I was a flat-chested body positivity influencer — until I was ‘canceled' for getting implants

New York Post

9 hours ago

A flat-chested body positivity influencer says she's been 'canceled' for getting a boob job – but insists she 'loves' her new body.
Clara Dao, 26, garnered almost eight million followers on social media making content about being flat-chested for six years but, three months ago, in March 2025, she got a $3,398.56 boob job.
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Clara went from a bra size 32AA to a 32C and is 'loving' her new chest but says many of her followers 'hate' her choice, calling her a 'hypocrite.'
But, despite the backlash, Clara insists she doesn't regret undergoing the procedure, as it's given her a new, 'feminine' kind of confidence.
Clara, originally from Hanoi but currently living in Danang, Vietnam, said: 'I fully expected I would be cancelled once I announced my boob job.
'I've lost a lot of followers – around 500,000 across all my platforms.
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4 Clara Dao, 26, garnered almost eight million followers on social media, making content about being flat-chested for six years.
Clara Dao / SWNS
'Losing followers doesn't come as a shock.
'I built my following based on that one single message of loving your natural body, your flat chest, especially.
'A big part of my following followed me for that message.'
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Size XS, Clara says she was taunted and 'skinny-shamed' through college in Canada for her flat chest.
She bought weight-gain supplements and syrups off Instagram in a bid to put on pounds and even stuck her ideal Kardashian body on her mirror to manifest it.
In February 2019, she started uploading YouTube videos documenting her journey to self-acceptance.
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She said, 'I lived and breathed the message of body positivity. I created content about it every day, day in, day out.'
But six years of making content later, she said her perception had changed.
Clara said, 'I felt boxed into that content.
'People just knew me as 'the flat-chested girl.'
'As long as I had my flat chest, I could fall back on it and increase my subscribers, and things would just be the same.
'Creatively, I feel boxed in; I don't feel passionate about the content I did anymore. I don't want that option anymore.
'I got the surgery because I was bored. I wanted to get out of the trap of making content about my flat chest.
4 Size XS, Dao says she was taunted and 'skinny-shamed' through college in Canada for her flat chest.
Clara Dao / SWNS
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'I had a lot of self-love and body positivity before, and I have a lot of self-love now.'
Clara underwent the two-hour surgery on March 5 at a clinic in Danang, Vietnam, where she had moved with her boyfriend at the time from Canada just a week before.
She said, 'It was pretty impulsive. I had the idea at the beginning of February and had the surgery exactly a month later.
'I had the surgery in Vietnam – it's quite different from having the surgery in the UK or America, you could have the surgery the next day if you want.
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'With the surgery itself, I had slight complications.
'The wound on my left side didn't close for two, three weeks, so it took a bit longer to heal, but nothing major. The service here is very good. They checked the wound every day.
'It really hurt for the first three days. I'd need help getting up and down from the bed, and I couldn't do certain movements with my arms.
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'But after a month, you get back basically to normal.'
Clara says she's 'very impulsive', but doesn't regret the decision at all.
She said: 'I'm very happy with the results. Now it just feels like it's part of me.
'In the first month, your skin feels very stretched out, tight, and heavy. But after three months, it feels normal, it's getting softer and softer.
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Clara – who is moving to LA for a 'brand new start' – said: 'The reaction to the surgery from my immediate circle is very positive, my friends and family know I did it because I wanted a change.
'My family has always encouraged me to get the surgery since I was 17, since before I started making the content.
4 In March 2025, Dao got a $3,400 boob job, thinking that she was going to get cancelled.
Clara Dao / SWNS
'There's a cultural difference. In Asia, people are a lot more image-focused.
'They want you to show the best version of yourself, no flaws, especially online.
'When I first started social media and showed my flat chest, showed my imperfections, belly rolls, acne, skin texture, my family was against that for a very long time. But I never really listened to them.'
Clara says the backlash has been 'pretty brutal.'
4 'I got the surgery because I was bored. I wanted to get out of the trap of making content about my flat chest,' Dao said. 'I had a lot of self-love and body positivity before, and I have a lot of self-love now.'
Clara Dao / SWNS
She said: 'Before, when I did flat chest content, most of the hate came from guys, saying you look like a guy, you look ugly, you're like a piece of wood.
'Now my hate comes from women, saying you're a hypocrite, you're so fake.
'A lot of people won't understand. I accept that I won't be understood by most people, especially my fans.
'The first video I made was about doing what you love. That's the deeper message I want to spread with my content.