Tully Smyth on the "devastating" incident that made her feel she needed cosmetic surgery. 

When Tully Smyth was celebrating her birthday a few years ago, an interaction with some ‘fans’ left an irredeemable downer on her night.

The former Big Brother contestant caught the group of “young girls” going through her Instagram page, while comparing her real-life face to her online presence. She then realised “it was clear they weren’t such a fan of the ‘real’ me in real life,” she wrote, and called the moment “devastating”.

Sharing the moment on her Instagram Stories, the 31-year-old said it left her “totally exposed”.

“I felt like I’d let them down. Like I was a fraud,” she said.

The repercussions of the event caused her to re-evaluate her lips and she booked herself into a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon.

“Everyone at the events I was attending and the accounts I followed suddenly had these pumped-up lips. And I felt the pressure to keep up,” she wrote.

“I felt the pressure to keep up. If everyone else was doing it, clearly there was something wrong with mine?!”

Luckily, she was talked out of the procedure by the cosmetic surgeon at the clinic.

"The lady was lovely and asked me outright: 'Why are you here?' And I said: '...I don't really know to be honest,'" she remembered

"'Your lips are perfectly in proportion. Go home."

Reflecting on that moment, the blogger, writer and Instagram model shared how the pressures of social media affected her self-esteem. Although Smyth says she's now learnt to accept her lips, the desire to "keep up" is still ever present.

"This is something that I myself have struggled with for years," she continues.

"I have spent so much time viewing myself through various filters and apps that I don't believe I am beautiful or 'enough' just as I am."

"In this terrifying age of social media, please, please remember you are enough. You are more than enough. Exactly the way you are."

And no matter the size of your social media following, it's a helpful reminder we could all do with.

Has something similar ever happened to you? Tell us in a comment below!

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