Lea Michele says she was pressured to get a nose job because she wasn’t ‘pretty enough’

Actor previously revealed she was told to undergo rhinoplasty at age 13

Lea Michele has revealed that she was told to get a “nose job” while opening up about the pressures she faced to fit the Hollywood beauty standard.

The Glee star, 36, reflected on the unsolicited comments about her appearance as a young actress during an interview with Town & Country magazine.

According to Michele, when she was growing up, “people would tell [her] to get nose jobs” and that she “wasn’t pretty enough for film and television”.

However, the Funny Girl star ignored the suggestions to undergo plastic surgery, while also noting that it was her appearance that sparked comparisons to her icon, Barbara Streisand.

“She was an icon for me in my life,” she explained. Michele is currently playing the Broadway role of Fanny Brice, a part established by Streisand.

This is not the first time that Michele has spoken candidly about having to fend off suggestions that she should undergo plastic surgery, as she previously told Today that she was pressured to get rhinoplasty at age 13.

“From a very young age, I must’ve been maybe only 13 years old, I started being told by managers and agents that in order to make it on television or be on covers of magazines that I was going to have to get a nose job,” she recalled in 2019.

However, Michele said she is glad that she ignored the advice because she loves her nose.

“I love my nose because it’s mine,” she explained.

The actor also acknowledged that she thinks people should be able to “make their own choices,” while noting that “no one was going to make that choice for me”.

“I wanted to look at my face and have it be my face,” she added.

In addition to crediting her nose with helping her land parts, such as Rachel Berry on Glee, Michele also said that she wouldn’t consider changing her nose because it reminds her of her father.

“When I look at my nose it reminds me of my dad and he has a really big nose. And I just love it. And it’s mine,” she said.