During a recent episode of Raven-Symone's podcast, The Best Podcast Ever, she revealed that she went under the knife before the age of 18. According to the former child star, she had been receiving negative comments about her weight during her time on That's So Raven. This led her her to explore surgical fixes. She decided to get liposuction, as well as a surgical breast reduction. She says that her father was in support of, and even recommended, that she have her breasts reduced.
“There was paperwork involved,” she explained. “My dad suggested strongly that I should get my breasts reduced. He was like, ‘So you don’t feel bad, is there anything that you want?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, if I get lipo, will people stop calling me fat?'” Raven continued, "So I got a twofer. It was just a mess, just being that young and the pain of it all.”
Raven-Symone Got Plastic Surgery To Combat Weight Criticism
On top of getting the procedures done at a young age, Raven also suffered a traumatic experience during one surgery. She had a seizure, which she says she still fears to this day. “I remember waking up and seeing everything … and then I just started to have this dry mouth and couldn’t breathe and went back under,” she revealed. Though the experience was frightening, she went on to get an additional breast reduction. She was still under 18 for the second, which she got when she gained weight after her first one.
Raven-Symone has been open in the past about how growing up on television impacted her self-perception. Clearly, being under a microscope at a young age introduces new pressures to a young person. Body-shaming was also particularly rampant in the early 2000s, when That's So Raven was airing. Now that she's grown up and started to open up about her experience, she's shedding light on a lot of issues that continue to plague young people, and even adults, in the industry.