There is a constant debate in the world of fashion and beauty regarding the ethics of plastic surgery. Do cosmetic procedures promote unrealistic beauty standards? What if they make you feel better about yourself, bringing about inner confidence? Or what if you simply enjoy modifying your appearance? It’s been a hot topic in the last few years and there are people who are just as opinionated on both sides of the discussion.

One Instagram model who loves plastic surgery so much that she took her cosmetic procedures to the extreme, spending over $2,000 on cheek fillers over a period of a few years, is model Anastasia Pokreshchuk. The 32-year-old from Kyiv, Ukraine says she fell in love with her massive cheeks after modifying their appearance with large amounts of filler. Pokreshchuk has also undergone other plastic surgery procedures including lip fillers, mouth fillers, botox for her forehead and jaw and chin reshaping.

Because of her striking appearance — some outlets have claimed she has the “world’s biggest cheeks” — the Ukrainian model has amassed more than 273,000 followers on Instagram. She’s also made appearances on television, speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on “This Morning.”

Given that Pokreshchuk’s claim to fame is her modified appearance, it’s no surprise that many of her followers likely have not seen many photos of her before she began her cosmetic procedure journey at the age of 26. But on Aug. 9, 2021, Pokreshchuk gave her followers a glimpse of her past self, posting a photo of a 21-year-old Pokreshchuk next to a more recent photo of herself. In the older photo of herself before she went under the needle and knife, the model’s appearance is subdued when compared to her current self. Let’s take a look at her story.

Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video 🙂

Pokreshchuk (2018), (Aleksey Solodunov/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Pokreshchuk’s journey with plastic surgery began six years ago when the model — who had a fresh-faced look at the time — decided to enlarge her lips with filler. While she was already gorgeous back then, Pokreshchuk didn’t think so. During an appearance on Truly’s “Hooked on the Look” video segment from Oct. 2020, she said:

“When I was 26 years old I underst[oo]d that … I’m not very pretty.” She continued, “So I decided to make my lips [with filler] because I haven’t [got] lips at all,” before calling her old lips “ugly.”

Photos shown on the program reveal both Pokreshchuk’s natural face and lips before she had any work done as well as how she looked after putting a large amount of filler in her lips but before she’d touched her cheeks. She still looked gorgeous at that point but the size of her lips was in stark contrast to the rest of her face.

Then in 2019 around the age of 30, Pokreshchuk decided to get her cheeks filled to exaggerate their shape as well. Although in the interview her cheeks are already extremely defined and much larger than the average person’s, she said with a chuckle:

“Now I think I have to refresh already. I think that they’re a little bit small. You think that it’s too big but for me it’s a little bit small now.”

Clearly aware of the impact her exaggerated features are making on the public, the model does not seem bothered by what others think and is only concerned with how she feels about herself. She added that her aim is that when she wakes up she wants to be able to look in the mirror and see “the picture I like.”

Later in the “Hooked on the Look” video, Pokreshchuk revealed that she doesn’t count how many times she has gone under the needle as it’s already a lot. She said:

“I never count how many procedures I have [done] in my face. I never count because it’s a lot, you can see this is lots.”

She also revealed other procedures she’s had done besides her lips and cheeks. These include botox in her forehead, filler in the area around her mouth, reducing the fat in her chin and accentuating her jawline, which she says she did herself. She estimates that she has spent at least $2,000 on her cheeks and the same amount on her lips, but since she doesn’t count her procedures she isn’t entirely sure how much she’s spent altogether. She added, “I don’t care about this.”

During a trip to one of her cosmetic procedures, Pokreshchuk’s cosmetologist and friend, Katia, was interviewed. She revealed that she doesn’t see anything wrong with what the model is doing. She said:

“Well, Anastasia is a self-sufficient person, she’s an adult and is responsible for her own decisions. I don’t have anything against her … look. When she feels she doesn’t like it anymore she can just remove it. There are enzymes that dissolve all of these medicines so it’s not critical and not that scary.”

Another friend of Pokreshchuk’s, Aleksey is also interviewed and he likes what Pokreshchuk has “done to herself.” In the video, Aleksey is filmed getting his lip filler dissolved by Pokreshchuk. Speaking about his friend’s look, Aleksey added:

“The cheekbones … they look cool. It’s actually awesome. You know, at the beginning when I’d look at her cheekbones I’d be like, wow, shocked. And now I even think they’re too small, she should have more injections!”

The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery (ABCS) describes dermal fillers as:

“Gel-like substances that are injected beneath the skin to restore lost volume, smooth lines and soften creases, or enhance facial contours.”

The website writes that over one million men and women each year choose to partake in this popular facial rejuvenation treatment, which “can be a cost-effective way to look younger without surgery or downtime.” In recent years, celebrities have also contributed to the rise in popularity of fillers, with Kylie Jenner’s lips a very obvious example.

There are a number of different types of fillers that trained professionals can use to achieve different looks that their patients might want. But from the ABCS website, it appears the majority of people use the product to help them appear younger and restore their looks to how they once were rather than drastically using fillers to change their appearance in more extreme ways, such as how Pokreshchuk has done. Rather than using fillers to appear younger, the model’s motivations appear to stem from insecurities she had with herself in the first place.

In an interview with Ladbible, she explained that prior to getting work done she was too shy to post pictures of herself online and that she didn’t like aspects of herself. She said:

“I was ashamed of everything; my voice, my appearance. It was really hard work. I think I was ugly before.”

She added:

“My mom thinks that I was naturally beautiful before, but now thinks I look more exotic and my friends say my new appearance is better because before I looked like a grey mouse.”

But while those close to her seem to have no issues with her extreme look, Pokreshchuk gets polarizing comments on her social media accounts.

She said in the same interview with Ladbible:

“I’ve had people tell me I am an ugly b***h and that I should kill myself but when I see it I just laugh it off and ignore it.”

With over 273,000 followers on Instagram and over 524,000 followers on TikTok, Pokreshchuk is a celebrity in her own right. In the “Hooked on the Look” video she even commented on the presumption that she gets work done simply to stand out from the crowd in order to be different. The model said:

“I look the way I do because I like this. Some people think that [I do this] ‘Ohh, just for hype.’ I’m doing [this] just for me. I want to wake up, go to the mirror and say, ‘Oh Nastya, you are so beautiful today. I love what I see.’”

The model also told Ladbible:

“After I had the injections and saw the changes in my cheeks, I fell in love with them. I understand that they look weird for other people but I don’t mind.”

Showing awareness of the way other people receive her look, Pokreshchuk discussed her fans and so-called haters in the “Hooked on the Look” video. She explained that because she doesn’t take herself too seriously on Instagram and is “just talking about life” she believes that’s why people love her. She added that she has a “very good audience.”

But just as she has hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, the model also has her fair share of critics and they don’t hold back from telling her they don’t like her look. But Pokreshchuk takes it in her stride and doesn’t listen to them. She said:

“There are some haters, yes, it’s not without that. But I don’t give a f***.”

One of her fans, a girl named Dasha, was interviewed and had this to say:

“I think it’s everyone’s own choice and I absolutely don’t judge her. I support her because that’s the way she’s expressing herself and her personality so I have nothing against her look.”

Whether you love or hate her look, Pokreshchuk isn’t quite done with enhancements just yet. She revealed that she still has a lot of other procedures she’d like done to transform her appearance. These include veneers on her teeth so she can have a “Hollywood smile,” as she doesn’t love her natural ones. She also wants to make another shape for her lips but she’ll keep her cheeks big because she loves them. And she also wants to put an implant in her chin.

Asked whether she is addicted to getting procedures done, Pokreshchuk doesn’t think so. She said in the same video:

“I don’t think that this is, like, addiction because I made what I want on my face. But of course, I don’t want to live without fillers or botox because I don’t love wrinkles, I don’t love lips like this [mimics small lips].”

However, she then added:

“So maybe this is a kind of addiction, maybe.”

But nevertheless, she prefers her appearance with all of the filler — “For me, I think, yes I’m more attractive because I like myself like this.”

One thing is clear, Pokreshchuk is certainly happy with her looks ever since beginning to have procedures done, which is in stark contrast to how she saw herself before. She has said that what she does isn’t all about altering her appearance, that the enhancements also make her feel more self-confident around others — a positive byproduct of what some would consider radical changes to her face.

Although her social media channels are full of current pictures of herself, back in August Pokreshchuk did post a before and after that showed the massive transformation she’s had over the last six years.

In the post, the image on the left depicts the model wearing what looks like a black fur shawl of some sort as she shows off what appears to be her natural dark-brown hair. She looks gorgeous in the image and it’s clear why she became a model in the first place. While in the recent photo on the right, we can see that Pokreshchuk has completely transformed — from her massive cheeks to her bright pink hair.

Although some commenters remarked that Pokreshchuk looks better in the photo taken before her procedures, the Instagram model has continually said that she likes modifying her appearance, even if she acknowledges she can “look weird” to some. She said in an interview with The Mirror:

“I love (my cheeks), I want them to look like this and I’m very happy. I regularly inject other parts of my face myself.”

She opened up about this on her appearance on “This Morning” with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in July 2020, where she discussed the dangers of fillers while admitting that she is in cosmetology school. She said:

“It can be dangerous, but I do it with doctors, and now I’m learning cosmetology in an online school.”

With that said, the “This Morning” hosts also interviewed Alex Karidis, a cosmetic surgeon based in London, who said that injecting fillers yourself can be dangerous given the potential complications, which can range from lumpiness to blindness.

Are you a fan of Anastasia Pokreshchuk’s appearance? What do you think about her before and after photos? Pass this on to those you know so they can weigh in with their thoughts too.

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