Out of all the unsolicited advice that circulates online, being publicly critiqued for aging may be one of the most jarring, especially when it comes from a stranger with a platform and a medical title.
That was the experience Australian singer, songwriter, and actor Troye Sivan recently unpacked after a plastic surgeon posted a video dissecting his appearance without permission.
Sivan, who turned 30 last year, addressed the incident in the debut post of his new Substack, originally titled “F**k this guy!!” before being renamed “feeling a bit uggo (ugly).”
The post responds to a now-deleted Instagram Reel and TikTok shared by an aesthetic doctor named Dr. Zayn, who claimed Sivan appeared “older” and suggested he was experiencing “twink death”—a term often used jokingly within queer culture to describe aging out of a youthful, slender archetype.
Opening with disarming honesty, Sivan wrote:
“I oscillate constantly between feeling like i’m aging in a good way, getting ‘sexier’ with time, and then feeling like gollum’s very close pop-singing relative. So decrepit, somehow both skinny and fat at the same time. I'm 30. I’ve struggled with my body image for a lot of my life, as i’m sure most people have.”
The video, which has since been removed, circulated widely before Sivan responded.
A screen recording was shared by Pop Crave:
The post struck a nerve not only because of its candor, but because it tapped into a growing tension between aging, beauty standards, and the cosmetic industry—pressures increasingly imposed long before middle age.
Calling out the logic behind that pressure, Sivan didn’t mince words:
“What good is money and modern medicine if not to fix all of these flaws that this random sicko f*cko plastic surgeon told me I have in an instagram reel?”
Throughout the Substack entry, Sivan described feeling caught between two competing responses to body scrutiny. The first is rooted in body acceptance, an outlook he says has guided him for years.
He explained that mindset clearly:
“I am body positive to my core and believe that every body is beautiful. I'm grateful for mine (and yours, sexy), and that it allows me to do all the things that I want to, free of pain and illness. It's also cool to age… I heard this piece of advice (anecdotally) from a person at the very top of the fashion world — ‘stay ugly’. i.e., don't f**k with your face. How cool!!”
That advice, he added, feels almost radical in an era where cosmetic sameness has become aspirational.
Imagining the alternative, Sivan wrote:
“When everyone else has the same nose and no wrinkles and no smile lines and filler that’s migrated all the way down to their necks, you’ll be so happy and chic and weathered and wise.”
The second response, he admitted, is far less healthy. Sivan detailed how the doctor’s video, amplified by social media algorithms, pushed him toward researching cosmetic procedures he hadn’t seriously considered before.
He described a consultation that would have cost $3,000 simply to explore transferring fat from his legs or abdomen to his under-eye area, along with being told he was in the “ideal window” to start baby Botox.
Detailing that internal spiral, he wrote:
“I guess if i'm backlit, or only show the half of my face where the volume loss under my eyes is less pronounced… and angle my phone up high above my head and look up sort of doe-eyed, I can kind of still look the same as I did 5 or 6 years ago. The cracks are starting to show though.”
The post ultimately widens into a broader reckoning with a culture that increasingly treats aging as a flaw to be corrected. That this scrutiny is now so casually applied to someone at 30 underscores how normalized it has become to publicly dissect appearance at any age.
Sivan framed it bluntly in his conclusion:
“I’m patient with myself, and understand and respect both approaches. It’s us vs species-endingly-insatiable corporate greed, with access to addictive brainwashing technology. Good luck!!!!”
The post quickly resonated online, with fans and fellow creatives praising Sivan for articulating the quiet anxieties around aging, visibility, and body scrutiny in the age of social media.
You can view the reactions below:
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He later updated the post to note that Dr. Zayn had reached out, removed the video, and apologized. Sivan said there were “no hard feelings” and changed the title accordingly.
Born in Johannesburg and raised in Perth, Sivan rose to prominence on YouTube during the early 2010s before transitioning into pop stardom. After coming out publicly in 2013, Sivan released his debut album Blue Neighbourhood in 2015, establishing himself as a defining voice for a generation of queer pop fans.
He has since released Bloom (2018) and Something to Give Each Other (2023), the latter earning Grammy nominations for its breakout single “Rush.” Later this year, Sivan will mark 10 years of Blue Neighbourhood with a reissue of the anniversary edition.
This milestone underscores the irony of being labeled “old” at 30 in an industry obsessed with perpetual youth. In calling out a stranger’s clinical critique of his face, Sivan exposed how quickly casual commentary can slide into something more corrosive.
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