My Teenage Daughter Wants Plastic Surgery
When my daughter told me she wants to be a plastic surgeon, it threw me for a loop.
I couldn’t imagine wanting to help people who were so into themselves do something that could possibly be harmful or damaging to their bodies. Yet she loves the idea of transforming someone into who they want to be. She is an artist and a creator, and she looks at people and instantly envisions how she can make them appear their best.
And because she is so infatuated with making people look better, my daughter wants to get a boob job so she can look better too.
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Let me explain.
She is 16 years old, 5 feet 11 inches and definitely average weight. When I say she wants a boob job, I mean she desires a boob reduction.
I have no idea how it happened or which side of the family she got them from, but she is a 34 triple D. I am a 38C. It must have been something in the water.
She absolutely hates her boobs and walks around the house, grasping them tightly underneath her T-shirts and lamenting, “I wish I could just chop them off!” I hate when she says that because I think of all the women who have had mastectomies, and comments such as these make me cringe. I want her to love her body, the way she is made, and accept herself for how she is.
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It’s been difficult for her though. They do not make bathing suit tops for teenagers with boobs of her size. It is challenging to find a bikini top to modestly cover her. I don’t want grown men ogling her because she looks many years older than she is. I don’t want women — other moms, my peers — nudging one another at the pool, exchanging knowing glances, assuming things about my daughter because her breasts are too large in a bikini top.
I can understand how she wishes her breasts were smaller, so that she could maneuver around a bit easier in her own skin, so she can feel comfortable in her body. If her boobs were smaller, she would have more selection when it comes to finding bikinis, and she could also wear bras where half a breast didn’t overflow out of the cup. She could find flattering tops that didn’t stretch across her chest like an ACE bandage.
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When she first told me she was thinking about being a plastic surgeon, I wasn’t sure I liked that idea. It seemed to me like a career that was not very helpful — wanting to make vain women more vain. But after learning how she feels about her breasts, and knowing that there are other women who have issues like hers, maybe her career aspiration is not so off-the-wall as I originally thought. It’s got some validity to it.
I don’t know what we’re going to do about the large-breast situation at this point, but she’s definitely too young for a breast reduction. I hope she can accept herself for the way she is, which I think is, of course, absolutely perfect.
