Amber Tamblyn Recalls Getting Her Ears Pinned at 12, Despite Considering Herself a ‘Fiery Young Feminist’

Amber Tamblyn is considering plastic surgery as a pre-teen.

In a new guest appearance that he published The New York Times On Sunday, October 20, the actress and writer, 41, opened up about having her ears pierced when she was younger to fit in.

“As a little girl I had ears that stuck out like big butterfly wings,” Tamblyn wrote in the essay. “Some of the kids at my school in Los Angeles would make fun of them, and I’d often stare at myself in the mirror wishing my ears were on my head.”

Details that she decided to “undergo ear plugging surgery” aged 12 after landing her first “starring role in a TV show” – an apparent reference to her role as Emily Bowen in General Hospitalwhich she played from 1995 to 2001 — the star continued, “For years, my parents watched me struggle with private shame, even though they understood I was a tough kid who could handle it.”

“But once I knew that millions of people around the world would be judging me on their television screens and not just on the playground, that knowledge changed everything for me,” added Tamblyn.

Amber Tamblyn.

Rob Kim/Getty

According to the Cleveland Clinic, ear pinning is an elective surgery to “permanently bring the ears closer to the head.” Most people choose to have the surgery for cosmetic reasons, and the website states that the surgery is common among children and teenagers.

Tamblyn also wrote that she considered herself “an ardent young feminist” at the time and even wrote a poem about “the kind of aesthetic I was seeing in the entertainment industry, especially among women. (The work was later published in her first book, Free stallion.)

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“Yet, by changing my own body, I was also a hypocrite who gave in to it – because how could anyone not? Going under the knife felt like I was choosing a weapon to wield in self-defense against my own availability,” Y: The Last Man the star then spoke about his moral dilemma.

“I’ve shown the world that I understand the task of assimilation — that I can do whatever it takes to fit in, never stand out, like my ears used to,” she added.

In her essay, Tamblyn also described her experience with the Demi Moore horror film 2024. Substancewhich features an aging television star who takes an experimental drug to be reborn in a younger body.

She wrote that from her own experience in the entertainment industry she came into contact with a director who told her “that the key to a long-lasting career is to stay as young as possible for as long as possible” and overheard an agent “describe the presentation of actresses past their 30s as ‘hell on earth’.” ”

Amber Tamblyn on General Hospital. Vladan Elaković/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Now, looking back, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants the actress wonders if the plastic surgery was a mistake. “Would I have been less happy if I had fought the urge to plug my ears, so they still stick out today? I don’t know — but I often think about it and my willingness to conform to industry expectations,” she wrote.

Once again drawing parallels with the Moore-centric horror film, Tamblyn expressed, “My experience and ‘The Substance’ are not just Hollywood stories. They are universal realities for every woman, regardless of her background or profession. The subtle messages sexism sends us is passed down as generational wisdom, almost from birth.”

She added, however, that she refuses to consider plastic surgery as an evil force. “I’m not saying plastic surgery is bad or that everyone who chooses to change their body regrets their decision – including 12-year-old me. The choice can involve willpower and even self-love, and for some of us there are deeply personal reasons for that,” Tamblyn wrote.

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While promoting her film, Moore also talked about the pressures she felt as a young actress.

In the September interview with The Guardianshe talked about how the expectations of a woman’s body in the 90s had a negative effect on her. “What I did to myself,” she told the newspaper. “What did I do to make it mean to me. Really seeing that violence, how violent we can be to ourselves, how brutal.”

She added: “Self-judgment, chasing perfection, trying to get rid of ‘flaws’, also feelings of rejection and despair, none of this is exclusive to women.”

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Source: HIS Education