Actor Valerie Bertinelli took a moment and got real with TikTok followers after a commenter made a snarky remark about her Botox.
Bertinelli posted a video with an overlay of the troll's judgy statement, which read:
"The Botox looks great."
Instead of getting riled up over the unsolicited opinion about her looks, Bertinelli said calmly:
"Eww, I know you didn't mean it as a compliment."
"But let's talk about it, shall we?"
“I have tried Botox … I hated it.”
Bertinelli found an old photograph of herself from six years ago after getting the cosmetic procedure to demonstrate why she hated the results, which you can see here.
@realwolfiesmom/TikTok
She said:
"As you can see from that picture, it doesn't look like me."
"It sort of, like, changed the shape of my eyebrows, and what I thought it was gonna do was help me with my genetically puffy eyes, which always annoyed me."
"I always wanted those nice, deep-set eyes. I don't have them. Never gonna get 'em."
The 63-year-old Golden Globe winner also mentioned how she stopped drinking for a year, thinking that alcohol may have contributed to the puffiness.
But she eventually realized drinking was not the culprit as "I still have puffy eyes."
She continued:
"But here's the deal and why I want to talk about your comment."
“Because you’re trying to shame me, and you’re a woman. Like, what made you go out of your way to try to shame me?”
“And I’m not the first person to try to be shamed on TikTok or Instagram or any place. So, we’re women. We have to stick together, OK?"
"Don’t shame somebody if they want to do something, anything, to make themselves feel better as they go out into this insane, flippin’ crazy world, OK?”
She added:
“Some people can do Botox, and it looks amazing on them."
"I am not one of them, unfortunately, or I would’ve kept doing it."
"But thankfully, it faded. I couldn’t wait for it to fade.”
She also admitted to using a “Water Glow” filter for the TikTok video and removed it to show viewers what she looks like without the feature.
The puffiness under her eyes became prominent in the absence of the effect.
She said:
“It kind of softens everything, especially my under-eye circles."
“I get good sleep, I get bad sleep.”
She again attributed the eye circles to genetics since using different supplements like melatonin and magnesium to improve her sleep deprivation proved to be futile.
She wrapped things up with a final thought and reminder.
“So, let’s not shame people, OK? We’re all in this together!”
Fans immediately came to her defense, and when one user observed that people were "just mean," Bertinelli replied with optimistic insight.
"I don’t believe that🤍I believe we are all innately kind and the world f'ks with us & we put up walls, I just want to bring down some of the walls."
More support for the actor continued, and they praised her for her positive energy in spite of the rude comment.
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Bertinelli addressed haters before on Instagram.
When a troll made a dig at her physical appearance, the actress hit back with:
“Aren’t we tired of body shaming women yet?! Smh.”
“We all could use a little more kindness and patience and grace, because we just never know what someone else is going through.”
Her statement was a good reminder that when all is said and done, kindness is the only thing that matters.
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Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images