Amber Tamblyn recalls that, as a child, kids would make fun of her for having "ears that stuck out like big butterfly wings." Never noticed the former child star's ears? That's perhaps because the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actor, 41, underwent ear-pinning surgery at the age of 12, just as she started appearing on General Hospital, per USA Today. In an essay in the New York Times, Tamblyn reveals the decision publicly for the first time amid a discussion of women's pursuits to make themselves appear more desirable. Though she had long wished that "my ears would lay flat against my head," she says she only opted for surgery once she landed her first major TV role and considered that "millions of people all over the world would be judging me."
Tamblyn would later come to think of herself as a "fiery young feminist" who criticized women who went to great lengths to try to look younger and more desirable. Yet "I was also a hypocrite who gave in to it," she writes. "Going under the knife felt like choosing a weapon I could wield in self-defense against my own disposability." She ties the discussion to The Substance, a new horror movie starring Demi Moore as a fitness show host who, after being fired on her 50th birthday, takes a drug to create a younger version of herself. Tamblyn can relate, having grown up in "the sexualized spotlight of the entertainment industry."
But this isn't just about Hollywood. "The subtle messages of sexism are passed down to [all women] as generational wisdom, almost from birth," Tamblyn writes. She concludes by encouraging a different view, in which a woman "chooses not to chase youth and instead learns to love her aging self, no matter how much the rest of the world may not." In line with that thinking, Tamblyn notes she's learning to embrace her "encroaching crow's feet, chin hairs and all." Read the full piece here. (More Amber Tamblyn stories.)
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