The facial skin of Tomi Grainger at 28 was unlike others their age – by the time they hit their 20s, it had already aged rapidly due to a tumultuous adolescence.

The Sydney local, who described themself as “Australia’s Craziest Drag Queen”, has undergone about $34,000 worth of plastic surgery and now has revealed the truth behind why.

“I was always really funny about my smile lines and how elastic my skin had been,” Grainger told news.com.au.

“When I was younger, I was quite overweight and I lost a lot of weight but to the other extreme, so I had an eating disorder and was hospitalized with anorexia.”

The fluctuation in weight in combination with how their body had responded left them feeling their face had aged far more rapidly than other people the same age.

“That caused a lot of damage to my skin and the regeneration of skin cells, skin elasticity, and collagen. So although I was only 28, the lower half of my face was aging a lot more rapidly,” they said.

Grainger made headlines last year when they became the youngest Australian to ever have a facelift.

“Since then I’ve had a surgical brow lift, a surgical lip lift and I’ve also had veneers done as well,” they said.

“I also want to explore other things but I’m cognisant of the fact I don’t want to go overboard. My message has always been to not just do things for the sake of it, but to do things because you want to do it.”

Grainger’s transparency surrounding the procedures they’ve had of course provoked some negative reactions, but more importantly, had helped normalize the discussion surrounding them.

“A lot of people have had something done and don’t want to talk about it, but for me, I’m like, ‘why not?’. If you do it, it helps make other people feel more empowered to make those decisions,” they said.

Grainger also conceded though that he took heavy inspiration from filters on Instagram when deciding what look he wanted to achieve.

“To be really transparent, it all started with some of the Instagram filters I was using, I kind of wanted to look like those filters. The end goal was to not have to FaceTune my photos,” they said.

“My perception is that if you’re going away and altering or editing your photos before you’re posting them, how is that any different?”

They also argued that while surgery had a bigger upfront cost, it was likely to be cheaper over the long term in comparison to regular temporary fillers.

On top of seeking a discount, Grainger had also opted for cheaper alternatives when choosing how procedures played out, like having it done in the clinic as opposed to the hospital.

“And I paid a quarter of the price for a normal facelift because I did it in the chair and under anesthesia so the doctor could do it,” they said.

Grainger’s transformed features have however landed him in a bit of strife at airports, with him recently being detained for not looking like his passport photo.