Body positive influencer Clara Dao is reflecting on how her decision to get breast implants impacted her social media following.
“I fully expected I would be cancelled once I announced my boob job,” Dao, 26, told the New York Post on Tuesday, July 2. “I’ve lost a lot of followers – around 500,000 across all my platforms. Losing followers doesn’t come as a shock.”
She continued, “I built my following based on that one single message of loving your natural body, your flat chest, especially. A big part of my following followed me for that message.”
Dao amassed almost eight million followers on social media, frequently posting about her smaller chest and her journey to self-acceptance. Dao underwent the cosmetic procedure in March, costing her $3,398.56 — and admitted that the backlash from her following has been “pretty brutal.”
Stars Who Shared Exact Details on Their Breast Implants: Kylie Jenner, More
“Before, when I did flat chest content, most of the hate came from guys, saying you look like a guy, you look ugly, you’re like a piece of wood. Now my hate comes from women, saying you’re a hypocrite, you’re so fake. A lot of people won’t understand. I accept that I won’t be understood by most people, especially my fans,” she said. “The first video I made was about doing what you love. That’s the deeper message I want to spread with my content.”
Despite the reaction from some of her followers, Dao said her “immediate circle” had “positive” things to say because they knew she wanted “a change.”
“My family has always encouraged me to get the surgery since I was 17, since before I started making the content,” she explained. “There’s a cultural difference. In Asia, people are a lot more image-focused. They want you to show the best version of yourself, no flaws, especially online. When I first started social media and showed my flat chest, showed my imperfections, belly rolls, acne, skin texture, my family was against that for a very long time. But I never really listened to them.”
Dao, who went from a bra size 32AA to a 32C, said she’s “loving” her new look and doesn’t regret getting the implants.
From Alix Earle to Remi Bader: Influencers Aren’t Relatable Anymore
“I felt boxed into that content,” she said of having a smaller bra size. “People just knew me as ‘the flat-chested girl.’ As long as I had my flat chest, I could fall back on it and increase my subscribers, and things would just be the same.”
She continued, “Creatively, I feel boxed in; I don’t feel passionate about the content I did anymore. I don’t want that option anymore. I got the surgery because I was bored. I wanted to get out of the trap of making content about my flat chest. I had a lot of self-love and body positivity before, and I have a lot of self-love now.”
Dao admitted that the surgery was “pretty impulsive” as she began thinking about getting implants in February and underwent the procedure in Vietnam the following month. The influencer noted that she had “slight complications” with the surgery but is now on the road to recovery.
“The wound on my left side didn’t close for two, three weeks, so it took a bit longer to heal, but nothing major. The service here is very good. They checked the wound every day,” she explained. “It really hurt for the first three days. I’d need help getting up and down from the bed, and I couldn’t do certain movements with my arms. But after a month, you get back basically to normal.”
