It was during a standard consultation with a plastic surgeon, while on holiday with her mother in Istanbul, that Antonia Higham was first introduced to the idea of a facelift.

Why not? A couple of tucks here, some pinches there. Hundreds of thousands of women have trod the same path before.

Holding her camera up to her face from her hotel room in Turkey the day before the operation, the Liverpudlian influencer announced to her hundreds of thousands of followers in March: ‘I am getting a facelift tomorrow. I’m so excited.’

So why did the move cause social media pandemonium, garner her intense backlash from disappointed critics and force her to speak out to me?

Well, because Antonia is only 28 years old.

It’s no secret that most women who undergo a major facelift procedure are usually over the age of 50.

The most common reason is to correct deeper set wrinkles, fix loose neck skin and eliminate jowls.

And now, for the first time, Antonia is telling me why she really had a rhytidectomy (facelift) at such a young age – and it’s all due to the troubling rise of unrealistic beauty standards flooding social media which left her with deep insecurities.

After having a full facelift in March, Antonia Higham suffered weeks of swelling, which still hasn't fully gone down

The aspiring actress says constantly looking at her face on films and social media made her notice all the little details and imperfections

The five-hour invasive procedure involved incisions around her hairline and ears, lifting the skin, tightening underlying muscles and tissue and removing excess skin. But Antonia insists to her social media followers she doesn’t regret paying for the £9,000 procedure.

Before meeting her, I simply couldn’t understand why a beautiful young woman – the same age as me – would choose to undergo such an invasive surgery.

But when I got the chance to sit down opposite her, I quickly realised the reasoning behind her extreme decision was more than simply just wanting to look younger.

In fact, according to her, the decision was about wanting to change the very shape of the face she was born with.

‘I felt like this area of my face looked heavy and sunken,’ she explains as she pulled at the left side of her still-swollen face – an insecurity she developed purely from constantly seeing herself on camera.

It does not help that Antonia is currently an influencer and in her final year at acting school in London.

Having her face repeatedly blown up on a screen in front of her classmates and strewn across social media, she told me, made her obsess over tiny details she might otherwise never have noticed.

‘I started noticing every little thing and detail and insecurity about my face,’ she says. ‘It was massively influenced by me looking at myself on camera all the time.

Antonia says she is happy with the results of the procedure, but 'there have been aspects that have been really difficult'

‘I thought if I don’t do it now, then there might not be another chance.’

She had initially considered fox eye surgery, which raises the outer corners of the eyes and brows to create a more elongated, almond-shaped appearance.

But it was during a consultation in Istanbul, while on holiday there with her mother, that a surgeon suggested a facelift.

The surgeon had been recommended by other influencer friends of hers and to get the procedure done in the UK, she tells me, would have cost more than £30,000.

Although Antonia insisted he told her she didn’t need the procedure.

She returned to Britain, waited around three months and then secretly flew back for the operation.

She hadn’t told her family she was going through with it. Her mother had advised her against having surgery following their initial consultation, so Antonia decided to travel with her partner instead.

And then her mother found out in the most ‘influencer’ way possible: Through TikTok.

‘When she saw on social media that I had had it done, she was like, “Antonia, what the hell?” She was so angry,’ she recalls.

‘I was too scared to tell her because when we had the consultation, she told me not to get it done.

‘Pretty much everyone that knows me found out through social media.

‘I knew [if I had told them], they’d try and talk me out of it.’

Her partner was equally shocked by what he saw the following day.

‘He said he’d never seen anyone look like that in his life,’ she recalls. ‘He said he didn’t think a human being could look that swollen and bruised.’

The recovery, she tells me, has been brutal.

Antonia said she couldn’t eat or drink for two days and barely woke properly until the day after surgery, before watching the swelling become even worse.

People stared when she went outside. She even had to board a flight looking, in her words, ‘terrifying’.

‘I was scaring everyone that looked at me,’ she said.

‘It was at that point that I wondered if I had made a mistake.’

And then came the waiting game.

Antonia had been told that around 70 per cent of the swelling would have subsided three weeks after the operation and that she should look normal. But she didn’t.

‘Three weeks later I still looked completely swollen. I looked like E.T. and everyone kept giving me that nickname.’

At two months, she was still very bruised and couldn’t feel parts of her face. Yet she had to return to drama school.

‘I had to wear sunglasses constantly,’ she says. ‘It was very obvious I had a lot of work done and a big procedure.’

And now, more than four months on, she is still dealing with swelling. As we speak, she shows me how one eyebrow doesn’t move properly at all.

So, does she regret it?

‘No,’ she insists. ‘I do like the result, but there have been aspects that have been really difficult.’

She has also had to deal with the inevitable backlash after she made a video announcing the procedure to her followers in March. The video has now racked up almost three million views.

Antonia says she has received an enormous amount of hate online, including death threats.

She jokes now that the ‘losers putting hate in her comments’ have effectively paid for her to buy a new designer bag, through engaging with her content.

‘The reason why I made the video is because I couldn’t find anyone else talking about doing something similar at my age,’ she tells me.

‘I didn’t realise it would go so viral.

‘Some of the messages I have had have been so vile, the amount of death threats too. I have had to learn to have a really thick skin and shut a lot of it out.

‘Jesus could make a TikTok account and have haters.’

But alongside the abuse came thousands of messages from people thanking her for documenting something about which they couldn’t find themselves.

‘There wasn’t anything like it online when I was researching,’ she said. ‘I was looking around for content from young people showing their results and journey and I couldn’t find any.’

And she is keen to make one thing clear: she isn’t telling anyone else to have surgery.

I ask her about comments I have seen suggesting she is promoting cosmetic procedures, particularly to some of her younger followers.

‘I’ve never told anyone to do it,’ she says. ‘I’ve always said this was my own journey.

‘Celebrities are celebrated for being honest about the surgery they have had, Kylie Jenner admitted to her boob job and got no end of praise. But as soon as I do it, it’s different.

‘I want to be open and honest with my followers, not disappear for three months, have a new face and not address it.’

And perhaps that is what makes her story more interesting than the facelift itself.

Antonia tells me she has had a nose job, recently had a second breast augmentation consultation and is now openly documenting her cosmetic journey.

Yet, at the same time, she admits that, looking back, the 28-year-old who went under the knife may simply have needed to be a little kinder to herself.

‘I do look back and think I was probably too harsh on myself,’ Antonia tells me. ‘I wish I’d had a bit more self-love.’

It is a striking thing to say after spending £9,000 and enduring months of swelling, bruising and numbness.

But Antonia is adamant that she feels happier now.

She wants to focus on the career that brought her to London in the first place – acting – and focus on getting on screen without worrying about what she might look like.

‘I really want to do screen acting and I feel a lot more confident in doing that now with my new face.’

After everything she’s put it through, hopefully her face will finally get its starring role.

Megan proves Wags aren't just for summer

I revealed weeks before the World Cup that Megan Pickford was on a mission to revive the glory days of ‘Wag culture’ – when Victoria Beckham, Coleen Rooney and Cheryl Tweedy became almost as famous as their footballer other halves while cheering them on in Germany’s 2006 tournament. Well, she’s certainly been putting in the work.

Megan Pickford cheered on her husband Jordan throughout the World Cup this summer

Megan has been embracing the full Wag lifestyle. She’s been giving her followers a glimpse into her glamorous life, from all-inclusive holidays and getting her hair extensions taken out, to making pizza with the family and jetting off to Ibiza with goalkeeper husband Jordan by private plane. And it seems her strategy is paying off. In the past month alone, the Wag has gained 38,000 followers. Megan and Jordan, who have three children, clearly know how to keep family life at the heart of their social media presence. And now with her profile firmly on the rise, I’d expect the brand deals to start knocking on the door any minute.

After all, if Megan really is bringing back the Wag era, she might as well cash in on it.

Who needs Glastonbury when you have Dua Lipa?

When Glastonbury organisers announced last year the festival would be on hiatus for this summer, there was panic among influencers who rely on the five-day fiesta as the perfect backdrop for their summer Instagram ‘dumps’. What would fill the Worthy Farm-shaped hole? Well, it appears they’ve found the perfect replacement. Sunny Hill Festival in Kosovo last weekend was inundated with influencers because it was founded and run by the queen of partying herself, Dua Lipa.

The singer, 30, set up the weekend in her hometown in 2018 alongside her father and manager, Dukagjin. This year it saw Glastonbury’s usual faces – Romeo Beckham’s girlfriend Kim Turnbull, Kate Moss’s daughter Lila and her best friend, Olivia Neill – fly over by private jet. But no matter how VIP their treatment was – it included backstage access and was, of course, flaunted all over their Instagram grids – Dua still did not include them on her social media coverage...

Up

Creator @alexhobern has recently shown followers how to hold and burp a baby, as well as opening up about birth trauma

Move over traditional parenting manuals, a new generation of dads is turning to TikTok to document the highs, lows and sheer chaos of early fatherhood.

Following in the footsteps of communities such as Pints and Ponytails, these new dads are sharing refreshingly honest insights into life with a newborn, from the things they wish they’d known to the lessons they’re learning on the job.

It’s creating a safe space for men to talk openly about fatherhood, too. Creator favourite @alexhobern has recently shown followers how to hold and burp a baby, as well as opening up about birth trauma.

Down

There’s something rather awkward about a restaurant brand announcing that it wants to employ ‘hundreds and thousands’ of young men – and seemingly nobody stopping to ask whether excluding women and older workers is quite the route to take. Austin’s Dad, the pizza concept linked to Gregg Wallace, says it wants to give 18-25-year-old men ‘big opportunities’, while promising affordable food. And then there’s the promotional dream team: Wallace, Apprentice star turned Reform activist Thomas Skinner and food reviewer Matthew Binge. Controversy, it seems, is very much on the menu.

I see one of New York’s biggest influencers, Acquired Style, has finally had her wedding. Brigette Pheloung, now McHale, tied the knot in what was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated influencer weddings of the year but, I hear, there was one detail missing from the celebrations: the coveted Vogue spread. Sources tell me Brigette was keen to land the fashion bible for her big day, approaching photographers and pitching the idea to contacts at the magazine. She was also said to be less than thrilled when a guest appeared to ‘leak’ a picture of her wedding dress. No Vogue, then, but plenty of attention.

My recommendation of the week has to be @cabbiekaren, the London black cab driver turning her daily journeys into a fascinating tour of the capital. From hidden gems and forgotten corners to the stories and secrets tucked away on London’s streets, Karen is teaching even me, who has lived in London my whole life, something new. Her videos are a reminder that you can think you know a city and still have plenty left to discover. If you’re a Londoner, a history lover, or simply enjoy a good local secret, she’s well worth a follow.

Email me – molly.clayton@dailymail.co.uk

Instagram – @mollyroseclayton

TikTok – @mollclayton