With the return of Love Island for season 12, comes the annual targeting of the young women that we see on our screens.
Whilst the boys get away with some seriously awful behaviour, the girls are getting picked apart online for no real reason. N.B. On that note, see our defence of Megan Forte Clarke who was widely criticised for merely standing up for herself.
But of course, more than anything else, it’s the appearances of the women that have become a major topic of discourse. Even in 2025, where plenty of women have undergone some sort of tweakment or plastic surgery, the topic is still incredible taboo.
When a TikTok led to the uncovering of older photos of Helena Ford, you can guess what happened next. Yep, ‘Helena Ford before and after’ became a trending search. The internet suddenly became desperate to see what the 29 year old flight attendant looked like back in the day.
Never mind that Helena’s style – bright red lipstick, cat eye eyeliner and pencil thin eyebrows – seemed to suggest that the photo was taken in the 2010s aka over ten, maybe even 15, years ago. Everyone started trying to guess the plastic surgery and tweakments that the Love Islander had undergone prior to her villa entrance.
But really, who cares? Whilst we’re loving the openness of stars like Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian and their very public revelations of the work that they’ve had done, Helena doesn’t owe us an explanation of why she looks different.
What we owe Helena though is some respect. Comments expressing shock at the difference between Helena back then and Helena now are unnecessary. What we love to see are the comments calling Helena ‘a stunner’ and ‘gorgeous’. She’s beautiful in both pictures.
The same goes for other female Love Island stars that have fallen victim to viewers and followers thinking that they’re entitled to comment on their body. We’ve seen similar searches for Meg Moore and Shakira Kahn, and we’re not here for it.
And it’s not just a UK problem because Vanna Einerson who appeared on the latest season of Love Island USA recently revealed on The Viall Files podcast that the critical comments about her appearance caused her to break down and cry.
She shared, ‘It was really, really hard seeing all of it. I was in the hotel with Coco [Watson] and she was getting a lot of love while I was getting a lot of hate. I had a moment where I just broke down crying. I'm honestly so grateful for Coco that she was there because she sat and prayed over me.'
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film meaning that you can count on Daisy for the latest (and best) recommendations