Teens Under the Knife

Parents last year spent $26.5 billion on back-to-school necessities, but that didn’t include the cost of plastic surgery, a trend among high school students who choose to go under the knife for a new look before returning to the self-conscious, pressure-laden halls of high schools.

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Nearly 64,000 teens went under the knife in 2013 for a variety of cosmetic surgeries, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The most common procedures were performed on teens ages 13 to 19.

Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research and Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund, said studies of cosmetic surgery indicate the benefits are very overblown.

“Parents should put off cosmetic surgery for teenagers, and wait until those teens are old enough to make a more mature decision.”

“Teenagers and adults who undergo cosmetic surgery often feel better about the body part that was ‘fixed,’ but they don’t feel better about themselves more generally,” Zuckerman told LifeZette. “Cosmetic surgery rarely improves self-esteem, according to the best designed research.

“Research shows that 15-year-olds usually like how they look more than 13-year-olds, for example, and 18-year-olds like how they look more than 15-year-olds,” she said. “It’s not because they actually look better — it’s because they are less self-conscious. That’s another reason why parents should put off cosmetic surgery for teenagers, and wait until those teens are old enough to make a more mature decision.”

Mary Lamia, a San Francisco Bay Area psychologist, psychoanalyst, professor, and author, counsels teenagers and families in Marin County. It’s a part of the state, in northern California, where social pressures can be nearly as intense as in Beverly Hills.

“One thing I will say is this, it is human nature to imagine that life would be ‘better’ if only one could alter a certain physical characteristic,” Lamia said. “In most cases, people tend to use any perceived outer ‘imperfection’ as a target for internal shame. In many cases, when cosmetic surgery is successful, one’s sense of self is temporarily elevated. But although the physical characteristic is altered, it does not erase for long what’s inside.”

Kathi Rianda is the mother of 15-year-old Jessie and a resident of a rural area in southern Oregon. Surrounded by trees, horses and small farms, her daughter still feels the pressures of the outside world.

“If she had a disfigurement, I’d say ‘yes’ as that would be a physical and an emotional scar,” Rianda said. “It would be helpful with improving her self-esteem. If for any other reason, we could work on self-esteem, and when she turned 18, with a job, she could pay for it … if she still wanted it done.”

Related: Plastic Surgery in the Heartland

It’s a sentiment echoed by Sue Williams, a Suffield, Connecticut, mother of a 19-year-old daughter who is a college freshman.

“Unless it was for a medical issue or a severe deformity, I think it sends the wrong message to a girl that age to allow enhancements or changes through surgery,” she told LifeZette. “My daughter’s self-esteem should be derived from interior qualities, not exterior.”

“But the problem with so many of these operations is that at some point, they have to be redone. And in my case, redone, and redone, and redone.”

A woman who wished to remain anonymous looked back on her surgeries in the fullness of time.

“Do I regret my teenage surgeries? Yes and no,” said the middle-aged divorcee who looks decades younger, thanks to multiple procedures over the decades.

She’s had liposuction, blepharoplasty (surgical eyelid repair), rhinoplasty, breast implants and breast lifts. The Malibu surfer and contemporary marketing consultant elaborated on how her parents let her get breast implants at 19 to correct an asymmetry.

“The results were great — I went from a lopsided mess to a simple, size B cup, and my confidence greatly benefited,” she said. “But the problem with so many of these operations is that at some point, they have to be redone. And in my case, redone, and redone, and redone.”

Four breast surgeries and many tens of thousands of dollars later, she said she has lost all sensation in her breasts. And while she remains symmetrical, the scarring, stretching, and other side effects make her wonder whether she should have started down this path.

“At least I would have probably waited until my 20s, to see how my body continued to develop.”