Julie Chen Defends Herself Against The Haters

When Julie Chen got plastic surgery to enlarge her eyes as a twenty-five-year-old reporter starting her career in Ohio, she knew how controversial the procedure was because it divided her extended family. Eventually, her parents got on board and were very supportive, but not everyone around her agreed with what she decided to do. As such, she knew she’d get a little backlash when she revealed the secret publically for the first time during an episode of The Talk, but she had no idea just how fervent the outcry would be from her “own community”.

Apparently, a sizeable percentage of the Big Brother host’s Asian fans felt she was trying to westernize her look in order to distance herself from her heritage. That, understandably, didn’t sit so well, and many of the offended took to Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to vent their frustrations.

Tackling the issue head on, Chen talked openly about the subject on The Talk again yesterday. Here’s a portion of what she had to say, as per The New York Daily News…

People should be judged by the totality of their actions, not one single decision they make. An Asian making her eyes seem a little bigger might seem like a slap in the face to others in her community, but it’s not as if she suddenly decided to have the surgery for nothing more than cosmetic purposes. She was repeatedly told by her bosses and agents that she looked bored and disinterested while she was interviewing people, and true to form, her career took off almost immediately after she got the procedure done.