How Motherhood Taught Kylie Jenner to Rethink Plastic Surgery and Beauty Standards

The Kardashians have never exactly been shy about letting it be known they care a lot about how they look.

Kim Kardashian has said she'd "probably eat s--t" if it would make her look younger, while mom Kris Jenner has cheerily detailed the procedures she's undergone to enjoy an ultra-smooth visage at 67. And Khloe Kardashian has mercilessly compared herself to her sisters, whether she's admiring Kim and Kourtney Kardashian's "ample cleavage."

Kylie Jenner—mom to Stormi Webster, 5, and Aire Webster, 17 months, with ex Travis Scott—started a wildly successful cosmetics and skin care company, buoyed by the glossy-pout-building Lip Kit. The airbrushed-to-perfection look Kylie's been sporting since her late teens made her the natural face of her own line.

Natural meaning obvious, that is.

Because while the Kylie Cosmetics mogul, 25, has never been one of the more talkative members of her family when it comes to how she maintains and enhances, lately—maybe it's motherhood, maybe it's just maturity that comes with, um, age—Kylie has joined them in getting real about what it actually takes to achieve her brand of beauty.

And, most interestingly, she's openly pondered what her family's brand of beauty has wrought.

She expounded on the subject with Kourtney not long ago: Recruited to do the now-pregnant star's glam for a Poosh event, captured for the July 20 episode of The Kardashians, she headed over to her big sis's house with a massive pink Kylie Cosmetics case to work her magic. 

When Khloe walked in and resisted compliments about her waist-length, stick-straight hair, Kourtney mused, "I do think you should be confident in your imperfections."

That led to Kourt raising the topic of today's beauty standards, about which Kylie noted, "I just feel like we have huge influence, and like what are we doing with our power? I just think I see so many young girls on the Internet now, like, fully editing."

"I went through that stage, too," she added, "and I feel like I'm in a better place, but other people can instill insecurities in you."

Kylie reminded her sisters that they used to talk about her ears—"'cause I loved them," Khloe protested—and being called names like Dopey "f--ked me up," she said. "I never thought about my ears! And then for five years I never wore an updo. And then I had Stormi, and she has my ears. And it made me realize how much I love them."

"Now I wear an updo every carpet," Kylie added.

This new era of openness may have also stemmed in part from wanting to put a rest to all the wildest rumors and assumptions about procedures she may or may not have had and why she had them—or didn't.

Talking to Paper in 2019, Kylie denied speculation that she "fully went under the knife and completely reconstructed" her face. "I'm terrified," she added. "I would never."

But she did re-confirm having lip fillers, having first acknowledged them at least four years beforehand, when she was barely 18.

"I want to admit to the lips," she lamented on a 2015 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, "but people are so quick to judge me on everything, so I might have tiptoed around the truth, but I didn't lie."

And some things do not change. Her denials didn't stop the step-by-step speculative videos on YouTube and TikTok—some made by doctors, no less!—proclaiming to know exactly what work Kylie has had done over the years.

"I think a big misconception about me is that I've had so much surgery on my face and that I was some insecure person, and I really wasn't!" she said in an interview with Homme Girls published in April. "Yeah, I love full lips and wanted full lips, but growing up I was always the most confident person in the room. I was the girl performing for everyone."

Kylie's one insecurity was her lips, "so I got lip filler," she explained, "and it was the best thing I've ever done. I don't regret it. But I always thought I was cute."

As it turns out, however, there was a time when Kylie was down on more than her lips' natural pout factor.

On the July 27 episode of The Kardashians, she shared with primarily platonic bestie Stassie Karanikolaou that she had a boob job not all that long before Stormi was born.

Kylie was 19 at the time and, she recalled, "within six months of having Stormi—not thinking I would have a child when I was 20—like, they were still healing."

Looking back, Kylie said, "I had beautiful breasts—like, natural tits. Just gorgeous, perfect size, perfect everything. And I just wish, obviously, I never got them done to begin with. I would recommend anyone who is thinking about it to wait until after children."

And what of Stormi, who, Kylie told Hommes Girls, "was perfect the way she is" (and that was the only beauty advice she had for her 5-year-old, other than "be confident").

"Obviously I have a daughter," Kylie acknowledged on the Hulu series' season-three finale. "I would be heartbroken if she wanted to get her body done at 19. And she's the most beautiful thing ever. I want to be the best mom and best example for her. And I just wish I could, like, be her and do it all differently, because I wouldn't touch anything."

So, chalk up some of her new perspective to being a mom.

In a July 20 episode confessional, touching on the insecurity conversation she'd had with Khloe and Kourtney, Kylie had again mentioned the "false" claims that she changed her whole face. She stressed, "I've only gotten fillers and I feel like I don't want that to be a part of my story. I will always want everyone to just love themselves."

Not that it's always easy.

Recalling how a friend had recently asked how she stayed so strong in the face of so much online negativity, Kylie concluded that, at this point in her life, she's already heard "every negative possible thing."

"The more it happens I think you just become stronger and more numb to it," she said, "and yeah, it can be a really dark place sometimes."

But, Kylie continued, she has "real love to fall back on" in case the world that has giveth her celebrity should instead taketh away, "and that's all that really matters to me. So it becomes easier."

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