With great fame comes great access to stylists, make-up artists, hairdressers, personal trainers, cosmetic surgeons and, of course, Botox. A glow up is almost inevitable at that point – just ask US comedy heavyweight, Nikki Glaser, who is the first to shout about her own.

Glaser has been on the stand-up scene since she was 18 and reached mainstream fame when she began hosting her own show on Comedy Central, Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, in 2016. Since then, she has hosted reality TV dating shows like Blind Date, FBoy Island and Lovers and Liars, starred in films including Trainwreck and I Feel Pretty and earlier this year she became the first solo female host in Golden Globes history. To say her career has skyrocketed in the past decade would be an understatement.

Last week, she marked how far she has come with a series of side-by-side images of her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 and her most recent appearance in March. Unsurprisingly, in her ‘after’ pictures, she looks noticeably more toned, tanned and better dressed. Her hair and makeup is more ‘Hollywood’ and her face is just as taut as it was when she was 25.

Of course, there are a number of reasons why Glaser might have shared her own before and after pictures, the main one being that she looks great, and she knows it. And it never hurts to hear fans say it too. ‘Amazing,’ wrote her comedy colleague Cat Cohen in the comments section. ‘This post is telling me I need a spray tan,’ joked Amy Chang. Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause added, ‘Yassss’ with three fire emojis, and a fourth person simply wrote, ‘The glow up is actually INSANE.’

Not only do the comparative pictures mark how far Glaser has come in her career, but they are a reminder that beauty does not always have to be tied up in youthfulness. Now age 40, Glaser is looking better than ever. As one commenter articulately put it, ‘The mantra used to be “you’ll never be as young as you are today” and Nikki is teaching the girlies that “getting older only gives you more time to get hotter”.’

While Glaser clearly takes pride in her appearance and has every right to celebrate herself, she also has no interest in pedalling pretences. When Fallon complimented her appearance as she sat down in his iconic hot seat she said, ‘It takes a lot of work. This is a mirage, what you’re seeing before you.’ She went on to explain that she was wearing a ‘compression sock’ to suck in her stomach, something that is attached to a thong that gets increasingly uncomfortable as the night goes on. ‘If you saw underneath this,’ she joked, ‘it looks like I’m cutting clay. It’s painful, Jimmy.’

The comedian never shies away from talking about the cosmetic procedures that have aided her glow up either. In fact, she told Fallon that she has a facelift booked in for August 2026. ‘I have no problem with that,’ Glaser explained, ‘you’ve got to do it subtly, so that people go “what’s she doing?” and you can just go “just meditating more”. “I’m just working on my gut health, you know, so my brow has been lowered two inches.”’

She has talked openly about having Botox and a nose job in the past and is a proud champion of cosmetic ‘tweakments’. When Fallon asked about her stance on Ozempic she said, ‘Oh I love it! Do it. I have no judgement.’

‘There’s a stigma around getting face work or investing in your beauty and doing all these procedures and there is maybe a little bit of sadness to it but also it makes my life better,’ she put in plain terms. ‘People treat you better when you’re hotter. It’s just a sad fact of life.’

Glaser’s argument, then, is that we should remove the shame attached to the different choices people make and in doing so people might be more open about what they’ve had done. That way no one would look at Glaser’s 2009 versus 2025 glow up and think it was down to ‘meditation’ or ‘drinking lots of water’, as she joked herself, and would know that she has made substantial financial investments in her appearance.

By sharing her own before and after pictures, Glaser is owning the fact she has money, has had help, and that she endures gravity-defying, body-sculpting clothing to look the way she does. She is also jumping the gun and pointing these things out before anyone else can – and we all know they do. There is little the tabloid press and social media trolls love more than outing a woman for having surgery or criticising her for ageing naturally and not looking the same as she did when she was 25. In doing it herself with nothing to hide, Glaser is taking that power back.

Let’s be honest, female beauty standards are a complicated matrix, and everyone has their own stance on whether succumbing to societal pressures to be ‘hot’ is a positive long-term strategy, but Glaser is iconic in her honesty. Perhaps we’d all have much more realistic ideals if we knew the amount of money and work that goes into some of our favourite stars’ appearances. Fame sure looks good on Glaser – as it would do on anyone.