The Plastic Generation (Persuasive Speech on Child Cosmetic Surgery)
Famous actress and model Patricia Heaton once said “Plastic surgery is like the big elephant in the Hollywood living room,” (Brainy Quotes). For celebrities, a plastic surgery operation is just another trip to the doctor’s office. After all, in this day and age, image is everything. We see this in high profile professions, and in large cities across the country. However, recently in Beverly Hills, California, girls as young as 16 are getting nose-jobs as a “Right of Passage” to fit in. This is a trend that has moved beyond the big city, and with 250,000 teens getting cosmetic surgery a year, it’s becoming all too normal.
Bullying, media, and just plain vanity are causing children and teens everywhere to go under the knife to look just right. Cosmetic surgeries come in many forms, and at insane costs, often changing a person beyond physical recognition, even impacting their personality. The purpose of this speech is not to eliminate plastic surgery as a whole, but rather to persuade you to consider an age limit on these operations. In this speech I will outline the problems of young plastic surgery, and discuss some helpful solutions, as well as how these solutions will benefit us all.
The first problem that contributes to adolescent cosmetic surgery is pressure from the media. I’m sure you’ve heard of Heidi Montag – MTV’s “The Hills” star, who took away her natural beauty and turned herself into a living Barbie doll. She turned to plastic surgery to “fix” her forehead, nose, eyebrows, chin, neck, breasts, hips, thighs, lips, and ears, all in one 10-hour operation (Access Hollywood). With this kind of story exposed to the public, who better to know about it than teens, who look to the media for entertainment, gossip, fashion, and especially beauty advice.
They idolize celebrities like Heidi, and others who have gotten cosmetic surgery done before, whether it was botox or a liposuction. Like fashion and fame, adolescents can also have beauty-envy towards celebrities who seem effortlessly perfect. Using cosmetic surgery as a way out is something celebrities portray as easy and painless. But little do they know that cosmetic surgery is not the answer – it can be dangerous, addicting, and unhealthy, especially if practiced on people of a young age (Stressing). Deep down, media can be very dangerous.
The average American has up to 272 un-concious advertisement sightings a day (Henderson, Adams, Miller). Even magazines like Cosmo are advertising cosmetic surgery and other beauty tricks that may have negative effects in later life. But although they may support cosmetic surgeries, most of the images in their magazines or billboards are photoshopped (Dove Evolution). Photoshop is the photo-editing software that can be used to change your looks completely. The images you see in magazines are not always what they seem.
Although this can be a dangerous illusion to teens, foundations like Dove are campaigning for women to have confidence in their natural beauty and self esteem. A solution that Dove promotes, is to talk to your kids before the beauty industry does (Beauty Pressure). Media, though, is not the only reason young adults are wanting plastic surgery. Most adolescent procedures are influenced by bullying of their physical appearance. 14 year-old Nicolett Taylor from New York, and 7-year-old Samantha Shaw from South Dakota, both had features that caused them torment at school.
Nicolett hated her nose, while Samantha was bullied for her ears that stuck out. Once reaching middle school, Nicolette began getting attacked by her peers about her crooked nose. It happened at school and on facebook – there was no escape. Nicolett’s parents agreed it was time to do something. With the whole family in agreement, she met with plastic surgeon Dr. Sam Rizk, who performs about 25% of his total rhinoplasties on teenagers. Nicolett was the youngest person Dr. Rizk had ever operated on. Because of this, he had to make sure her face was fully grown before continuing with the procedure.
For Samantha’s surgery, it was okay because the ears are fully adult-size by the age of 6. Nicolett’s operation went as planned – right after finishing 7th grade, she had a successful nose job that left her feeling happy and beautiful. Samantha’s operation ended successfully as well – the teasing stopped at school and she is overjoyed with her new ears. As for Nicolett, she started a new school in 8th grade. Even though the bullying can’t disappear forever, it has made a big difference. Both Nicolett and Samantha are happy with the outcome of their surgeries, but did they go too far?
Psychciatrist Dr. Richard Gallagher has a solution; “Kids should learn to stand up for themselves against bullies,” he says. Who knows? Maybe they’ll grow into their nose or ears. Maybe they’ll lose that baby fat as they get older. Patience, confidence, and time to appreciate yourself the way you were made is important. And as far as Facebook and other social media? Gallagher says he thinks staying offline until the age of 15 is beneficial. In conclusion, plastic surgery can be unhealthy and dangerous to people of young ages.
Of course, it’s not bad – but when thinking about an operation, maturity and emotional-stability are important to have. With people as young as 7 years old getting cosmetic surgery, having the maturity is something only the parents can do. The best way to prevent further teen cosmetic surgeries is to be aware of what goes on behind the scenes, and take off the pressure to be perfect. With self confidence and the ability to build others up, plastic surgery will be limited; shaping less-plastic teens for years to come.