reframed the idea of beauty entirely by saying, “The most liberating thing about beauty is realising that you are the beholder.”

But it’s not just about going under the needle either; it’s also about walking away from it. Pamela Anderson, once synonymous with the hyper-glamour of implants, has recently re-emerged bare-faced and natural, a radical statement in a world obsessed with lip-blushing tattoos and full-glam makeup routines. Actors like Courteney Cox and Priyanka Chopra, too, have spoken candidly about regretting or undoing procedures, proving that beauty choices can evolve, and that opting out is as valid as opting in.

Each confession, each reversal, each unfiltered moment chips away at stigma. Together, they show us that the narrative isn’t about perfection anymore; it’s about ownership. And in that ownership lies freedom: to enhance, to undo, or to exist without apology.

In the end… beauty is what you make of it

Cosmetic treatments—whether tweakments or weight-management aids—aren’t betrayals of authenticity. They’re tools. The “perfect body” is no longer about shrinking into a mould; it’s about expanding into your choices. Beauty is personal and ever evolving. It’s liberating to seek cosmetic enhancement, and it’s also as liberating to opt out or choose not to, in the first place. The glow-up isn’t in the filler or the peel, it’s in the unapologetic confidence of saying: this is me, on my terms.

Lead image: Pexels

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