Is Plastic Surgery Bad?

Anonymous, 21

Credit: Pinterest

When I was 17, a girl came into my class with dark circles under her eyes and her nose taped up. Immediately, we all knew that she had just undergone a nose job. And strangely enough, she wasn't ashamed. She answered all of our questions, she let us gently examine her new nose, and what struck me as the most odd, was when she would often comment that the most expensive thing on her was her nose.

Plastic surgery is so stigmatized, but recently, I've been seeing celebrities handle it with the same grace as the girl from high school. And recently, I've been wondering - if you don't like something about yourself, should you change it? I've always been shy of my nose, which has a large bump of the bridge, and also my side profile. I hate side profile pictures, and in truth, a nose job truly would make me feel more confident in myself. So this summer, I received lip fillers on my trip in Miami. When I came back to college though, this year, I've been feeling oddly embarassed. People have come up to me, asking where I've gotten them done at. I do love my lips now, and would never get it dissolved, but I'm unsure about how to feel.

One of my best friends, before I had gotten my lips done, had told me that she feels against plastic surgery because she believes that everyone should embrace their natural beauty. Plastic surgery, to her, should be for when people survive fires, or are a conjoined twin. But if I feel insecure about my "natural beauty" and hate looking at pictures because of my features - is it truly a bad thing I'm doing? Is plastic surgery truly that bad?