Acceptance of cosmetic surgery, body appreciation, body ideal internalization, and fashion blog reading among late adolescents in Sweden

• Attitudes of cosmetic surgery were examined in a sample of late adolescents.
• Younger adolescents, especially boys, were the most accepting of social motives of cosmetic surgery.
• Thin ideal internalization was the strongest correlate of cosmetic surgery acceptance, especially for girls.
• Frequent female fashion blog readers reported significantly higher thin ideal internalization, and slightly more consideration of cosmetic surgery.

This study examined adolescents’ attitudes of cosmetic surgery, as well as the relationships between these attitudes, body appreciation, body ideal internalization, and fashion blog reading. The sample comprised 110 (60 boys, 50 girls) late adolescents (mean age 16.9 years) from a Swedish high school. The results indicated that younger adolescents seem somewhat more accepting of cosmetic surgery. This was especially the case for boys’ acceptance of social motives for obtaining cosmetic surgery (boys’ M = 2.3 ± 1.55 vs. girls’ M = 1.7 ± 0.89). Girls’, and to a limited extent boys’, internalization of the thin ideal was related to more favorable cosmetic surgery attitudes. Athletic ideal internalization and body appreciation were unrelated to these attitudes. Finally, girls who frequently read fashion blogs reported higher thin ideal internalization, and also demonstrated a slight tendency of more cosmetic surgery consideration.