Once when I was tweenager a random sales flyer came in the mail from a plastic surgeon’s office, addressed to me. My father was LIVID. Seriously, he was all ready to sue and wanted this doctor’s license revoked for sending marketing material to a minor. My mother and I had to talk him off the ledge. Looking back, there’s something rather sweet and quaint about my father’s visceral reaction. Such was not the case in the Biermann-Zolciak household. Kim Zolciak, of Real Housewives of Atlanta fame, and her older daughters Brielle and Ariana have long been known for their lip fillers. To me, they look positively painful. And I’d say “to each her own,” but there’s always been something uncomfortable about how young Kim’s daughters started joining their mother in getting procedures they absolutely did/do not need.
Well, Ariana Biermann — who’s currently on Bravo’s Next Gen NYC, because why shouldn’t reality TV get Nepo-ed like every other industry — just posted an Instagram video where she says her mother forced/tricked her into getting her freckles removed when she was only 14. That’s… appalling.
“Every time I do my makeup, whether it’s like a full face or just like a little bit, I always put on freckles. Every time I do it, it makes me think of the fact that I would not be putting on these freckles had my mother not have gotten rid of my freckles when I was 14,” began Ariana.
“My mom sent me to get a facial and I was like, ‘Ok going to get a facial, whatever.’ And my friend’s like, ‘Girl, where are your freckles going?’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’” she continued.
“The facial girl is like, ‘Your mom told me that you didn’t like them and you wanted me to remove them like with the facial.’ Lasering them off. what? I love my freckles. I have some on one side of my face more than the other, just not a lot at all. So now I put them on.”
She went on to say that when she was on the phone with Zolciak the other day, she reminded her of the experience, which caused her mom to laugh.
“I was like, ‘You’re a jacka—.’ Now I add them onto my face because I don’t have them anymore because somebody removed them. And I didn’t want them removed,” said Ariana. “Nobody said. Literally nobody said.”
“So now I’m constantly stamping them on and trying to make them look even just remotely like what mine looked like growing up. I miss my freckles. You know what mom? You’re a jacka— for that. I love you, but insane,” she ended the video.
Zolciak replied to her daughter’s post, dropping a string of laughing emojis in the comments. “Hahaha jackass,” Ariana replied to her mom.
Zolciak did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
This past July, Ariana spoke with PEOPLE about a different procedure she voluntarily had done during a panel with the rest of Bravo’s Next Gen NYC cast. Ariana revealed that she started getting lip filler at age 17, but actually wanted to get it done even earlier.
“I think I was honestly ready to get my lips done at 13,” she said at the time. “But I didn’t. I didn’t end up getting them done, I think, until I was honestly maybe like 17. And then you go crazy.”
…While the star said it’s important to “accept yourself and love yourself how you are,” she admitted that it’s “a little difficult growing up in the world that we live in now.”
There is so much going wrong here on so many different levels. Kim should never have even wanted to get rid of her daughter’s freckles, let alone made an underhanded arrangement to have it done without Ariana’s knowledge, consent, or even a discussion, it seems. Although I can’t say I like the idea of Kim broaching the idea to her 14-year-old, either. And while I put the bulk of the blame squarely on Kim, what the hell was wrong with the facialist?! For one thing, why didn’t she check in with Ariana before she started lasering off the kid’s freckles? But more importantly, why do places even agree to perform this procedure on a minor? I’m invoking my father’s outrage over how wrong all of this is. All parents are human, and humans are imperfect. But Kim’s total lack of self-awareness of the personal insecurities she’s readily imparted, nay invited her daughters to adopt for themselves… well, it truly is stunning. Just not in the way Kim’s been aiming for with all this plastic surgery.
Ariana at age 10 is to the left in the first photo below.
Embed from Getty Images
Photos credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com, Getty
The only thing Kim taught these girls is how to dress like a puttana and depend on a man for your living. JFC I could not imagine telling my daughter to get any kind of work done ever, let alone in her teens.
Side note, why have we never heard from/about the biological fathers of these girls? Were they married men? Did Kim have them just to secure support payments?
What the f_ck is wrong with these people? All of these disfigured reality “stars” belong in a psych ward, not on TV.
I’m confused. A facial is not in any way shape or form painful but laser work to remove freckles is. Did she ask why this facial is being done with a painful laser. Yes her mother should never ever sent her to have freckles removed and the person who did remove the freckles is to blame too. She was just 14 years old! My confusion is why did she when the laser work began, and she surly felt pain, didn’t she say no and walk out?
This was my immediate thought and makes me think there’s more to the story than this.
She was just 14 years old and likely was just trying to do what she was told. Children do not have full autonomy at 14. She still had to wait for a ride home and who knows what kind of relationship she had with her mother. She could have been punished if she disobeyed.
Yes she was just 14. Here’s the thing that’s even more unsettling is here where I live in NC children are not allowed to have laser work or lip fillers done even if they have permission. I know this because my eldest daughter owns a Med Spa where that work is done and it’s illegal. Parents have tried to get things done for their kids and they won’t do it. Wonder what the laws are in California for this?
She was 14, she probably didn’t know anything about what a facial felt like and took her mother’s word for it because she wrongly trusted her. The only story here is that Kim is gross
It’s been apparent for years that looks are clearly everything to that woman, everything. How shallow.
She was 14 !
Kids don’t know what a facial is supposed to feel like.
So you want to believe a fourteen year old in these times with all the magazines and social media network information and living her life in a glamorous fish bowl didn’t know what a facial was. A girl who admitted she wanted her lips done at 13 had no information on what a facial entails? I don’t believe that for a minute. Yes she went for a facial at her mothers direction but she never expected her freckles would be painfully removed.
@Susan Collins
You asked why Ariana didn’t walk out, as if she bears partial blame. My point is that a 14-year-old — yes, even one parented by Kim Zolciak — does not have the assertiveness of an adult. It’s cruel to expect that of a kid.
I also think that she may not have been aware of what the pain was about. Yes, even though she was exposed to crazy stuff at a young age.
I’m sure she probably had some vague notion of what it might entail, but her expectations would likely depend on what types of treatments she was familiar with. There are some fairly routine procedures (chemical peels, extractions, threading…) that can cause discomfort or pain, particularly if you’re new to them, and the aesthetician would have told her to anticipate that.
@FYI. No I was not blaming her I was asking why she could not say no or to call her mother and find out what was going on. She is blameless in this. Her mother and the person who did the removal are to blame.
To be fair, this laser procedure isn’t very painful–more like a the sensation of a small rubber band snap and healing is pretty quick. I’ve had sunburns (and facial extractions) that hurt more.
I have a few different laser procedures and I’m a very big baby and there isn’t enough numbing cream in the world for me not to be in pain lol.
Sooooo…she was getting IPL at 14? I thought you had to be 18 or older????
Their relationship is so bizarre and vapid. Not to be a pearl clutcher but I honestly can’t imagine calling my mom a jackass over and over again. They seem more like sisters than mother/daughter. I cringe at all of these reality TV stars but I do feel bad for Ariana and her sister. Their mom emphasized all the wrong things to them and it’s no wonder they were obsessed with plastic surgery even when they were just preteens. Ugh.
I was so disappointed when Kim started Ariana on this path, she was supposed to go to school, she wanted to go to UConn!
Yeah, Ariana was supposed to be ‘the smart one’. I felt for both girls. And the younger one, she won’t have a chance either. Except that Kim is running out of money.
This is sad. I don’t agree with sexualizing young children or tricking them into permanent procedures. Even a necessary medical procedure should be explained to your child in a way they can understand.
KISMET,i think your father should have sued the 👖off that doctor.
I wonder if Kim was/is projecting her own unresolved childhood issues/traumas onto her girls. It just seems like some parents really push their children to look like fully grown adults when they are supposed to still be enjoying their childhood and teen years. As soon as they reach their mid 20’s and 30’s ,then they want to look like little girls again. 🤷
Can I feel really bad for her AND also wonder WTF is going on with that outfit in the first photo? Pant-boots and fingerless gloves on the way to yoga?!
That outfit is teetering on not street legal. Not to be all pearl clutchy but outside of their bizarre world, walking down the street like that is going to attract the worst kind of attention. I guess that’s the point though.
Do not believe that she was ‘tricked’ by Kim and the facialist and she was such a good girl at 14th at she didn’t object to the pain. “Girl, where are your freckles going?”was the first she learned of it? A teenager who later has no problem calling her mother a jackass? Yeah, right.
Of course she needs a backstory to stay relevant in her current job, and don’t expect Kim will dispute it for that sake. When interest in this line dies down, there likely will be some other claim that comes up …
Goodness. Y’all are pretty hard on a 14-year-old with a messed-up mother.
I’m not saying Kim wasn’t almost certainly a nightmare as a mother who taught her daughters to be obsessed with their appearance and sexualization early on. I expect Kim started harping on how Ariana had more freckles on one side than the other and suggested removing them.
But especially given the environment of Kim as a mother, I just don’t buy the current ‘too innocent and obedient at 14 to question what was happening’ narrative.
@kismet – I think your father’s reaction was valid and that surgeon probably should have their license challenged. Targeting minors feels criminal to me.