Cosmetic surgery for teens

[ForkInTheForeheid]

Was reading this www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/19/eva-wiseman-cosmetic-surgery-bad in the Guardian online and it
linked to this CNN video newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/30/charity-group-offers-free-plastic-surgery-to-bullied-teens/

This teenage girl got bullied for her appearance (her ears sticking out) and her mum contacted the "Little baby face foundation" - a charity that provides plastic surgery for children. On meeting the surgeon he suggested that she needed surgery on her nose and her chin too, as her nose was assymetrical and her chin was "too pointy". I couldn't believe my eyes/ears. This is a fourteen year old girl being told by a doctor that she needs invasive facial surgery in order to be normal.

Not sure what the question here is, just felt that it needed to be shared.

sorry, not cnn - time newsfeed.

That sounds awful.

Not sure how I feel about this. The instant, gut feeling is "they shouldn't do that", but why not? We have the technology to alter ('improve' is subjective) one's features, so if you want to, why not? The mother and the daughter both wanted, and are happy with, the operation. It's all very well saying that the daughter should learn to grow to love her unique features, but what if she doesn't want to? She's the one suffering with the low self-esteem and teasing, I'm certainly not going to presume to tell her how she should view her body and solve her problems.

Also, I think you mischaracterised the aims of the charity; they are "a charity that provides plastic surgery for children", yes - but more accurately, they provide "corrective surgery for children born with facial deformities". Whether prominent ears really count as a 'deformity' is up to them to decide, I suppose.

I possibly did ecclesvet, I didn't go to their website, just went on what the report said. It's not so much that she got the procedure done (although at 14 I admit to finding it a bit uncomfortable) it was the way her normal, non-pathological features were transformed into a medical problem that needed to be fixed by the surgeon. The way he spoke about her chin was really unpleasant viewing. There was no talk from the surgeon about her happiness, it was all about "balancing her features", he actually said "I like thin chins but not ones as pointy as that".