Pressure to Be Perfect

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 13, 2000 | by Paula Gray Hunker

The media trumpets a growing trend in teen cosmetic surgery, and the Internet offers hundreds of sites promising quick fixes for physical flaws. Are adolescents really nipping and tucking?

Less than 3 percent of the nearly 2 million Americans who had plastic surgery last year were minors -- a percentage that has held steady since record-keeping started in 1992, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ASAPS. Plus, only 11 percent of the nearly 25,000 cosmetic surgeries on minors were for "sexy" procedures such as breast augmentations, tummy tucks or liposuction. Rhinoplasty -- surgery on the nose -- continues to be the most common procedure.

But one thing has changed, according to William Little, a plastic surgeon in Washington. "Now we're seeing teens who are looking for a quick fix to their problems. The girl who says, `I'm a bit overweight, and why should I exercise or diet when I can just get it sucked out?'"

Media watcher Matthew Feller of the Center for Media and Public Affairs agrees that news coverage can spin a story out of control. "The press brandishes a double-edged sword," he says. "By telling and retelling stories about teens and plastic surgery, they're actually turning into an advertisement for that very thing."

Impressionable adolescents, still forming their self-images, are very susceptible to this media barrage, says Ann Kearney-Cooke, a physician-scholar with the Partnership for Women's Health at Columbia University. In a recent study funded by Seventeen magazine and Procter & Gamble, Kearney-Cooke conducted an Internet survey of 4,000 teens. Nearly half of the 14- to 18-year-olds said they were dissatisfied with their bodies, and a third of the teens said they were considering some type of plastic surgery. "What's most disturbing to me is that this is a time when their bodies aren't fully formed, yet teens feel so much pressure to be instantly perfect," says Kearney-Cooke.

But media attention is not all bad, counters Allen Rosen, a plastic surgeon in Bloomfield, N.J., and assistant clinical professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "It's healthy that teens now feel that they have more control over their appearance," he says. Improvement in medical techniques, such as laser surgery, and anesthesia practices have made elective surgery safer.

"It's a question of weighing the risks and benefits," says Rosen. Most teens are not looking for Hollywood-style breasts or stunning looks. "At this age, kids don't want to stand out in any way. The ones that come to see me just want to look normal."

Baby boomers are beginning to bring in their teens after their own positive experiences. "I had a woman who was very petite but was always unhappy because she had a small belly," recalls Rosen. "She finally came in for liposuction and after a 45-minute in-office procedure, was delighted with the change. Now her daughter is 13 and has the same small belly, and she wonders if she can prevent her from years of unhappiness with her body when the solution is so simple."

Other surgeons agree that the teen years, when bodies heal fast and psyches are fragile, can be an excellent time for a number of common surgeries. "I've a young man who came back to me after he was grown and told me that fixing his nose when he was 15 was the catalyst that changed his life for the better," says Little.