'Young girls want to "fix" a certain part of their face. I asked a doctor if it's necessary.'

I officially need to log off the internet for the day because young girls want to remove their *checks notes* smile lines.

It all started with a video. A video that got quite a bit of backlash.

I won't name the creator, but here's what happened.

A 22-year-old girl asked TikTok a seemingly innocuous question.

"I need help," she said.

TikTok as a sounding board is always a risky game, but I digress.

Watch: A theory on millennial ageing. Post continues after video.

"For all the girls that know procedures and stuff, I have really strong smile lines," she continued.

"It's not because of anything I have done to my face. I've just always had them. How do I get rid of that? I don't want to inject stuff because my face is already full. But how do I do some skin tightening?"

While many people shared genuine advice, others were left feeling a different type of way. Not about the creator in question, but about the concept of removing smile lines in general.

"You are beautiful and it's just a natural part of your face. Don't try to fix something that doesn't need fixing," one wrote.

"Social media makes me hate myself," added another. "Literally everything is an insecurity. Everyone's starting to look the same, getting the same procedures done. It's sad to think smile lines are even a problem now."

"I think we all need to go outside," penned a third. "There's nothing wrong with your smile lines!!"

In one of the most popular responses, a creator stitched the video to share an emphatic rant about the whole thing.

"Close those tabs, get off that website," she urged. "You are as young as you will ever be, older people — women and men — are dying to look like you, how you look right now, and apparently you're dying to look like them? Stop putting filler in your face; what do you think pillow face is?"

She finished the video by saying, "Worry about that shit when you're 60. It's such a f**king problem, girls just be sitting at home making shit up. Smile lines??"

In fact, the discourse spread so far that the original creator addressed the backlash in a follow-up video.

"The way everyone is so upset about me not liking my smile lines is actually crazy," she said.

"I feel like me saying I don't want my smile lines is me saying I don't want deep wrinkles; that's why people get Botox, it's the same thing as saying I don't want my acne scars."

The thing is, she's not alone. If you search 'smile lines' on TikTok there are millions and millions of views on videos telling you how to remove them.

To clarify, the technical name for smile lines is 'nasolabial folds' and, no, they are not just from smiling or laughing.

"Smile lines can be prominent due to either anatomical variation, even some children have prominent smile lines," shared Dr Yalda Jamali, a Cosmetic Doctor at EPIOS Clinic. "Or as part of ageing as we lose the bulk of our fat pads in our mid-face and our nasolabial fat pads get bigger, giving rise to these folds."

While I had never considered 'removing' mine, all of these TikToks got me thinking — are smile lines a genuine concern for early intervention?

"I would only suggest intervening when these lines become prominent or problematic for the patient," Dr Jamali told Mamamia. "I would not suggest 'preventative' measures at a young age (20s and early 30s) for this concern."

According to the cosmetic doctor, the risks of starting procedures at a young age — meaning between 18 and 28 — "depends on the type of treatment".

"Collagen-inducing treatments such as radio frequency and needling is not an issue," she said. "It gets a bit problematic when patients overdo volumising treatments from a young age and end up augmenting their facial features excessively."

In Australia, cosmetic patients must be 18 years or older. But what age should we start considering treatment, if at all?

"Usually for 'ageing' concerns I recommend seeing someone when you reach late 20s AND have cosmetic concerns," said the doctor.

"I do have patients as young as 18 that are concerned about the shape of their nose or bothered by a nose bump that I would treat younger. It really depends on the patient and their concern."

And that is an important point — what we to do our bodies is an individual choice dependent on our respective circumstances.

But I do think this 'smile line saga' raises some interesting questions about the role of social media when it comes to influencing decisions.

At the risk of using a slippery slope argument, when does social media convince me I need filler in my pinky toe?

Personally, I don't have the energy (not to mention bank balance) to care. But what about a young girl whose frontal lobe isn't yet developed? I'm hopeful the new social media ban will protect her.

I'll leave you with this from Dr Jamali: "It is important to note that ageing is an inevitable process and there has to be a degree of acceptance when it comes to signs of ageing. We cannot eradicate all the signs."

Feature Image: TikTok/@immbunny/@4complexion