Feeling good has a lot to do with the way we look on the outside, and that is the reason why many people turn to plastic surgery in the pursuit of better self-image and self-confidence.
The trend with these types of surgeries started during the 80’s, and it is becoming more and more popular every year. According to The Aesthetic Society statistics, in 2020 only, patients spent around $9.3 billion on aesthetic procedures, and that included surgical options as well as nonsurgical therapies.
One particular type of people who undergo the knife for the sake of looking flawless are celebrities. Most of them never confess that they have altered their faces and bodies, but some are brave enough to speak up about the procedures they had over the years.
Take Amanda Lepore for example. Her looks are pretty distinctive and she’s never afraid to share with her fans details about the surgeries she had. Her bravery is just one of the reasons why she’s loved by many.
One time, Lepore even said she had the most expensive body in the world.
Born as a boy, Lepore always felt like she was in the wrong body. At the age of 15, she started receiving female hormones, and two years later, at 17, she had undergone a gender reassignment surgery.
According to Lepore herself, her mother had a lot to do with how she saw herself. On the days when she felt sick, Lepore’s mother, who had schizophrenia and was eventually hospitalized, looked “terrible.” She didn’t wear any makeup and didn’t feel like dressing up, but on those days she felt better, well, that was a completely different story. She would put makeup and would visit a parlor, and that’s something which stuck in Lepore’s memory.
“I associate glamour with being happy. If you put on high heels and lipstick or get a new outfit, you feel great,” she explained. “It’s a celebration of loving yourself, and the whole ritual of it is so great.”
Lepore’s father, who was an Italian-American, wasn’t happy with his son turning into a girl, but since he abandoned the family, Lepore saw it as a chance to do what she wished for her entire life.
Her mom, on the other hand, was supportive with her son wearing make up and dress as a girl, but she was against a gender reassignment surgery.
Wanting to be a real girl so badly, Lepore convinced her boyfriend’s father to adopt her and sign all the necessary documents for her surgery.
“I think he was happy that his son found a nice girl,” she said of her-father-in-law paying for the procedure.
In the years that followed, besides having her nose done, she got her first breast implants.
After she divorced her husband, Lepore suffered a tragedy; her mother died of cancer.
She was then determined to start her life over, and that meant cutting all ties with her father, whom she last saw at her mother’s funeral.
Once she left New Jersey and moved to “The Big Apple,” Lepore became an instant sensation. The public first learnt of her and her impeccable style when she appeared on The Joan Rivers Show with NYC’s “Club Kids in 1990.
The show was described by Dazed as an “outrageous set of party-goers whose outfits and personas heavily shaped the New York club scene.”
From that moment on, all eyes were on Lepore. Besides her unique appearance and style, it was very obvious she possessed multiple talents, including that for acting and singing. And although she didn’t pursue a career in film, she did appear in numerous documentaries and made songs with certain rappers.
Speaking of her glamour, Lepore told Interview Magazine, “It kept me out of trouble. When I worked for [club promoter] Michael Alig, everybody was overdoing partying. It would take me so long to get ready because I was never one of those girls that were naturally the cover of Vogue. I had to work hard to look nice.
“I would take hours and hours to get ready. If you have high heels on, if you’re dressed nice, you really can’t be drunk or sloppy because it’s dangerous. It’s part of being a lady, so it really kept me out of trouble.”
Having in mind the number of surgeries she had, including having her hairline lowered and eyebrows lifted, cheekbone augmentation, double eyelid surgery (removing skin), lip augmentation, and eye surgery to make her eyes look “doll-like,” Lepore’s statement that she has the most expensive body on Earth might be true. According to some magazines, she spent around $1 million on her looks. She, however, says she doesn’t know the right amount but is happy that each of her procedures was a huge success.
Lepore also had rib reshaping surgery during which her lower ribs were broken and pushed in for the sake of getting a hourglass figure.
She published her book Doll Parts in 2017 and gave her fans an opportunity to learn more about her life and her successes.
“I’m inflated in the right places. I think I look better than a blow-up doll,” she told Out.
“I do have that blow-up doll thing with the boobs, and the big round lips and the long hair. My boobs and lips and ass and hips are inflated. My head a little bit, too.
Asked whether doctors refused a procedures, she explained, “No, but I recently got my eyes done, and I was really happy with them. They’re now much more doll-like. I’m glad I waited because I went to a Korean doctor, and they know how to make Japanese eyes into white eyes. I wanted my eyes bigger.
“I think I look a lot more proportionate. It makes everything else look natural because everything else is fake, so I have matching eyes now. I know I said I wasn’t going to do any surgery, and I was happy, but who can resist bigger doll eyes?”
Amanda Lepore is the muse of a number of well-known photographers, especially David LaChapelle. She has appeared in a number of fashion magazines, including French Playboy, Ponytail, DAMn and TUSH. She has a net worth of $2 million.