‘Dr. Pimple Popper’: Does Dr. Sandra Lee Pay People to Appear in Her YouTube Videos?

Dr. Pimple Popper had a very successful premiere season, which makes sense given Dr. Sandra Lee already had a fanbase from YouTube. She filmed extracting everything from blackheads to cysts on mostly anonymous patients. But did those patients get paid? Here is everything you need to know about how she ran her social media business to how it has grown after the premiere of her TLC show.

Dr. Sandra Lee offered patients who came for other services a complimentary pimple-popping service to let her film

The dermatologist made the smart move of offering a complimentary service of removing blackheads in exchange for letting her film for YouTube instead of outright paying people to be in her videos.

“So, many dermatologists we won’t remove them, they say, ‘You have a blackhead there but don’t worry about it.’ But now, I’ll do the extractions for free if my patients let me videotape and use the video,” Dr. Lee said. “Of course, I make them anonymous and remove anything identifying.”

She also told Forbes that this kind of service is rare. “A lot of these people really want these things to be removed,” continued Lee. “They’re benign and they’re not anything that needs to be removed medically, which is why insurance won’t pay. So my patients win because they get the blackheads removed for free.”

She also collaborated with other YouTube stars

Not all the people who appeared in Dr. Lee’s YouTube videos were already her clients. Once she gained a lot of fame, she collaborated with other YouTube Stars. One of which was the controversial Logan Paul who had his cyst removed by her and his girlfriend, Chloe Bennett helped out with the cyst removal.

Collaborations are pretty common for YouTube stars. Chances are Paul wouldn’t have been paid to appear in the video either, but the access to his fan base is what makes the collaboration appealing. So have the “free” services paid off?

Now fans are coming from all over for her services including blackheads removal

The doctor already had a fanbase that called themselves “popaholics” but her fame has only grown after Season 1 of Dr. Pimple Popper. She revealed that people are coming from other states now just for her services, which includes removing blackheads.

“We have a pretty long wait for, certainly pops, anything that I need to do that would be removing like a large lipoma or cysts or blackheads, things like that, and for regular consults,” Dr. Lee told the Chicago Tribune. “What’s amazing is people travel from different continents to see us or they drive for hours from northern California or Utah or Nevada. That’s just sort of mind-boggling to me.”

In the end, people weren’t paid to be in Dr. Sandra Lee’s YouTube videos. They got a free service to anonymously be filmed. Now people come from all over to pay for Dr. Lee’s extractions.