Photo: Getty
Are these really 'before and after' photos — or has she just grown up?
By Nicole Weaver — Last updated on Mar 03, 2023
Most of us know quite a lot about the Kardashian and Jenner families, the super-famous clan who rose to fame for not much more being celebrities who hang out with other celebrities.
And while we many people love to hate on them for rising to fame based on almost nothing but their wealth, there’s no denying most of us would love to be in their position.
Kim Kardashian, 42, is arguably one of the most famous and influential women in the world, having built a business empire while balancing her multiple roles as business woman, star of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," and mom to her four adorable kids with Kanye West, North, 9, Saint, 7, Chicago, 5, and Psalm, 3.
The Kardashian-Jenner family certainly isn’t shy about using social media. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, you name it — they not only use it all, they set trends and stock prices alike.
But hands down, the best ones happen to be the #TBT (hashtag Throw Back Thursday) pictures Kim loves to share.
Every time she shares one of these gems, we mere mortals can breakout our favorite zoom tools to try and figure out what kind of plastic surgery, fillers, or other injectables like Botox Kim Kardashian may have had.
Has Kim Kardashian had plastic surgery? A nose job perhaps?
Browsing through her personal Instagram feed, you can glimpse tons of shots of young Kimmie not only with her sisters Kourtney and Khloé, but also with famous long-time friends like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.
Looking at some of these images, it would be easy to assume Kim's had a lot of work done over the years. And yet, in others, such as the one in which she infamously dubbed herself "Miss Teen Armenian," she really doesn't look all that different than the way she does now.
While having her makeup done by Mario Dedivanovic during a 2019 Master Class in Los Angeles, Kim stated firmly, “I never had my nose done ... Everyone thought I did, and I said wait until I have kids because your real features come out.”
Kardashian insists that the differences in her appearance — which would honestly cause most reasonable people to at least wonder if those plastic surgery rumors are true — are simply the byproduct of makeup, angles and lighting.
"Everyone always thinks I've had my nose done or my lips done or just anything to my face like besides Botox, which to me isn't plastic surgery," she told Harper's Bazaar in 2012. "People always say I've had a nose job and they'll use before and after pictures but the after picture is really taken before. It's so funny, it just depends on how your nose is contoured."
Kardashian's looks have certainly changed over the years. Not only has the reality star evolved when it comes to her fashion, but in some images of her back in the day, her body and face appear almost unrecognizable. Of course, the same can be said for plenty of celebrities and common folk like you and me alike, with or without having gone through plastic surgery.
And of course, we're all entitled to do what we want to with our own faces and bodies. Getting plastic surgery, fillers or Botox isn't necessarily a bad thing.
From her childhood to the time when she was best known as Paris Hilton’s BFF to that one time she fulfilled future husband Kanye West's fantasy of seeing her as slave Princess Leia on his "hiphop Muppet show" (yes, really), the pictures below prove that Kim Kardashian has come a long, long way over the first four decades of her life.
Enjoy this look back at 19 pictures of Kim Kardashian (alledgedly) before and after plastic surgery:
1. 6 years old: Celebrating Christmas 1986 with Kourtney and Khloé
2. Side-by-side pictures of Kim at 6 years old (1986 or 1987) vs. 30 years old (2010)
3. 7 years old with an adorable bow in 1987 or 1988
4. Side-by-side pictures of Kim at 7 years old (1987 or 1988) and at 34 years old (2015)
5. Undated photo of Kim as a pre-teen or teen with her beloved dad, the late Robert Kardashian
6. With big sister Kourtney, then 10, and friends at 9 years old (1989 or 1990)
7. Undated photo of Kim posing with her ice skates as a pre-teen
8. Kim looking appropriately sullen at the age of 12 (1992 or 1993)
9. Somewhere in Kim's pre-teen or teen years with Nicole Richie
10. Around 14 years old in 9th grade (1994 or 1995)
11. Undated side-by-side pictures of Kim as a teen vs. somewhere in her mid- to late-30s
12. Kim looking very mature at 16 years old in the summer of 1996
13. Kim dubbed herself "Miss Teen Armenian" when she shared this throwback picture from her teenaged years on Instagram
14. Little sister Khloé helping Kim celebrate her 18th birthday in 1998
15. At 19 years old, relaxing with Kourt, then 20
16. Side-by-side images of Kim at 25 in 2005 and at 37 in 2017
17. 26-year-old Kim with pal Paris Hilton in Ibiza in 2006
18. Kim at 27, on the set of the "hiphop Muppet show" called "Alligator Boots" she filmed with future husband Kanye West in 2007
19. Additional undated photos of Kim's face head-on for comparison
Nicole Weaver is a senior writer for Showbiz Cheat Sheet whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more.