When Tanya was 12 years old, she became very self-conscious of her nose. “I was really embarrassed about it,” she says. “Sometimes, when I had to speak in class, I covered my nose with my hand so that people couldn’t look at it.”
By the time she was 16, Tanya was avoiding having her photo taken. If her friends took a picture of her that she didn’t like, she would make them rip it up. Otherwise a self-assured and confident teen, Tanya struggled to accept her nose. It was then that she decided to speak to her mother about having rhinoplasty (cosmetic nose surgery).
Botox Cosmetic Surgery Plastic Surgery Teens
Cosmetic surgery is the term used to describe elective procedures intended to enhance a person’s appearance toward a beauty ideal. It’s different from plastic surgery, which is intended to repair and reconstruct abnormal structures of the body. These abnormalities can be caused by a variety of things including birth defects, developmental disabilities, accidents, and disease.
Plastic surgery is not intended to enhance looks toward a beauty ideal; it is meant to bring the aesthetics of the face or body in line with a healthy, appropriate norm. Despite the increasing prevalence of cosmetic surgery in general (1.6 million cosmetic surgical procedures were performed last year in the United States), cosmetic surgery for teenagers remains somewhat controversial.
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Dr. Tracy Penny Light is the director of Women’s Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her research explores the history of the medical discourse on cosmetic surgery.
“There are many more people choosing to have cosmetic surgery, generally, so it is not a surprise that teens are participating in this practice,” she says. “My research suggests that there is increasing pressure on women and girls to live up to a set of norms and values surrounding the body that is unattainable for most people. We see women represented in the media who are thin, large-breasted, and beautiful; for anyone who has a body part, or parts, that do not adhere to this prescription, there is pressure to conform
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