Aimee Lou Wood has cemented her status as a Hollywood icon<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Bonnie McLaren<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/aimee-lou-wood-1.jpeg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”aimee-lou-wood-1″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] On Sunday, the last episode of the third season of The White Lotus<\/em> aired to mixed reviews. But despite a lukewarm reaction to the series \u2013 and no spoilers, in case you still haven\u2019t seen it yet \u2013 there\u2019s one thing everyone is in agreement on: Aimee Lou Wood is a star who needs to be protected at all costs.<\/p>\n After her breakout role in Sex Education<\/em>, The White Lotus<\/em> has been one of the 31-year-old\u2019s biggest roles. But, aside from enthralling viewers with her acting as the magnetic Chelsea, the fan favourite has been making headlines for how she looks. And while that\u2019s (sadly) predictable for a woman in the public eye, in a world of filters and Facetune, I think the conversation her turn in the show is creating around natural beauty can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with The Sunday Times<\/em>, Aimee declared herself to be \u2018anti-Botox\u2019. \u2018I saw these women yesterday, it was these women who do Botox,\u2019 she told the magazine. \u2018We were talking about how it’s obvious I haven’t had it. I’m like very anti-Botox, people can do whatever they want but for myself [\u2026] a lot of my career relies on these facial expressions. So I can’t start freezing my face, it needs to move.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stance similar to that of complete legend Sarah Jessica Parker, who isn\u2019t against other people getting Botox \u2013 but has said she wouldn\u2019t get it herself as she needs to move her eyebrows as an actor. \u2018I\u2019m meant to be sharing emotions and communicating with my face,\u2019 the 60-year-old told The Telegraph. She also pointed out the obvious, which still needs to be pointed out: men are never subject to the same discussions or intrusive questions about ageing. ‘I am so confused by the fact that the majority of men my age are simply never asked about ageing,\u2019 she added. \u2018We all wake up, have a million things going on, and just need to get on with our days – I just don’t understand the emphasis that is placed on the pondering of ageing.’<\/p>\n Like Aimee and SJP, I am not against anyone getting cosmetic surgery, Botox or whatever-incredible-new-injectable-treatment-is-changing-the-world. Of course, what you do to your face is personal choice. (And being honest, as I\u2019m 27, it\u2019s a choice I can\u2019t promise I\u2019m going to opt out of as I get older.) But I do think it\u2019s bold not to succumb to the pressure of tweakments, even more so when you\u2019re an actress beamed onto millions of TV screens across the world.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] One friend said she noticed Aimee hadn\u2019t had any work done when she was watching the show, and while she said she liked the fine lines on Aimee\u2019s forehead, she said she didn\u2019t know whether she\u2019d feel comfortable having them herself \u2013 even though she doesn\u2019t like getting Botox. And that\u2019s exactly why it\u2019s so important to see women who look their age in glossy dramas. Our natural faces shouldn\u2019t be seen as shameful or abnormal. And we shouldn\u2019t feel like we have to prod ourselves with needles as soon as the threat of a wrinkle starts to gently take root on our foreheads.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s hard not to feel that way, when tweakments are so accessible you can get them on your lunch break, and everywhere you look you\u2019re greeted with faces bare of any lines, let alone emotion. Kim Kardashian \u2013 the mother of unattainable beauty standards \u2013 has quipped on The Kardashians<\/em> she\u2019s worried about not being able to move her face as an actress thanks to Botox. And even in fiction there\u2019s no escape, following the film release, I\u2019ve just re-read Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy<\/em> \u2013 there\u2019s a passage dedicated to Bridge getting Botox after peer pressure (obviously, in typical Bridget-style, it goes tits up and her mouth becomes frozen).<\/p>\n Aimee and SJP might say they need to move their faces for their job, but certainly not all actors opt to go Botox free. (And many names like Courteney Cox have also shared their regret over past Botox.) Acting is a fierce, brutal industry, where women are often pitted against each other. One friend, who recently graduated from drama school, tells me there\u2019s an expectation to get work done \u2013 but with one caveat, it must look natural. \u2018You have to be beautiful,\u2019 she says, \u2018but most importantly, castable.\u2019 But, this friend says, as numerous women in her school year had their teeth fixed by Invisalign while they were training, it\u2019s most refreshing that Aimee has kept her teeth the way they are, slightly gappy with an overbite.<\/p>\n And speaking as someone who spent the entirety of my teenage years with plastic blocks stuck onto retainers which were trying to push forward my lower jaw, I\u2019ve got to agree. Take it from me: fixing an overbite is painful, and time consuming. To see someone who has opted to not go through that process \u2013 and still look bloody gorgeous \u2013 is rebellious. Her teeth are something I know teenage me would have loved to see on screen, instead of yet another set of creepily white, straight veneers.<\/p>\n Understandably, Aimee is getting a bit tired of the conversation around her teeth, and as I\u2019m writing this piece she told GQ<\/em>, \u2018it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work\u2019. Like queen SJP, she also made the point it\u2019s unlikely we\u2019d be having this much of a conversation about it if she was a man, which is undoubtedly true. But with the love everyone has for Aimee, she\u2019s only going to become a bigger star, getting booked in more and more huge shows. An effect of her transparency is hopefully more women, on and off screen, will also feel they can be celebrated for being themselves; braces, filler or not.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: <\/b>HBO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She’s unapologetic and it’s great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8496"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8507,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions\/8507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘I can’t start freezing my face, it needs to move’ \u2013 Aimee Lou Wood<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]