She smiles at me as I pass the magazine rack at Barnes Noble. Everything about her looks absolutely perfect as she stares off the cover of the December/January 2012 edition of Seventeen magazine. Her name’s Nikki Reed, and every 12- to 15-year-old girl who reads Seventeen knows her as Rosalie Hale from the hit film series The Twilight Saga. Her picture captures the hair, eyes, skin, nose, lips and chin every pre-teen and teenage girl covets. Her face is framed by teasers trumpeting this month’s Seventeen content. They direct readers to look inside to learn about “your perfect party look,” how to “win a $10,000 fashion and beauty haul,” and a “bonus style section” all about current celebrity looks. This and every other magazine cover, advertisement and media clip targeting children and teens sets the appearance bar higher and higher for our kids.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that kids who are developing physically during the transition from childhood to adulthood compare what they see unfolding in the mirror with what they see in media. Of course, that’s the way marketers want it. The sad result is a generation of kids who buy the lie, “I am what I look like,” or, “If I don’t look like that (or him or her…insert name of hottest celebrity du jour), well…then, I’m worthless.” This reality not only is feeding the pandemic of eating disorders and depression among children and teens, but is also feeding the dissatisfaction that’s leading a growing number of kids to pursue cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery in an effort to tweak—or overhaul—their physical appearance.
Plastic surgery certainly is nothing new. It’s a legitimate branch of medicine that is dedicated to restoring or altering the human body. It is used to reconstruct and correct abnormalities caused by birth defects, developmental problems, injuries, infections or disease. It’s also used to reshape body structures in a cosmetic effort to improve one’s appearance and feelings of self-worth. According to The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, this latter type of cosmetic procedure has increased by 197 percent in the United States since the stats were first tracked in 1997, to what is now a total of 9.2 million procedures annually at a cost of $10 billion.1 Of that number, 1.4 percent or 132,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on children 18 and younger with the most popular procedures being otoplasty (reshaping of the ears), rhinoplasty (nose jobs), skin rejuvenation and laser hair removal.2 In addition, teenagers are seeing cosmetic surgeons for liposuction, otoplasty, breast enlargement, breast reduction, breast lifts, collagen injections, microdermabrasion and chemical peels. Teens in South Korea are flooding cosmetic surgeons with requests for procedures that enlarge the eyes. Furthermore, there are reports that a growing number of girls in the United States are getting breast enlargements from their parents as high school graduation gifts!
What’s fueling this growing trend that’s not expected to slow down anytime soon? A look at today’s youth culture reveals several reasons for our teens’ love affair with cosmetic procedures.
First, there is the intense and pervasive presence of image pressure. In a Bliss magazine survey among British girls with the average age of 14, two-thirds of the girls surveyed said, “the pressure came from celebrities with perfect bodies and boys.”3 Girls who compare themselves to the never-ending onslaught of images know that to be acceptable is to be young and beautiful. Our boys are buying the lie, as well. If they see themselves as not good enough with the possibility of getting better, they’ll pursue it with little or no regard for the cost. Cosmetic surgeons report that more and more teens are showing up holding celebrity photographs that capture the appearance they want for themselves.
Second, our kids are growing up in a media culture where shows such as “America’s Next Top Model” and the recent “Pretty Hurts” trumpet and glorify the possibilities and merits of cosmetic alteration by the high standards they set. They know it can be done.
Third, our teens live in an instant-fix society. If something’s broken, hurting or not right, there’s a pill, prescription or procedure available to make it right. Because they want to avoid emotional and physical pain, they’ll opt to do anything that makes them feel and/or look better.
Fourth, our culture is extremely egocentric. This reality certainly is not limited to today’s youth culture. We’ve all learned to do “what’s best for me.” If I’m growing up with my eyes focused on myself and my needs, it’s not at all surprising that I’d want to fix anything I don’t like about myself.
Fifth, peer pressure is extremely powerful. When our teens’ peers, boyfriends and girlfriends buy into the appearance pressure, they in turn will pressure our kids to buy the lies that so easily lead to the desperate and vain measure of cosmetic procedures.
Finally, parental pressure plays into the mix. It should come as no surprise that many teens who feel the pressure to change their appearance have learned from parental example. Liposuction, botox injections and breast augmentation are three of the top procedures for men and women.4 That example, coupled with our criticisms of our teens (“You seem to be gaining weight”; “You’re skin looks so pale”; etc.) can lead our teens to desire and choose the plastic surgery option.
What can youth workers do to instill a healthy sense of physical self in their teens so they will avoid the growing obsession with plastic surgery?
First, we must communicate that plastic surgery, while sometimes necessary for one’s physical health, is not the road to redemption. Our dissatisfaction with ourselves is rooted in a yearning for God and His gift of new life. No surgeon’s knife or miracle cream can fill the God-shaped hole in the soul. Plastic surgery is a redemptive dead end that leaves the patient feeling empty.
Second, we must teach our kids that aging and death are theological realities that can be fought but never beaten. Humanity has been cursed to age physically and die since the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Try as hard as we might, those realities never can be reversed on Earth. It’s a fact that time and gravity are not kind to human bodies. Consequently, they need to realize a growing number of people in our culture are locked into an anti-aging exercise in futility.
Third, we must shoot straight with our teens about the risks related to plastic surgery. A simple Internet search uncovers stories and warnings about the very real dangers of some of the most popular cosmetic procedures sought by teens. If nothing else, we can show them photos of older folks who are aging less-than-gracefully thanks to cosmetic surgery procedures gone wrong.
Fourth, we must teach our kids about the seductive power of advertising. They need to know marketing is designed to play on and magnify their insecurities. Then, marketers make product promises that translate into needs that lead to purchases. This vicious cycle is formulated and reformulated every day for one reason: getting our kids to spend their money. As youth workers, we must teach our kids to recognize and understand the lies ads tell and sell.
Fifth, we must never lose sight of the fact that in God’s grand scheme, suffering builds character. Though the perfect appearance always is a changing cultural construct, our kids still buy the lie, feeling as if they don’t measure up; but if we heed the words of James, we soon realize the suffering of not measuring up or being imperfect is part of the growth and maturation process: “Consider it all joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds…the testing of your faith builds perserverance.”
Finally, we must affirm our kids’ value and worth as God has created them. When I was a teen, I never liked what I saw in the mirror. Sure, the pressure wasn’t nearly as great back then; but when we were kids, the pressure was there. Nothing meant more to me than to know that even though I felt I fell painfully short in the eyes of the world, I was loved and accepted by the real people in my life who were really important to me for the simple reason that I was really important to them—no matter how I looked! In time, that message finally got through, and I came to realize my flaws really were unique differences.
A few years ago, I ran across a two-page ad for Botox that featured a middle-aged married couple locked in an adoring embrace. The ad’s intent was for me to believe they were perfect in appearance. The ad’s text read: “We promised to grow old together, not look old together.” What a tragedy. If I can communicate God’s radically different message about appearance to the kids I know and love, I trust the growing obsession with plastic surgery won’t hit home where I live. I pray the smiling young faces I know will reflect the image of Christ, not the images on the fronts of magazines.
