McKayla Maroney Speaks Up About Lip Injection Rumors & Her ‘Changing’ Appearance

McKayla Maroney, former Olympic gymnast, took to Instagram on Saturday to address fans who have been criticizing her, for “changing” the way she looks.

McKayla Maroney Opens Up About Her ‘Changing’ Appearance

Maroney, 20, has uploaded numerous photos of herself to Instagram over the last few weeks — which features her puckering up her lips and flashing her eyelashes at the camera.

Many fans slammed her new pics, and began to suggest that she got work done on her face and injections in her lips.

Maroney first spoke to Seventeen magazine on Friday to immediately shut down the lip injection rumors.

“First of all, I haven’t [had injections],” Maroney told the mag. “How do I make my face look like I didn’t do anything to my face when I literally have not done anything to my face?”

“I think it freaks people out to see somebody change just a little bit,” Maroney added. “I don’t mean to freak anybody out. At the end of the day, I have changed.”

Maroney decided to expand on this message on Instagram, as she posted a new selfie with just a simple bright smile.

“I totally understand why people are upset about me ‘changing,’ I get it,” she captioned the photo. “But if I can promise you one thing, it’s that I will never stop changing. Life is all about growing, evolving and becoming more and more yourself, and these last couple years I’ve done nothing but that!”

“I’ve finally gotten myself to the point where I know who I am, and what I want out [of] life, and you can either love me, or hate me for that,” the gold medalist wrote. “Either way, I love you, and wish you the best, because to me a real role model is someone who has the courage to be exactly who they are no matter what anyone else thinks.”