It's super competitive for students.

- You have to have perfect grades, the perfect looks.

- Everyone there talks about beauty constantly,

and they tell you straight to your face that you're ugly,

or that you should get plastic surgery.

- That's why people feel like it's a good

career move to get plastic surgery.

- What we're doing today is sort of recreating

this practice that's very common in Korea,

but in a way that's not permanent.

Really, a sort of sliding door's potential second reality

if I had chosen to alter the way I look.

- So, I am a quarter Korean and I lived in the south

of South Korea in a city called Daegu for a year,

and I saw a lot of shit when I was there.

All of the subways are plastered with banner ads

that say you should get plastic surgery.

I actually had an article that I wrote about on BuzzFeed

that also went viral on The Daily Mail

where the headline was literally

"Too fat, too tall, and too dark

"To be beautiful in South Korea."

and that's honestly how I felt.

- When I was a kid I felt like my eyes were small

because I didn't have double eyelids.

I had a couple of relatives suggest

that I get a double eyelid surgery.

In some ways, I think about it, and I'm like,

"That's messed up."

In other ways it was an act of concern and love.

- To grow up in a society and a culture that's very

frank about the way you look, changes the way you perceive

your personal relationship with beauty.

First time I went to Korea, all of my mom's friends there

looked at me right when I got off and they said,

"Well, your son could get the eye surgery, and a nose job,

"And get his face smaller."

I had a lot of insecurities about that.

I thought, "Oh, maybe it's because I am ugly.

"Maybe it's because they want me to look a certain way."

Fast forward to now when my mom, to the same friends,

shows videos of me and they all say,

"Oh, your son is so handsome.

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with his face."

Do you know why the fuck they changed their minds?

Because I'm successful now.

So, if you think about it, a lot of Koreans

don't necessarily say you will look better because

you're white-looking, they're thinking you can survive

and succeed more if you change certain things

because that is what's happening in society.

- I'm really terrified of what this surgeon

is gonna say to me because I feel like

he's going to be my worst critic ever.

I've worked so hard to be okay with my body

and to feel like a Dove commercial inside

and I know this man is gonna tell me

that I'm so ugly and I'm terrified.

- Hi, it's very nice to meet you doctor.

- Nice to meet you.

- I would love to see what I think is sort of the standard

for a hot, young Korean guy.

- I'd love to know what I could do to make my face

as close to the mainstream beauty ideal currently in Korea.

- Okay, why don't you go ahead and put your hair

behind your ears a little bit.

- Oh, here we go.

Here we go, y'all.

- It'll be fine. (chuckles)

Nothing to be nervous about.

Let's have you turn to me a little bit.

- This is my potato face, y'all.

- There is sort of a stereotypical Korean beauty standard

that people try to adhere to.

There's a big focus on beauty around the eyes,

they're looking for noses that are a little bit

sharp and pointed at the end,

and finally, they're looking for a facial shape

which is more V-line and kind of has a slimmer look.

So, those I'd say would be the most

common facial aesthetic procedures.

- This is very intimate.

I just made it weird, sorry.

- Yeah, let's not make this weirder than it is.

Overall, very good-looking face.

Pretty girl.

I'd say your face looks very nice.

Great skin.

Good-looking guy.

You have good facial features.

Starting sort of from the top, down,

I think your brows look very good.

I think for your eyes, very common to get

the typical Asian double eyelid surgery.

I think your distance between your brow and your eyelash

looks pretty normal and healthy,

so I think a standard double eyelid would look nice.

Eyelids, I think double eyelids would be reasonable.

Maybe just make the eyes look a little bit bigger.

And your distance between your eyebrows

and your lash line here, little bit on the shorter side.

Going from there I would say your nose

from the front view looks a little bit wide to me,

and so I think narrowing it could also

give you a nice aesthetic.

For the rhinoplasty there would be two key things I would do

One would be to shave down that hump on the top,

and the second one would to work on that tip a little bit.

For the cheeks, either some fat grafting,

or even a cheek implant if you want to have

a little bit more profile.

I would recommend considering some fat grafting,

which is to remove a little bit of fat

from other parts of your body, and put it into your cheeks

to make the cheeks a little bit softer-looking.

For the lower part of your face I think down here

you do have a little bit of fatty tissue in this area.

It's common for a lot of people, also.

So, I think that one thing you consider would be

to take out a little bit of buccal fat, which is to make

a small incision on the inside of the cheek.

Finally, for your jaw here.

Overall face shape is a little bit more on the round side.

Very typically, a lot of women in Korea are looking

for something that's a little bit more V-line.

So, a combination of botox and this, too,

kind of shrink that muscle, as well as potentially

shaving down this jaw a little bit,

I think would kind of give you

a little bit more of a V-shape.

- That wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

It seems like a lot of the changes would be subtle.

- That was a long list of procedures to get me to point B.

- I'm glad to know that my face is mostly great.

I thought it would be like let's just do everything.

- But it is kind of scary for me to think that I might see

a better version of myself, so we'll see.

Got to get rid of this neck fat, y'all.

(upbeat music)

Holy shit, I'm scared.

I'm mainly worried that I'm gonna like it.

- Am I gonna look at it while it changes?

Oh, shit, okay, wait, wait, don't do it.

I'm really nervous now.

(ding)

(laughs)

- There's just something about it that's so derpy.

It definitely doesn't look like me.

It looks like an evil doppelganger.

So, I see how they gave me double eyelids,

but I'm surprised at how much I don't like them.

I like the defined jaw line.

I could probably achieve that by losing a couple pounds.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the eyes.

Maybe it's just the Photoshop, but I just look dead.

I look dead inside.

- And.

(ding)

Huh.

It's kind of weird because it looks

vaguely like me, but not really.

It's not as drastic as I thought it was gonna be,

which is a little bit scary.

The subtlety of it is like no one would really know

that I had plastic surgery.

To be honest, I thought I'd be hotter,

and now that I'm not that hot, it's like I don't really

want to risk going under the knife to be 5% more hot.

5% more hot is not worth it.

25%, fuck yeah.

You know what would improve this is just if I had abs.

That would be better.

(ding)

- Holy shit!

Oh, my God.

My jaw is much smaller, the nose is thinner.

He's got a cute little face.

It looks good, it doesn't look bad.

He's the way nicer version of me,

I think, in terms of the face.

My biggest take-away is that I'm comfortable with looking

at this now without feeling shitty about myself.

But I also am not looking at this and thinking that I'm

more beautiful than this picture.

It's nice to see that this is a somewhat

natural option that I don't think people would look at

and think I looked like a freak or weird.

So, hopefully, if someone feels like this

will make them more confident and they get it,

if they're recognizable as a person,

I don't see the problem with it.

Maybe the one thing that's a little problematic is

we have to think as Koreans if we are ever so slightly

changing the way we think we should look.

I don't think that we should necessarily think

this looks better than this, right?

And I think that's what a lot of people

are currently suffering from is this idea that

I have to look more this way to be accepted.

- I don't think I'd want to adhere to a trend

and then not be able to go back on it.

You can even remove a tattoo, you can't remove a nose job.

- When I was in Korea I thought at some point

that if I got more plastic surgery I could

maybe look more Korean and fit in,

but now that I'm seeing what the plastic surgery

would be, I'm realizing that the parts of me that

don't fit in are the parts that make me unique.

- I think what it really comes down to is

we just need more this, right?

We just need more of our own natural faces in media.

And not to shit on or diss on people

who get plastic surgery.

As Asians we just need to diversify what we're seeing.

And it's not saying that this is bad,

it's just saying that only seeing this is bad.

- And everybody deserves to feel okay about who they are.

I guess I just like my face better than I thought.

- I don't need that to feel good about myself

or to make other people feel good about how they look.

So, I'm gonna keep my little eyes,

and my big nose, and my big face.

It's what my mama gave me, and she's hot.

(laughs)

- Why you sad?

Why you crying?

Why you cry, sexy Ashly?

Don't cry.

(jazz music)