Teen Angst
We all remember our teenage days; crippling self-doubt, being upset about our bodies, thinking that everybody else had the perfect look and that it was only us who had been afflicted by such bodily disfigurements. Obviously, as we get older, we realise that all teenagers are insecure and that, really, we aren’t as bad looking or as fat as our teenage self thought that we were. However, there is now a rising trend of teenagers considering going under the knife in a bid to correct what they see as their physical flaws. At an age when insecurity and self-doubt are rife, is it really the right option to consider surgical solutions to body hang-ups which will likely disappear along with spots as people get older?
Perhaps it isn’t huge news that teenagers dream about changing the way they look via plastic surgery but the startling statistic that 26% of teenage girls are actively thinking about having cosmetic surgery is extremely disturbing and it is clearly connected to body insecurities which are sadly rife for young women; nine out of ten young women who responded to the BBC survey said that they were unhappy with their body. Obviously, being unhappy with your body is as normal a part of being a teenager as mood-swings and regrettable fashion choices, but when this insecurity drives people into the surgeon’s table then it is surely a trend which needs to be addressed, and quickly.
At just 13, one respondent told the survey that when she was 16 she was going to go to the U.S in order to have a boob job there. “The things I don’t like about my body are my breasts…I spend almost 100 per cent of my life thinking about it,” she told the BBC. Hopefully, in three years time she will have grown to like her looks a bit more. The pressure on young girls to look a certain way seems to now come from all ends of society, from magazines, T.V and the fashion industry; girls are taught that there is only one way to look and anything else is a dangerous deviation from the norm.
At any age, it is women who top the tables of plastic surgery. 9 out of 10 of all cosmetic surgery procedures performed by members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons were performed on women.
