Why Kendall Jenner Calling It “Baby Botox” Is Dismissive
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Kendall Jenner has joined the rest of her family in speaking openly about their cosmetic procedures. On January 9, the model appeared on Owen Thiele’s In Your Dreams podcast, where she chatted about her “hypochondriac” tendencies, her experience with adult acne, and the evergreen public interest in what, exactly, she’s done to her face. “There's a whole world on the internet that thinks I've had full facial reconstruction,” Jenner said, referring to the countless online sleuths who have attempted to guess if she’s gone under the knife.
Many have hypothesized that she's had rhinoplasty, but the model stood firm: “I've never had any plastic surgery on my face,” she said. “I've never had any work done." Jenner claims that her nose shrank from taking the oral acne medication Accutane, which is a common claim among Accutane patients, though doctors say it can't change the anatomy of one's nose. It can, however, shrink the sebaceous glands on the nose.
Jenner went on to say that she has, in fact, gotten microneedling and PRP injections. In addition to that, she says she’s had two rounds of, in her exact words, “baby Botox” in her forehead—and that’s where I take issue.
While the term “baby Botox” usually refers to a neuromodulator that’s administered in smaller doses and to fewer entry points, there’s no concrete medical definition of what differentiates it from regular Botox. And, for what it’s worth, Jenner didn’t specify exactly how many units of Botox she received. If you ask me, people like to tack on words like “baby” or “mini” when describing their treatments simply to downplay the extent of their aesthetic choices. Honestly, I’m tired of it: You either did the thing or not.
Sure, getting a smaller amount of Botox may leave your face less frozen (board-certified plastic surgeon Melissa Doft, MD, previously told Allure that she has “many patients who ask for half the normal dose”), but a Botox injection is a Botox injection. You’re still using a neurotoxin to paralyze your muscles, no matter how few units one’s injector shoots into their elevens. Calling it a “baby” procedure doesn’t change that, either.
I’m not blaming Jenner for perpetuating the semantics—language will always be adapted to sell a product, and even some qualified dermatologists and plastic surgeons use the term. All I’m asking is that when we talk about it, we just call it what it is.