Beauty is in the eye of the follower: Facial aesthetics in the age of social media.

[BACKGROUND] The advent of social media has influenced the relationship between aesthetic surgeons and their patients, as well as the motivations of such patients to seek cosmetic surgery.

[AIMS & OBJECTIVES] To determine how the cephalometric proportions of modern social media models fit with historical canons of beauty.

[MATERIALS & METHODS] Frontal and lateral photographs of 20 high-influence female Instagram models were obtained and evaluated for cephalometric measures. The means of these measures were compared with previous reports in the literature.

[RESULTS] Cephalometric measurements of social media models were in agreement with historical ideals of beauty for Nostril axis (120.7°), Goode's ratio (0.6), Nasofacial angle (35.7°), Nasofrontal angle (130.9°), and the horizontal thirds. Results were discrepant from historical ideals for the Nasolabial angle (82.6°) and the vertical facial fifths.

[CONCLUSION] Cephalometric measurements of social media models in the digital age closely resemble the ideal values proposed by previous authors. Due to a preference for larger or altered lip profiles, nostril axis is a more reliable measure of nasal tip rotation than nasolabial angle.