Amber Tamblyn Opens Up About Undergoing Ear-Pinning Surgery At Age 12

Amber Tamblyn is speaking out about her decision to undergo a cosmetic procedure known as ear pinning before rising to fame as a child actor.

Tamblyn, whose credits include “Joan of Arcadia” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” addressed having the surgery for the first time in a New York Times essay published Sunday.

“As a little girl I had ears that stuck out like big butterfly wings. Some kids at my school in Los Angeles would make fun of them, and I’d often stare at myself in the mirror wishing my ears would lay flat against my head,” she wrote.

After landing her first major television role at age 12, Tamblyn said she chose to get her ears pinned as she’d come to the understanding that “millions of people all over the world would be judging me on their television screens.” Still, as a “fiery young feminist who raged against the patriarchy,” she felt like a bit of a “hypocrite.”

“Going under the knife felt like choosing a weapon I could wield in self-defense against my own disposability,” she wrote. “It showed the world I understood the assignment of assimilation — that I could do whatever it took to fit in, never stand out, the way my ears once did.”

Ear pinning, also known as otoplasty, is a cosmetic procedure that involves altering cartilage and skin in order to move a patient’s protruding ears closer to their head.

In a New York Times essay, Amber Tamblyn said she chose to get her ears pinned at age 12 after coming to the understanding that "millions of people all over the world would be judging me on their television screens."

John Nacion via Getty Images

Tamblyn, now 41, didn’t mention the television role for which she’d decided to undergo ear pinning. However, she made her television acting debut on “General Hospital” in 1995, the same year she turned 12. She played the role of Emily Quartermaine on the long-running soap opera through 2001.

Of course, the actor isn’t the only public figure to speak out about getting their ears pinned. Last month, “Wide Awake” podcast host Joshua Rubin documented his experience undergoing the surgery on Instagram. In 2022, “Vanderpump Rules” star Lala Kent debuted a newly pinned-back left ear on social media, noting: “I feel really happy.”

In her New York Times essay, Tamblyn said she felt compelled to speak about her ear pinning after catching a screening of “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore. The horror film follows an aging actor and fitness guru named Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Moore) who attempts to revive her career by injecting an illicit drug that will create a more youthful version of herself (Margaret Qualley) ― with some terrifying side effects.

Both “The Substance” and her personal experience, Tamblyn said, represent the ways in which “subtle messages of sexism are passed down to us as generational wisdom, almost from birth.”

“I’m not saying that plastic surgery is bad or that everyone who elects to change their bodies regrets their decision — my 12-year-old self included,” she wrote. “There can be agency and even self-love involved with the choice, and for some of us there are deeply personal reasons for doing so.”

Still, she noted: “There is a different version of ‘The Substance’ that I would like to see someday, in which Elisabeth chooses not to chase youth and instead learns to love her aging self, no matter how much the rest of the world may not. That version of the story may feel too radical for the world just yet; a reminder of how much further we still need to go in centering self-acceptance and imperfection at any age in our storytelling.”