Editor's Note: Warning that this article contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers.
Devyn Aiken didn't think she was unattractive before this past November. That's a common misconception among her 61,500 followers on TikTok, but in reality, she really didn't need to undergo surgery to gain confidence. It's actually a lot simpler than that.
"I thought I was a pretty girl. I didn't think I was ugly ... You could ask anyone. They would think that I am very confident, very secure with who I was," she tells PEOPLE just nine weeks after going under the knife. "I just thought I had a huge nose that I hated."
Since her nose job, Aiken, 30, has filled her TikTok page with videos discussing the procedure, documenting her recovery and comparing her face on either side of the operation. She's steadily established herself as a plastic surgery influencer, so to speak. Her comments sections are filled with encouraging comments, questions from potential rhinoplasty candidates and, of course, the expected naysayers condemning her decision.
"I documented it from day one. I posted a video when I was on my bed recovering still," Aiken explains, reflecting on her rise to viral attention. "I was just like, 'Wait, this might help other people.' I just want to document everything about the journey."
Aiken posts plenty of "before" photos from the first three decades of her life before she had triple board-certified plastic surgeon and ENT Dr. Mark Ginsburg shape her nose at the end of last year. But scroll back just a few months and you'll see plenty of Aiken's pre-surgery nose in more typical day-in-the-life content that she shared before gaining a following.
"I left all my videos up, my photos, and I'm just owning it. I got a nose job," she notes. "I'm not going to erase who I was. And I love posting the before and after because it's such a dramatic difference."
The Philadelphia-based paralegal doesn't feel any reason to hide her cosmetic surgery or feel shameful about seeking it out. This move was 29 years in the making, says Aiken. She's hated her nose for her whole life, though she notes that it grew noticeably larger during her tween and early teen years.
"I was bullied a lot, especially in middle school, and it was just from guys," she says. "They would call me all type of mean names like bird, Toucan Sam, so much mean stuff ... I was like, 'Oh, my goodness. This is all they talk about -- my nose. So if I change that, what can they talk about?'"
When she grew up and away from nasty comments amid middle school mean streaks, Aiken noticed how much attention her most prominent facial feature claimed in any setting. Sometimes she'd feel stares at her while out and about shopping, or she'd overhear whispered conversations often not intended for her ears.
"The earliest I can remember wanting a nose job was 14. I asked my mom, 'Can I have a nose job?'" she remembers, though she notes most doctors won't operate on a face that isn't fully developed yet.
When she turned 18, Aiken went to her first consultation alone, but she didn't have the money to go through with the surgery yet. "I had a deviated septum, but nothing where I would need to get the surgery," she tells PEOPLE. "It was purely cosmetic. Insurance didn't pay. This was straight-up vanity."
It took years to save up for what turned out to be an $11,000 surgery, but during the time Aiken spent stashing away funds, she was able to thoroughly educate herself and figure out exactly what she wanted.
She went to consults at various offices in a number of states, like New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and she determined that she wanted an ENT to avoid any unfortunate, albeit common, side effects that can occur, like empty nose syndrome. "I wanted to make sure I could breathe afterward," Aiken notes.
Dr. Ginsburg specializes in natural results, and thus he was the natural choice for Aiken. "I didn't want to not look like me. A lot of people get a little small Barbie nose. That would not fit my face," she says. "But I wanted something that was very natural and subtle."
Aiken had long been prepared to communicate her desires when she finally met with the right surgeon. She told him, "I want my dorsal hump removed. I want smaller nostrils. I want it straightened," and Dr. Ginsburg was able to show her how that would likely appear using a 4D morphing software.
Happy with what she saw at the consultation, Aiken booked the procedure and paid for it without telling her family members, none of whom have a similar nose to the one with which Aiken was born. She told her loved ones one week before the procedure, but not because she feared judgment. She just didn't want to hear a single comment that would influence her to question the decision.
"I kind of kept it secretive, and then I just did it," says Aiken. In the end, her family was incredibly supportive of her longtime dream coming true. "They were like, 'Whatever will make you happy. We want you to be happy. We're so there for you.'"
The night before her rhinoplasty, she was overcome with emotion to the point of making herself ill. Aiken tells PEOPLE she "literally vomited all night" and ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor. That severe reaction reflected both extremes of her mindset going into the operating room. On one hand, she feared the risks and possible negative outcomes, but on the flip side, she was overjoyed to be on the verge of a new life.
For the first three weeks after the operation, Aiken's mother stepped in to oversee her recovery. "She took care of all my post-op, went to all my appointments with me. She was literally an angel," the grateful daughter shares.
Though she says it will take a full year for her swelling to fully decrease, Aiken is finally seeing results. Two months after the initial surgery, she also had Dr. Ginsburg inject her lips with two syringes of filler, and her already steady confidence has further skyrocketed.
"I just feel so happy every time I look in the mirror," she tells PEOPLE. "It's literally life-changing ... Now I can just shop in peace. I can go out in peace and I don't have to worry if someone's making a comment. I feel relieved."
Haters will flock to comments sections on any type of post, so it's no surprise that they've been especially judgmental in reply to Aiken's videos about her shameless cosmetic changes. She grew up getting bullied for her nose, so she anticipated she'd get bullied for any content concerning it, even if she posted about changing it. Luckily, she's become less and less sensitive to that type of negativity over the years.
"I was a little nervous putting myself out there because I get nasty comments every day. Every time I log onto my social media, there's a disgusting comment," says the TikTok star. "People just have a misconception that [with] plastic surgery, you're like this fake bimbo. You're making yourself into someone else. That's not the case. I'm just enhancing and improving myself."
Fortunately, her videos have also reached her intended audience, and she receives replies from plenty of men and women who are interested in having the surgery themselves. They appreciate her honesty in showing the bruising and reality of recovery, as well as the gratification that accompanies a good result.
She even met her best friend through creating TikTok videos. Another one of Dr. Ginsburg's patients found Aiken's videos, and the duo met when they coincidentally scheduled post-op appointments on the same day.
They shared an instant connection. "We joke about it. We're like, 'We paid 12 grand for a best friend.'" At their recent dinner together, the two friends texted their surgeon to say, "Hi, from your happiest patients."
For that reason and a countless array of others, Aiken maintains that her nose job was the "best decision of my life," and she couldn't be more pleased with the results. Her appreciation for Dr. Ginsburg's work makes an undeniable impression through social media screens.
"People will comment on my videos like, 'Oh, my God. You're glowing. We see how happy you are,'" she says. "That's my favorite comment, that you can see the confidence change."