TLC's Dr. Pimple Popper was an instant hit in 2018, but California-based dermatologist,
Dr. Sandra Lee, had already spent most of her life living just like the rest of us.
Even though almost everything has changed for the star now that she's a household name,
here's what she was like before her career was poppin'!
If you go all the way back to the very beginning of Dr. Pimple Popper's story, you will, of
course, discover her heritage. She shared with the blog 8 Asians,
"My dad and mom came to America [specifically Queens, New York] via Singapore and Malaysia
the year before I was born. I'm Chinese, but my dad's from Singapore and my mother [is]
from Malaysia."
But it wasn't long before her family relocated to a sunnier locale, putting down roots in
Southern California when Sandra was 5 years old. Lee still keeps it a little old school,
even in her very modern home these days, telling Today,
"Of course I have homage to my Chinese ancestry. I got my Lazy Susan cuz that's the way I grew
up, passing food around the table like that."
So just how is it that Dr. Pimple Popper decided to go into dermatology? Well, for one, she
had a solid role model from whom to study, at a very early age. She explained to Racked,
"I come from a family of dermatologists. My father is a dermatologist. […] I remember
opening my dad's textbooks and seeing the most horrible pictures."
Clearly, even back then, she was intrigued. As an adult, Lee re-affirmed her desire to
go into dermatology for a practical reason. She said,
"When I went to medical school, I realized that dermatology is the best specialty, especially
for a woman. We don't deal with a lot of emergencies [and] I don't get called in the middle of
the night to deliver a baby."
Not only is Dr. Pimple Popper the child of a dermatologist, she's also married to a fellow
skin, hair, and nail doctor as well. In fact, Lee and her husband Dr. Jeff Rebish were introduced
to each other while they were studying hard at their profession. Rebish remembered their
initial meeting, telling Refinery 29,
"We were both at medical school in Philadelphia to become dermatologists. Sandra walked into
the room on orientation day, and I knew right away that she was the one."
"We actually all like to play pool. My husband and I used to play in medical school together."
After that first fateful encounter, Lee and Rebish hit it off, proving to be a couple
with staying power. He shared,
"We dated through school. And when we both had our degrees, we moved out to California,
where Sandra grew up and her dad owned a dermatology practice."
The pair went on to take over the practice together after Lee's dad retired.
Lee and Rebish finally tied the knot in 2000. Now, decades later, the couple are still happily
married, and share nearly everything about their lives. Rebish explained to Refinery
29,
"As a married couple and business partners, we definitely discuss work at home. Especially
if Sandra's worried about a patient's outcome."
Of course, the pair had been married for years by the time Lee became famous, but still,
it was a big adjustment for the couple. While Rebish is clearly supportive of his wife's
ambitions, he admitted that they're navigating new territory together, telling the outlet,
"The fandom is crazy, and we'll probably have to continue to figure things out as Dr. Pimple
Popper grows and evolves. Ultimately, I'll always be involved any way Sandra needs me
to be, because we're a team."
Everyone knows that it takes a whole lot of schooling to get a medical degree, but fortunately
for Dr. Pimple Popper, she had the hustle to stick it out to the end. According to 8
Asians, Lee enrolled at UCLA, where she majored in biology. After graduation, she then headed
to Philadelphia for med school to attend what's now known as Drexel University College of
Medicine. There, Lee briefly thought about not pursuing dermatology, but stuck to her
original plan. Following graduation, she landed a year-long internship at a hospital in Philadelphia.
But that's not all. Once Lee finished her internship, she completed the required three
years of residency and kept going. She shared,
"Then I did a fellowship in Cosmetic, Surgical, and Laser Dermatology with a world famous
dermatologist, Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick, in San Diego. So, I was 33 years old when I finally
finished training."
If you're a regular Pimple Popper viewer, you know that Dr. Sandra Lee has crafted an
easy and disarming bedside manner. And as it turns out, that's not just a persona she
puts on for the cameras. She told 8 Asians,
"During filming I can't avoid showing the banter between me and my patients."
"It's in your power to do this."
"You've really changed my life."
While Lee has real candor with her clients on her show, she's been building a rapport
with them for years, long before she was a chatty reality TV star. She said,
"I like to say being a dermatologist is like being a glorified hairdresser because you
really can develop long term relationships with your patients, even whole families, who
visit you on a regular basis. You begin to learn about their lives and they have an impact
on you."
Long before her hit series made Dr. Sandra Lee a world-famous dermatologist, she took
on a much more salt-of-the-earth role as a mother. She and her husband have two sons
together, and from the way Lee tells it, her kids aren't exactly starstruck by her fame.
She shared with Distractify,
"One of them doesn't watch the show at all. The other one will watch it and put up with
it. [He'll] tell me when there's a reaction video or some other video about me on YouTube
because he kind of monitors it every now and then."
"I don't run around and chase my kids to try to pop their blackheads."
It seems that no amount of fame and acclaim could ever make Lee's kids fully realize their
mom's star power. She added,
"I once said to them, 'You know, your mom's a YouTuber.' They were like, 'Mom, you're
not a YouTuber. You're not. Please don't even say that.'"
While some people dream about becoming a celebrity and living the high life, that was never the
case for Lee. In fact, not once did she originally have aspirations of one day becoming a huge
star. She told People,
"I didn't look for fame. It just comes with [the territory]. I'm just trying to be careful
and not get ahead of myself."
"I found that there was this subculture on the internet of people who were like sharing
popping videos."
Of course, celebrity status does have its shiny, glittering side. And Lee has certainly
raked in the cash, thanks to the viral videos she's posted on social media. But back at
the beginning, it wasn't nearly as lucrative as it would eventually become. She said,
"The first month I made $30 or something. Then the next month I did it again and made
$300. Then the next month it was in the thousands."
Thanks to blackheads and cysts, Lee is now worth a whopping $5 million, according to
Celebrity Net Worth. And while much of that is likely due to her already-existing practice,
the riches that come with the fame certainly don't hurt.
Many years before Dr. Pimple Popper hit TLC, Lee decided to start building her presence
on social media. This was back when the internet was smaller and simpler, with creators just
beginning to experiment with YouTube.
"This social media is a lot of work."
"It's sort of like gambling, especially on TikTok. The only way you 'win,' so to speak,
is if you play."
She explained to GQ,
"Early on I posted a blackhead extraction video, and I noticed an increase in interest.
I thought that was very strange, so I did it again right away and I got the same reaction."
Those viral hits are what led Lee to Reddit, where she found an entire community of pop-oholics.
It was then that Lee amped up her social media presence across several platforms. She said,
"I just thought I would just keep posting things, and I saw the reactions, I saw people
getting excited about it and it was just like this bonfire I felt like I was building."
Once Lee realized that there was a surging demand for popping videos, she also was able
to shift her concept of capital and currency. She decided to offer dermatological services
for free, if her clients would let her film and post the video online. Given that many
of the procedures that Lee performs aren't covered by health insurance, lots of people
took her up on the offer.
But this actually began before Lee even had her show, so she wasn't yet a household name.
Even so, it didn't take long for Lee's profile to rise, thanks to her commitment to helping
people.
"People don't come and see me and then start crying."
She told the Washington Post,
"There's 'Humans of New York' and I feel like I've created 'Humans of Dermatology,' where
the people are anonymous, but you get a little snippet of their life. You don't just want
to see anonymous blackheads, you want to know about the story behind the person who has
them."
Everyone knows Lee as Dr. Pimple Popper now, but she didn't always go by the catchy nickname.
It turns out that the dermatologist devised the handle herself during her early days on
the internet, telling Racked,
"My name on Reddit is 'DrPimplePopper.' The people on the Popping subreddit know me now,
and they're really wonderful. I find this little subculture fascinating."
While Dr. Pimple Popper isn't exactly a low-key title, it works perfectly for Lee, who now
owns the name like she was born with it.
"I am not — I am not actually a true popaholic myself."
Perhaps what's most shocking to her legions of fans is that Lee isn't exactly a natural
pop-oholic, herself — and never has been. But she doesn't mind being known primarily
for popping pimples, even if she also provides a wealth of other services. She noted that
she tried sharing images and videos of her other procedures on social media, but soon
learned that it's the pimples that people really want to see. So, pimples it is!
When Dr. Sandra Lee was just starting out with posting content on social media, it was
a fairly small operation. So small, in fact, it was basically just her making it all happen.
Describing how she built her empire, she shared with Racked in 2015,
"I do it all myself. I edit [and do] everything. I use my iPhone and iMovie — that's it."
By 2015, Dr. Pimple Popper was getting busier and busier, so she began to consider ways
in which to amp up the production value. She said,
"I might try to see if I can do some sort of GoPro or something like that, but I can't
wear something really heavy on my head. My staff knows I'm crazy."
Just a couple of years down the road, Lee had upgraded and broadened her operation and
is no longer a one-woman band. Now happily working with an entire crew to film her doing
her thing at the office, she revealed to Mental Floss,
"It is a lot of work, but that's why we have a team working on it. I have a little bit
of a problem letting go because I feel like it's my responsibility."
Probably one of the biggest transformations in Dr. Pimple Popper's life would have to
be her work schedule. Obviously, things are going to be different when you have your own
reality show, but the impact of her fame and her production schedule has ricocheted through
Lee's entire life. Her husband Jeff told Refinery 29,
"Before Dr. Pimple Popper, Sandra and I divided our workload equitably, between our practice
and taking care of our two sons. But since she's kind of blown up — with a TLC show
and a legitimate retail business, [Sandra Lee, M.D.] Skincare — things are different."
But while the family has certainly had to adapt to an ever-changing lifestyle, by all
accounts, it appears that Jeff has fully committed himself to nurturing his wife's career ambitions.
He said,
"Sandra has to give a lot of time to Dr. Pimple Popper, and between filming and promotional
events, she's very, very busy. It's her baby, so I pick up slack where she might've been
more of a presence if it weren't for the show."
While her world has certainly changed in the years since she first started dabbling with
YouTube, Lee's dedication to her career, family, and her marriage will always be as inspiring
as her popping vids!
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