Gift of self-improvement
Mikoch's mother says, “She feels her breasts can be bigger. She feels none of her clothes fit. All of her friends have larger breasts.”
In addition to the increase in the number of younger people undergoing plastic surgery, The Washington Post reported many are receiving procedures such as breast implants and liposuction as birthday and graduation gifts.
The trend has grown in the United States and in Britain, where a company named Transform has created plastic surgery vouchers, making it easier for people to give the gift of self-improvement.
Annandono says despite the surge in gift surgeries, she has yet to see a younger patient’s parents foot the bill and present a child with a gift of surgery. She has one son and three daughters. If any one of them asked her to pay for a procedure, she says, “I’d say, ‘If you really want it that badly, you’d save the money.’ I would not buy it for my child, and I work for a plastic surgeon.”
Hatch says although her parents did not pay for her liposuction, they did help her secure a loan. They weren’t happy at first, but after she told them all the reasons, her parents co-signed for the loan.
Despite her good experience with her breast reduction procedure, gift surgeries are not something Beckwith would consider for a child of her own, especially if that child was younger than 18, she said. “You don’t even have a chance to get comfortable in your own skin before you’re changing it,” she says. “I don’t think I’d let my kid do it. There are special circumstances, I’m sure. It’s just — there is so much more you can do. Teach them to love themselves.”
“You don’t even have a chance to get comfortable in your own skin before you’re changing it.”
Beckwith says she might opt to have surgery done for a child if he or she was disfigured or if her daughter needed a breast reduction. Breast augmentation for teenagers, however, is not something she would consider. “I think that teaches them you have to have boobs to get ahead in life,” she says.
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