By Rachel Belle

Listen to my Story Here:

 

When we were kids, most of us were picked on for something. For me it was my super pale skin; the mean boys called me “transparent.” For 7 year old Samantha Shaw it was her ears: they stuck out.

“I really don’t like people asking about my ears.”

And her mom says she was bullied.

“When she was younger she got called monkey ears. Adults are worst, they’ll say, ‘Oh my Gosh, what happened to her ears? That’s so gross!’

So Samantha had plastic surgery to get her ears pinned back.

My first reaction upon hearing that a 7 year old got cosmetic plastic surgery? It just sounds wrong and excessive and vain. I mean, pretty much everyone in this newsroom was picked on & we turned out OK, didn’t we?

I called Seattle plastic surgeon Dr Phil Haeck, who happens to be president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, to see what he thinks about little girls going under the knife:

“It was a great idea to help this kid psychologically. Lots of taunting and names get called.”

Hmmm. But should we really listen to a plastic surgeon? Just to be sure, I called a shrink. Matthew Gittleman is a therapist who works with kids and families.

“I think the girl would be really wounded for the rest of her life if that continued for a period of time. Self esteem is so delicate and it develops early, or it can be completely destroyed early, and I think what the parents did caused her great relief.”

Talking to these two has actually flipped my perception about kids having corrective surgeries. But both agree that it should be done on a case by case basis and requires a bit of psychological analysis. Like, if a 13 year old girl wants to have her breasts enlarged? Dr Haeck won’t do it.

“For me, only if you have a significant psychological problem with one large breast and one small breast. Otherwise I think, psychologically, 16 is not a good age to have a breast augmentation. I don’t think that it’s a mature decision that a 16 year old can make.”

Matthew says surgery shouldn’t be a knee jerk reaction and parents need to work on self esteem from a very early age:

“I think a lot of parents are clueless when it comes to that whole issue. It requires a constant repertoire of positive motivation, things that make the child feel good about them self.”