An influencer forked out £11,000 in order to get her dream ‘Barbie’ nose – only for vile trolls to claim she now looks like The Grinch.
Sophie Bow has been insecure about her nose for years, with the 31-year-old often wishing it looked like other girls’ online. Sophie says some people would often comment on the size of her nose, which eventually made her consult with a cosmetic surgeon.
In February 2022 she splashed out £7,000 on a rhinoplasty in the UK but was unhappy with the results, describing her hooter as ‘droopy’. Sophie also claimed she could see scar tissue on the outside of her nostril that looked like a ‘gnat bite’ on her nose, leaving her even more unsatisfied with the results.
Two years later, once her nose was fully healed, the mum-of-one flew to Istanbul, Turkey, in September 2024 for a revision surgery, which cost her £4,000 in total. Thrilled with the results, Sophie shared a video on TikTok about her surgery that racked up half a million views. But she was mortified when she was flooded with cruel comments from trolls comparing her new ‘piggy’ nose to that belonging to hairy green grump The Grinch.
Sophie, from Dartford, Kent, said: “I’m really happy. In the comments the majority of people are saying that it looked better before but obviously no one sees the results until six months to one year onwards. It’s normal to look very uplifted and a bit piggy, like The Grinch.
“It must have been the angle I videoed my nose as well. I was shocked, I’m looking in the mirror thinking ‘oh my God, does it look like that?’ When I did have swelling on my tip it can look a bit like that [The Grinch] but it’s normal, it’s the process.
“It’s called edema, which will be there for a while. It’s gone down a lot more now but where I’ve turned to the side it pokes out so that’s why it’s giving that effect of looking like The Grinch.”
Sophie responded to the comments in another video where she explained her nose was still swollen and branded some people as ‘mean’. In the video she said: “Well hey, at least I’m going to fit in with the Christmas theme this year and I love Christmas so that’s a bonus.”
Sophie opted for a revision surgery in Turkey because she was disappointed with the results of her original rhinoplasty that she said left her nose ‘droopy’. She jetted off to Turkey at the end of September 2024 and paid £4,000 for her operation, flights and a five-night hotel stay.
Sophie said: “My nose before was quite big for my face because I’ve got quite a small face and it projected out quite a lot. It looked really droopy in the tip. It just didn’t suit my face and I was always unhappy with it since a young age.
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“I used to get comments saying ‘you’ve got a big nose’, which I hated. People used to say that I looked like Stacey Solomon, obviously my nose was ‘worse’ than hers.
“I used to get comments from people in real life and on social media. I always got people commenting on my nose. I had my first nose job done and after a month it kind of deformed. The surgeon said it was because of the scar tissue in my nose. It wasn’t a very good nose.
“After my surgery my nose changed and he kept giving me steroid injections for months and then I had scar tissue form more on the outside of my nose that looked like a bite. I let it fully heal but it looked very droopy, it just wasn’t the best nose. I was like ‘I need to get this redone, I can’t look in the mirror at this anymore’. I wanted a certain look. I wanted a Barbie nose so that’s why I went to Turkey.”
Despite the trolling she received, Sophie is thrilled with the initial results but admits it’s a ‘waiting game’ to see how it finally settles. Sophie said: “I’m happy [with it]. It’s still swollen, it’s going to take a while, it still looks a bit uneven. Every day looks different – your emotions are up and down, it’s a rollercoaster. It’s a waiting game. It’s not an easy thing.
“I’ve had no issues, I’m six weeks post-op now. I’ve not got it done just because other people don’t like it. I’ve got it done for myself, for confidence and for my job, social media, pictures.
“It’s not nice to see [mean comments]. I feel like I was quite strong throughout the whole process, I didn’t really let the comments get to me as much. People were commenting on the way I looked, my lips, my chin, my whole appearance. When people are bringing my appearance into it, that did affect me more than anything.
“It was quite difficult and upsetting to read. When I posted the video I didn’t think I was going to get all of these horrible comments. I can see the funny side of it now, I haven’t let it get to me as much as I thought it would. I would have been more upset if people were saying my nose looked big but a lot of people were saying they couldn’t see a difference either, which I hated.”
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