Over the last decade, the former Rodrigo Alves became known simply as the 'Human Ken Doll' after spending a whopping $650,000 (£500,000) on surgery.

But now, the reality TV star and singer has revealed to the Sunday Mirror that she is now embracing her life as a transgender woman, saying: "It feels ­amazing to finally tell the world I'm a girl.

"I'm known as Ken, but inside I've always felt like Barbie."

Alves, also revealed that she now wishes to be known as Roddy and be addressed using the pronouns 'she' and 'her'. She announced that she will also be undergoing more surgery as she continues her transition, including gender realignment surgery.

One of Alves' most extreme surgeries was having her ribs removed:

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The 36-year-old added: "I will have a penile inversion and my testicles will be removed. That will be the final step.

"Before that, I'm having silicone breast implants. I'll be able to wear dresses that show my cleavage and look sexy. I'm very excited.

"After that, I'm having face feminization surgery. It will be an incision at the top of my scalp, and through that, the doctor will reshape my forehead, give me an eye lift, lip lift, and middle facelift.

"I'm having my Adam's apple removed, my jawline shaved and my chin modified."

Alves continued: "I finally feel like the real me. Glamorous, beautiful and feminine.

"For years I tried to live my life as a man. I had a fake six-pack put in, I had fake muscles in my arms but I was lying to myself.

"I'm a woman and have always had a feminine brain. Now my body matches my mind."

Alves has also spoken out about her transition in several recent Instagram posts to her 854K followers. In one post, she wrote: "It took me a lot of courage to come out as a transgender woman and I couldn’t have done it without the love of support of my amazing family and friends I thank you all."

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She continued: "For the past 8 years of my life I have been known as the human life ken doll but actually I wanted to be #Barbie [sic]".

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In another, she writes: "In 2018 I had my first professional #photoshoot dressed as a woman, that experience made me realise that it was what I have always meant to me! A #woman! [sic]"

Posing in a red dress with long blonde hair, Alves writes in another how she has been born again: "Today the 5th of January 2020 I was Born again! Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me through this transition process."

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Alves explained to the Mirror that growing up, she always suspected she was a woman:

"I had an instinct towards toys and clothes ­designed for females.

"I was bullied at school because I was very feminine. Boys would play football and girls ­volleyball. I'd always be with the girls.

"I have tried my best to behave like a man but deep inside I was never happy. I would see a ­beautiful woman and feel jealous because I wanted to be like them. I think like a woman, I act like a woman because I have always been one deep inside."

Rodrigo Alves is at it again. The 35-year-old model and reality TV star, better known as the Human Ken Doll, has had yet more surgery in order to change up his appearance - this time to correct some previous work he'd had done.

And it ain't pretty.

In a series of images, Alves shared the aftermath of a five-hour face reduction surgery, during which he had five cm (two inches) of skin plus 200 threads and fibrosis - the scarring of connective tissue - removed. The process should lessen the swollen appearance he has become so known for.

"Hi everyone I've just woken up, feeling quite drowsy," he posted on social media earlier this week. "The surgery went great, the doctors were able to reduce the size of my face."

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The operation, which went ahead in Iran, was supposedly performed in order to prepare Alves for two other surgeries: a replacement for his silicone chin implant, which was performed on Tuesday, plus a nose job - his 11th, amazingly - which is due to take place today.

The Human Ken Doll warned against the use of threadlifts - dissolvable threads which make the face tighter by stimulating collagen production - saying that the procedure had made his skin too firm.

"I had a lot of fibrosis due to threadlifts and my skin was hard," he said.

This may have had something to do with how many threadlifts Alves has undergone, however, as he has reportedly had more than 700 threads injected into his face over the past three years - the last procedure taking place just four months ago.

The surgery clearly isn't an instant fix, though, as this is how the social media sensation looked shortly afterwards:

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This operation and the following two were apparently part of Alves' "New Year, new face" resolution.

"I noticed my face was naturally starting to change - my lips were getting lower, my eyes, nose and cheeks were dropping," he revealed.

"On New Year's Eve I looked at myself and thought 'New year, new face' and booked the surgeries. But when surgeons opened up my face it was full of fibrosis that they had to remove, it took so long that they couldn't replace my silicone chin implant. It took them five hours for a revision face, eye and lip lift, and to remove all of the fibrosis and 200 threads inside my face.

"It was quite shocking as they are very good doctors, Iran is very big in facial plastic surgery and their standards are very high here."

So high are the standards, in fact, that the doctors allowed Alves to keep a little bit of his skin in a jar after. Nice.

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As well as these latest surgeries being for aesthetic purposes, they're also for Alves' wellbeing. The nose surgery, in particular, is necessary for the social media star to be able to breathe normally again - but the procedure comes with its own risks.

"My surgeon guaranteed he can fix my breathing, so finally I will be able to breathe again but there is a risk that my skin will not tolerate the surgery," he explained. "If necrolysis develops it could mean I will lose my nose, so I am on antibiotics and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to reduce the risk of that. There is definitely a risk of necrolysis but there are ways to reduce that and I will defeat it if it happens."

Despite the obvious dangers associated with his surgeries, then, it seems obvious that Rodrigo Alves has no intention of stopping. How much further can his obsession go? Well, if his blasé attitude towards skin necrolysis is anything to go by, probably pretty far indeed.

A higher value is placed on our appearance now than at any other point in history. Beauty is now a commodity to be monetised and capitalised on by those lucky few who win the genetic lottery, and the rest of humanity haplessly aspires to follow in their wake, slightly less effervescent but no less consumed by the tantalising notion of good looks. This can, of course, be a devastating idea. People waste hours of their lives staring in vain at perceived blemishes on their skin that others would never even notice, agonising over their body shape and facial features. Perhaps this is due to the never ending stream of perfect models, airbrushed and toned, who are presented to us on the covers of glossy magazines and Instagram feeds seemingly without cease. In the face of such beauty, how can one feel anything but somewhat inadequate? Of course, some people choose to alter their appearance through cosmetic surgery in their pursuit of physical perfection. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Rodrigo Alves, better known as the 'Human Ken Doll'. A plethora of procedures has left Alves with one of the world's most instantly recognizable faces and a cosmetically enhanced physique to boot, ab and pectoral muscles presumably enhanced through surgery. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb7npXoHiO6/?hl=en&taken-by=rodrigoalvesuk]] The trials and tribulations of life as the 'Human Ken Doll' have been well documented, not least this past Halloween, when the personality admitted that he had somewhat overdone it; "During Halloween I must have over done it. I attended 6 parties over the weekend in LA then I had to fly straight back to London. During the flight I had a fever and I felt very unwell the following day, so I had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital." He seems to be very much back in the swing of his busy socialite life now, though, after posing for a series of photos with Pixee Fox before a TV appearance in Italy. Indeed, the pair appeared to be getting very cosy as they posed together for photographs. The Mail reports that Fox has undergone more than 200 procedures herself, spending an eye-watering £500,000 on surgeries that include having six ribs removed, liposuction and eye colour change. Despite the photos, Alves has insisted that he remains single and is not currently looking for love. He also revealed that his ideal partner would be the opposite to himself, someone who does not constantly talk about plastic surgery and fashion. Alves recently revealed that he wanted to have six ribs removed himself, so that his suits would fit him properly; "I would like to achieve a classic figure while wearing my suits, and the only way to achieve that is to remove my ribs." While Alves and Fox might not be in the first throes of romance, they remain close friends.

Plastic surgery has become more prolific and increasingly complex over the years, with all manner of transformations available - both minor changes and complete overhauls. Firmly in the latter category is Rodrigo Alves, who you more likely know by the moniker 'The Human Ken Doll'. Alves has spent over $500,000 on surgeries over the years, a practice he has been keeping up since he was only 19-years-old. Now 34-years-old, he has had over 50 plastic surgeries and more than 100 cosmetic procedures, making him practically unrecognisable from how he looked as a teenager. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BcW-n1pHoXi/]] Many of us look a lot different from how we did as teenagers. Whether we've dyed our hair, grown it out, committed to a beard, or completely revolutionised our taste in clothes, looking back at our childhood photos can be a strange experience for those who didn't notice at the time. For Alves, this is a little more extreme, once you take into account he has spent $29,000 on a fake six-pack, $13,000 on pec implants, and $4,000 on liposuction. The full list of procedures he had is truly astounding, as he explains: "I have had a hair implant, a brow lift, eye lifts, my ears pinned back, cheeks redesigned, my jawline shaped, I’ve had cheek implants twice, the sides if my lips cut out in order to give me a bigger wider smile. I have had fillers injected into my shoulders, biceps, triceps, my abs – my six pack is purely plastic surgery." But what did he look before all these changes? Long before his unforgettable looks earned him 383,000 followers on Instagram, he looked like this: Speaking to the Sun, he explained exactly what his future plans are for his image, and how he plans on becoming "ageless": "Now I've achieved my dream face and body I plan to stop the ageing process using stem cell technology. I've already had lots of them injected into my face, scalp and bloodstream" "My aim to always look ageless and maintain my unique looks. After all there is no other man or another Rodrigo Alves that looks like me. I get a lot of attention due to my artificial looks - but I finally love myself and that is the most important thing of all." Yet he believes he can do some good with his position in the spotlight. "I have become an official ambassador on the subject of body image and plastic surgery," he said of his newfound fame. "I have been honoured by the Aesthetic Academy in the USA and from now on I am will be speaking openly about plastic surgery to break the taboos and to teach people from my own experiences in a simple and easy going way without medical terminology." Seeing how far Alves has come in the last decade or so, we can only imagine how far he could go in the future if he continues on at the same rate.

It has been a year of discovery for Jessica Alves - formerly known around the world as the 'Human Ken Doll'.

Back in January, Alves - formally known as Rodrigo - revealed to the world that she is a transwoman, and announced her new name, Jessica, back in July.

The social media and reality TV star revealed the news in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, telling the publication: "I'm known as Ken, but inside I've always felt like Barbie."

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She added: "I finally feel like the real me. Glamorous, beautiful, and feminine."

Now, Jessica has taken to Instagram to showcase her tiny waist and feminine figure in a stunning post in which she is slaying in a leopard-print swimsuit.

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However, Alves got candid with her 1.1 million followers, as she wrote in the caption that she just wants to be "accepted". Alongside the poolside snap, she wrote:

"I'd love for people to accept me just as me, but I know that I generate a strong response; I always have - my name, my looks, my size."

It would also appear that Alves has turned off comments on the post, but it has amassed over 39,000 likes in under 24 hours.

Hopefully, it won't take long before she finds somebody to love her for who she is, as last month it was announced that Alves had landed her own dating show, which will see her travel the globe in order to find the "man of her dreams", The Sun reports.

According to the publication, the Brazilian-born star, 36, is fluent in up to six different languages, and therefore she will be traveling to countries where she can easily communicate - including the US, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Brazil, and The Netherlands.

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Speaking to the Mail Online, Jessica said of her new show: "I want to show the world that a trans woman like me is able to go on dates with straight men who don't mind which gender I was born.

"I won't rule out getting married on the show if I meet the man of my dreams and I hope he has the same dreams of starting a family."

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With the current working title of 'Love Me Gender: Everyone Deserves A Bit Of Love In Life', the show is currently being coordinated by TV production firm Concept Street, to air on a major streaming service.

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She added that while it does feel "different dating as a woman, everyone deserves to have love in their life and I need a little help in that department".

Alves has undergone over 100 cosmetic procedures since the age of 17, costing up to $785,000.

Alves previously had four ribs removes in order to achieve the "perfect" body:

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Speaking on UK talk show  This Morning last month, Alves said that once she has completed her transition, she will "be done" with cosmetic surgery for good, adding: "I still need two or three more surgeries to complete my transition, and then I swear I will be done with plastic surgery – there is only so much one can take."

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Alves then spoke about the personal pressures of living as a man wanting to be a woman and the risks of the transitioning process. She said:

"Yes, it is scary, but it’s what I have to do to be the person I am today. I don’t wish that I transitioned earlier, I had to go through all that experience as a man and that suffering I was going through inside myself.

"Having said that, surgery can be risky and unhealthy. I’m a very healthy person, I don’t drink, I eat well, I sleep well, and I have a lot of exams like blood tests, to make sure I’m okay to go through it."

Alves also revealed to the hosts that she "would like to have a child and like to have a baby" in the future.

Everybody deserves love and happiness, so let's hope Jessica can find the man of her dreams who accepts her for who she is.