Botox ban for kids is welcome
Anna says she suffered years of agony after getting lip fillers at 17
A WOMAN who suffered years of hell after getting lip fillers to look like her celebrity idols has welcomed a ban on giving Botox to kids.
Anna Russell said she has faced three years of “botched” lips and shattered confidence after wanting to look like pouting stars when she was 17.
But her op became a nightmare and she said she was left with uneven lips and lumps of “unknown” filler spreading across her face.
Anna, of Edinburgh, has now backed a government ban being introduced today, preventing Botox treatments for under-18s.
She said she was too young to make a rational decision at the time and didn’t think about the consequences.
The Government decided to step in after a “Love Island” surge led to 41,000 procedures being carried out on under-18s last year.
Health minister Nadine Dorries said ages would now need to be verified before enhancements can be done and practitioners could be prosecuted if they fail to do so.
Anna said she thought her lips were “too thin” but after the op cried every day before being told by a doctor that the “unknown substance” used on her had been injected haphazardly.
Anna, now 22, said: “I’m really happy the ban has gone through as it’s such a big decision to make when you’re 17.
“I’ve always been quite conscious of my lips as they are naturally thin. It became a trend with people my age and I saw others doing it and liked it.
“I had it done a couple of days before my 18th birthday and found the girl that did it on Facebook. I told her that I was 17 and she said it was fine.
“But it’s 100 per cent too young. When I think back to the tattoos I thought I wanted at 17 and 18, I think, ‘Thank God I didn’t get that now’.”
Anna said the damage caused by the fillers had a lasting impact on her life, adding: “The fillers really affected my confidence and self-esteem.
“It changed the way my face looked and how I felt about my face.
“For ages, I didn’t even look at myself In photos.”