This article appeared in twistkoala.com and has been published here with permission.
Back in 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil, a child was born who would go on to become human Ken and then human Barbie. Jessica Alves spent upwards of a million dollars on her transformation. Let’s talk about her incredible story, from humble beginnings in South America to a completely transformed life. Jessica’s story is certainly anything but boring. Let’s take a look at the journey that brought her to the point where she is today.
The Beginning
Prior to her transition, Jessica Alves was born as a male in São Paulo, Brazil, in the early 1980s. Her childhood was completely dominated by severe insecurities and body dysmorphia, with her peers constantly bullying her and making her life hell.
As a male, Jessica wasn’t going through puberty at the same rate as her male peers were. This became something that people would bully her for, relentlessly teasing Jessica for how her body looked. That’s enough to traumatize any child.
Hormone Troubles
In 1999, Jessica turned 16 years old. Teenage years are hard enough, but for Jessica, those years were even worse. She was diagnosed with a hormonal dysfunction, explaining why puberty was such a struggle for her. As a biological man, she was growing significant breast tissue.
Jessica was mocked for how she looked and always dreaded going to school. With a low male voice and facial hair, her peers would make fun of her ‘boobs.’ They also picked on her for her bigger nose and relentlessly bullied her over her weight.
More and More Bullying
No matter what she did, Jessica couldn’t control what puberty was doing to her body. Her frame seemed to be wider than a lot of her peers, and there was nothing she could do to hide it. Jessica recalled having her face pushed into urinals.
Bullies would also push her down flights of stairs, intentionally trying to cause physical harm to her. But, of course, this torture affected her psychologically, too. Jessica felt so alone, and there wasn’t anywhere she could hide from the bullying.
Fast Forward to 2016
Let’s fast-forward to 2016 — our human doll is 33 years old at this point. Still going by her birth name and presenting as male, Jessica has completely transformed herself into an uncanny resemblance to a Ken doll through countless surgeries and procedures.
Making the most of this new look and all the money spent on procedures, she turned it into a career. Selling products, appearing on TV, and utilizing social media, Jessica thrived in the spotlight. She was literally everywhere; you couldn’t miss her.
The Start
So, how did this transformation start? The horrendous bullying at school had really taken a toll on her mental health and body image. At 17, Jessica had saved up $3,500 to have her breasts reduced to an average size to stop the bullying.
Unfortunately, the scars never healed, and this led to a spiral of more and more surgeries to ‘fix’ herself. Not only were these surgeries turning out to be really expensive, but they were also incredibly dangerous and posed some health risks.
Cosmetic Procedures
Let’s take a look at the cosmetic procedures Jessica has gone through to achieve this doll-like appearance. It started simple — with botox, nose jobs, and liposuction. However, soon she was getting pectoral implants, fillers in her arms, hair transplants, and even a fake six-pack.
She also got four ribs removed in 2018 for a skinnier look. Now, hardly any part of her body has gone untouched by surgeons. It’s a total 180 from how Jessica looked in her teenage years, completely reshaping everything about her body to look just like Ken.
How Expensive Was it?
Jessica claims she’s had around 57 procedures since she began. The initial cosmetic procedures she had — such as botox and liposuction, to name a few — set her back $27,000. Now, it’s estimated that she’s spent $880,000 on her complete transformation, including her $24,000 rib removal surgery.
How can she afford it? Well, Jessica earns money from endorsements, magazines, interviews, and more in order to get the look she’s after. She also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother (UK), but she was soon evicted for using a racial slur, and the episode was never aired.
Social Media
As the saying goes, all publicity is good publicity. As you can imagine, social media has been all over Jessica’s story, in both good and bad ways. Jessica has amassed over seven million followers on Instagram, with many people now supporting her.
However, as is the case with all celebrities, there’s always going to be haters and people who don’t like you. Many think it’s okay to bully someone just because it’s online. Just like in her childhood, it seems that Jessica can’t escape the bullies.
Any Regrets?
We’re sure you’re wondering if Jessica regrets any of the surgeries she has gone through. In an interview with MailOnline, she said that the rib removal was her biggest regret. She has huge scars on her back and is often in pain.
Jessica says that she doesn’t feel or look any more petite than she did before the procedure and has to wear a corset to achieve the slim waistline look. But, this isn’t the only risky and painful procedure she went through.
The Nose Job
If you remember, Jessica was bullied heavily for her nose. In 2016, she got her first nose job, and things went severely wrong. After the swelling had gone down, Jessica noticed that something didn’t seem quite right. The surgeon had used fillers to reshape her nose and put them in the wrong place.
In a desperate attempt to fix it, she immediately went for another nose job. It was far too soon to be doing another procedure, but the surgeon did it anyway. Jessica says she was aware of the risks but glossed over them in an attempt to get her dream nose.
Necrosis Diagnosis
While recovering from the second nose job, Jessica was feeling rough. She was used to severe pain after surgeries but noticed something wasn’t right when the healing was taking much longer than usual. Then, Jessica noticed a hole in her hose.
The doctors diagnosed her with necrosis, an infection that causes skin tissue to die and is potentially fatal. It can spread quickly, easily affecting the whole face. Jessica was worried that her fixation with her body image was going to kill her.
Nose Reconstruction
Doctors told Jessica that they would need to remove the work they’d done on her nose to stop necrosis from spreading. If they couldn’t stop it, it would literally consume her whole face. Jessica agreed, and the doctors removed the reconstruction.
Jessica had to go through months of painful surgeries to fix what the necrosis had done to her nose, with another four nose jobs carried out. Now, Jessica can’t breathe through her nose anymore and can only breathe through her mouth.
Mental Health
Jessica had become so obsessed with striving for perfection — so much so that she was constantly in pain and, deep down, still felt unhappy. In an attempt to help herself, she visited a psychologist who diagnosed her with body dysmorphia.
In a nutshell, body dysmorphia is the over-obsession with how your body looks and seeing flaws that aren’t really there. No matter how hard you work to ‘fix’ these flaws, there’s always something that someone with body dysmorphia will hate about their body.
More Infections
Now, let’s talk about another dangerous procedure Jessica went through. She injected gel into her arms to give her a more muscular look, but this soon took a life-threatening turn. Jessica had contracted a deadly infection and paralyzed both of her arms.
Jessica and her doctors were worried that they may have had to amputate her arms due to the quick-spreading infection. However, strong antibiotics and a great medical team were able to help her regain feeling in her arms — what a relief.
Her Incredible Transition
In early 2020, Jessica officially came out to the world as transgender. She legally changed her name to Jessica, and now, her mission was to become a human Barbie. On top of the almost a million dollars she’d spent to look like Ken, she initially spent over $100,000 on surgeries to support her transition.
Since 2020, it’s estimated that Jessica has spent over $1.4 million on surgeries and cosmetic procedures, waving goodbye to Ken and saying hello to Barbie. Some of the procedures included a facelift, forehead reduction, and a voice pitch change.
Getting Serious
Now that Jessica felt confident in her body and was finally her true self, she was ready to find love and lose her virginity. Jessica had never had an intimate relationship when she was a man… knowing that, deep down, she was a woman.
Jessica has said she’s going to wait and find the right person to experience intimacy with for the first time to make sure it’s done right. In addition, she says that she has never met another transgender woman and that the experience has been rather lonely.
Is It Ever Enough?
Unfortunately, it seems that Jessica still struggles with body dysmorphia to this day. She has said that when she looks in the mirror, she still sees flaws and is constantly pointing out things that she would like to change about herself.
Apparently, it takes her ages to leave the house because she spends hours making herself look ‘perfect.’ Jessica said that, despite everything, people still hate her and call her ugly. Regardless, she knows she’s done the right thing for herself.
Motherhood
Becoming a mother may be on the horizon for Jessica. There’s a groundbreaking trans womb procedure in the works, which may give trans women the chance to bear their own children. It’s expected that the procedure may become available in the coming years.
Alves hopes that this time will come while she’s still relatively young so that she can truly enjoy motherhood. It’s an anxiety-inducing feeling for Jessica, holding onto hope that her dreams of being a mom will come true.
Let’s Meet Another Human Barbie
Now it’s time to meet Valeria Lukyanova, another human Barbie doll. Valeria was obsessed with Barbie dolls as a kid. Most of us grew out of our phase of playing with Barbie dolls (later revived by the Barbie movie), but Valeria never kicked her obsession.
The 38-year-old went from innocently playing with dolls in her room to completely transforming herself into a Barbie doll. Valeria altered her appearance to have an uncanny resemblance to the beloved doll, with her huge love for Barbie never fading.
Where It All Began
Valeria was born and raised in Moldova, an Eastern European country that was still part of the USSR at the time. She grew up, like most young kids, loving playing with Barbie dolls throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Her collection of Barbies was huge, and she kept a lot of them in their original packages.
However, Valeria wasn’t just playing with the dolls like most of us kids did, making them talk to each other, giving them makeovers, playing house, and the like. She studied their faces and bodies meticulously and was fascinated by them.
Fleeing
As Valeria grew up, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and conservative ways were being challenged by unconventional ideas. In 2014, she left Moldova and fled to Mexico, where her life and body would soon completely change.
Her family really struggled financially, and Valeria wanted more than just a mundane life. She was thinking of ways she could be different and how she could make an excellent living for herself. That’s where modeling comes in.
Before the Procedures
Valeria had always been naturally beautiful, sporting blonde hair and dark eyes from childhood. In 2007, she actually won ‘Miss Diamond Crown of the World.’. Despite winning this huge award that recognized her natural beauty, her fascination with looking more like a Barbie doll only spiraled after this.
She started the alterations with a simple breast implant surgery and wanted more procedures done, but initially denied ever making any changes to her body. The more she began to transform, the more suspicious people became of potential surgeries, and it spiraled from there.
Dangerous Lifestyle
For Valeria, her fixation on her body was more than just surgeries and procedures. She adopted a dangerous eating pattern, claiming she lived off nothing but ‘sunshine and air.’ Despite a few pictures of her sunbathing, she claims she stays out of the sun to maintain a pale appearance, just like Barbie.
Critics have also pointed out that she may have had rib removal surgery, like Jessica. Some argue that due to her proportions and lifestyle, it would be impossible not to see any ribs, so it seems like a plausible explanation.
Her Sister’s Look
Valeria’s sister, Olga, has stuck with her natural appearance and looks starkly different to Valeria. It’s sad to see that they don’t even look related anymore. Apparently, Olga used to be jealous of Valeria’s Barbie appearance but has since backtracked on ever trying to look like her.
Despite the vast amount of criticism Valeria gets from people online, Olga has continued to stick up for her sister. Barbie-like people are often painted as airheads, yet Olga claims Valeria is one of the most intelligent people she knows.
Barbie’s Big Burden
As we’ve learned throughout these Barbie stories, nothing ever seems to be ‘perfect’ enough. Valeria believes that perfection has no limits, and she refuses to settle for anything average, continuing to go to extreme lengths with her appearance.
However, she admits that having the title of a human Barbie can be a huge burden. People seem to forget about her human side, often just viewing her as a doll or inanimate object. They forget she’s a real person with real feelings. Is it really too much to ask to be treated like a regular human?
