shades fills you in

the bbl -- short for brazilian butt lift -- is a cosmetic surgery that removes fat from other parts of the body and puts it back into the buttocks. the guardian writes that it’s super dangerous, and skyrocketing in popularity

the international society of aesthetic plastic surgery wrote in a december 2020 press release that bbls increased by 77.6% since 2015

and by 2021, bbls had gotten so popular they began to shape fashion trends, reported milleworld.com. it’s all thanks to social media creating a “bbl culture”

the estimated death rate of a bbl is 1 in 3,000. what makes the procedure so deadly? injecting fat into your butt is pretty risky -- says the conversation

an nyu news op looks back, with chagrin: in the early 2000s, the “ideal” body had a thigh gap. bbls made it practically the opposite. all of this is exhausting -- women’s body types shouldn’t be trendy

right, says the cut. the ideal body for women has shifted. now, white women are entering the offices of plastic surgeries asking for bbls. the surgery replicates the look of black women’s bodies

but maybe bbls will soon go out of fashion? nylon writes that although the bbl was an essential fashion accessory starting in 2013, we may be seeing the end of the bbl era. back in? anorexia

and the-zoe-report thinks the era might be already over. more people are seeking bbl reversals!

right, says instyle. celebs and influencers all over are having expensive, risky procedures to reverse their bbls

but vice says we’re actually entering modified bbl era: the “skinny bbl”. think kim k -- with an impossible small waist coupled with a very large behind

so . . . do bbls make you act different? this tiktoker seems to think so

and here’s a little bbl history for you: the conversation writes about sarah baartman -- an african woman who lived in the 1800s. her legacy shaped ideas about the ideal curvy body for black women