We can thank Joan Kron, 85-year-old Allure editor and plastic surgery journalist, for doing her share of bringing plastic surgery out of the closet. She told The New York Times, December 26, 2012, that she made a name for herself simply by telling the truth; this includes not only sharing her age but also sharing information about the plastic surgery procedures she has undergone.

Kron has undergone three face lifts (she wrote about the first two surgeries in, “Lift: Wanting, Fearing and Having a Face-Lift”) as well as Botox, Reloxin, Restylane and Juvéderm treatments. She insists on paying for all procedures; free trial treatments meet with rejection. If she thinks that a plastic surgeon or dermatologist discounted a procedure for her, she sends expensive ties and once, even custom-made alligator boots.

Over the last two decades, the plastic surgery industry has grown from a cottage industry to an industry that earned $10 billion last year. Kron has chronicled it, writing stories about the latest research on breast regeneration following mastectomies; the pros and cons of liposuction and abdominoplasty and the risks of butt lifts.

Because of Kron’s even-handed treatment of plastic surgery, plastic surgeons and dermatologists are happy to have her attend their meetings and read their studies. A prominent Santa Monica plastic surgeon says that plastic surgery has struggled to attract credible journalists to cover it. “She has brought a perspective to plastic surgery when there is a lot of sensationalism.”

Adeena Babbitt, public relations director for the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, says of Kron: “She tries to make a point of respecting that the doctors are doctors. They went to school for this. They don’t think it is a joke.”

Kron’s plastic surgery knowledge has made her dear to the aging readership of Allure. The median age of Allure’s readers rose to 34, from 27.9, over the last decade. Her editorial stance about plastic surgery is: “I never want to be seen as an advocate for or against it.” But, she adds that she doesn’t think women should keep wrinkles because they earned them. “That is totally ridiculous.”