A Colombian influencer claims she has undergone close to 29 surgeries as part of her infatuation with converting herself into the human version of Barbie.
Tatiana Murillo, who is also known as ‘The Colombian Barbie,’ sought a change in physical appearance as a result of the bullying she experienced while attending school in Caicedo, a city in northwest department of Antioquia.
‘In my town, where the girls were very pretty, they called them Barbies,’ the xx-year-old model said, as quoted by El Tiempo.
Murillo admitted she ‘was not very pretty’ and was picked on by her classmates because of her brown skin tone.
‘So, they bullied me for that, for my appearance, for my skin color,’ she said. ‘Even because of my social class, because my parents have always been farmers.’
Colombian influencer Tatiana Murillo has reportedly had at least 29 surgeries as part of her journey to convert herself into a human version of Barbie
Tatiana Murillo, who is known as ‘The Colombian Barbie,’ said she was bullied at a young age because of brown skin tone. ‘In my town, where the girls were very pretty, they called them Barbies,’ she said
Murillo, who was never a fan of the Mattel doll to begin with, was only 11-year-old when she had her first surgery, a nose job.
Since then, she has subjected herself to multiple operations, including a liposuction, lip augmentation and breast implants.
In August, she underwent a procedure to remove her eyelashes.
She has even used products on her face to change the skin tone from brown to white, a process which proved to be painful.
‘My skin has turned red, peeled, it has hurt and everything has happened to me,’ she said. ‘That’s why I tell you that I am a laboratory rat, because this treatment is experimental, although it has given me very good results, fortunately.’
Tatiana Murillo, who is known as ‘The Colombian Barbie,’ was just 11 years old when she had her first surgery, a nose job. Since then she has had over two dozen procedures to alter her appearance, including a liposuction and breast implants
Tatiana Murillo was criticized in 2022 for gifting a nose job as a birthday gift for her daughter, who was turning 13
Murillo details every step of her journey of becoming a real-life Barbie to over 395,000 followers on Instagram and more than 795,000 followers on TikTok.
‘I believed the story of becoming that doll and becoming unique in Colombia because of that,’ she said. ‘It was like a kind of revenge against all those who bullied me as a child. From a young age I told myself: ‘My revenge will be success.’ And I have achieved it.’
However, her chase for fame at times has come with criticism, especially in April 2022 when celebrated her daughter’s 12th birthday by gifting her a surgery to change the shape of her nose.
‘She already fulfilled one of his dreams, which was a rhinoplasty,’ Murillo said at the time. ‘I want to tell my followers that yes, it is possible, with certain characteristics that Sophie obviously met, yes you can operate on minors.’
The process to seek the perfect look continues to drive Murillo, but has deterred others, including Brazilian native Felipe Dias.
The São Paulo 19-year-old spent two years saving up money to realize his dream of resembling a human Ken doll and undergoing 42 surgeries.
In September 2022, Dias did some soul searching and realized it was not worth it anymore.
‘I saw problems in myself that didn’t exist, I don’t see the need for any surgery now,’ Dias told Brazilian online news portal G1 at the time. ‘I looked myself in the mirror and managed to see myself.’