Ageism in Silicon Valley Is Causing an Uptick in Plastic Surgeries

In 2007, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the declaration, “Young people are just smarter.”

Reports of extreme ageism in Silicon Valley — requiring non-millennials to swap loafers for Converse — aren’t new. But according to an article in The New Republic, many older techies’ faces are. Noam Scheiber writes that the plastic surgery industry in Silicon Valley is having its own tech boom all so people (sometimes as young as 26) don’t look a day over 30. Ever.

“It’s really morphed into, ‘Hey, I’m forty years old and I have to get in front of a board of fresh-faced kids. I can’t look like I have a wife and two-point-five kids and a mortgage,'” cosmetic surgeon Seth Matarasso told TNR. He noted that there are a lot more men, and they’re getting a lot younger.

Some plastic surgeons are trying to capitalize on the fear of aging in the Valley. In December, San Francisco Plastic Surgery & Laser Center rationalized in a blog post enticing potential new clientele:

This kind of makeover may sound extreme, and perhaps unnecessary, for people who just want a job (it’s not online dating, after all!)—but according to the many lawyers, employers, and job seekers interviewed for this piece, if you want to get a job at a tech company in the Bay Area these days, it’s pretty much par for the course.

Even though ageism is 100% illegal, as boomers see an unwelcome resurgence of the “Don’t trust anyone over 30” mentality, it appears that many would rather go under the knife than file an age discrimination lawsuit.

Contact us at letters@time.com.