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Getting crafty to avoid punishment is what most kids do best, but I wonder if this list is really a new texting code used by the young folk, or a code used only by the kids who were caught up in this particular incident? Either way, I’ll never look at the number 8 the same way again.
This Twaggie, illustrated from a Tweet by @charstarlene, really hits close to home. My daughters are 13, 13, and 14, and their computers are in my office so they can feed off my modem. Purgatory, indeed! Link
Here’s a disturbing trend: Between 1996 and 2010 the number of teenagers aged 13-19 having elective cosmetic surgery has increased by 548% – from around 14,000 procedures to 76,841 last year, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The vast majority of these surgeries are rhinoplasty, followed by octoplasty (ear-pinning, typically), breast augmentation, asymmetry correction and reduction, and liposuction.
Why would so many kids go under the knife?
Almost without exception, the surgeries are performed in response to teasing, bullying and low self-esteem. The ASPS says that teens “tend to have plastic surgery to fit in with peers, to look similar,” by “improv[ing] physical characteristics they feel are awkward or flawed, that if left uncorrected, may affect them well into adulthood.” Thirteen-year-old Nicolette Taylor (shown above) had a nose job after kids at school teased her; the “Hey, big nose,” comments followed her to Facebook before her parents stepped in and opted to have Nicolette’s nose reconstructed. She’s not alone, either — ABC reports that at least 90,000 such surgeries were performed last year “to avoid being bullied.”
Of course, a teenager can’t just walk into a doctor’s office and request a consult. Richard D’Amico, president of the ASPS, speaking with U.S. News and World Report, says that for anyone under age 18, a parent or guardian must be present and the prospective patient must have the maturity to understand the procedure, be able to express that “the desire for surgery does not reflect what a parent, friend, or boyfriend desires” and have realistic expectations. Even so, it becomes obvious when looking at the numbers that often surgery is a knee-jerk response to what most adults would consider the norms of teenage interaction. And it seems to skip over that “it builds character” thing that previous generations admired so strongly before plastic surgery was so widespread and available. Succinctly, Sheri Reed of The Stir asks, “[Plastic surgery], in no way, attempts to deal with the emotional matters behind a bully’s behavior, nor does it teach the teen who hates herself the important life lesson of resilience.”
How do parents justify plastic surgery for their children?
There are no laws governing the minimum age for cosmetic procedures. Standard policy requires that a patient reaches a point of growth maturity beforehand, which is determined by monitoring changes in shoe size or height. There are two types of procedures: corrective and cosmetic. In the first camp, you have surgeries to repair deviated septa, cleft palates, under- and over-bites and any malformation or physical impairment that affects the quality of life.
One teenager in the news recently will be having a series of procedures to correct her severe underbite; while kids do tease her about her protruding jaw, Samantha Weichhan’s orthodontists Drs. Jerry Blum and Margo Brilliant argue that the process is not cosmetic. “It’s kind of like if you have somebody that one leg is 4 inches shorter than the other leg, and they say to straighten it out is an aesthetic thing. No, it’s not an aesthetic thing. Yeah, you will look better if you’re standing straight on both legs, but point is, it’s a functional problem.”
But those aren’t the worrying procedures. In Nicolette Taylor’s case, whose nose operates just fine, getting cosmetic surgery to change the way she looks in response to some posts on a Facebook wall (which, incidentally, are not supposed to be opened by 13-year-olds according to Facebook’s Terms of Service), the reasoning becomes a little hazier. Rob Taylor, Nicolette’s father, explains it this way to ABC: “You send them to a good school. You’d buy them shoes. You’d get them braces, which we did. It’s that kind of thing.” The parents of Kaitlyn Clemmons, who gave their 18-year-old daughter breast augmentation surgery as a Christmas gift, see the pain of the procedure as something akin to the pain after a trip to the gym. “Everything comes with a price,” her stepfather says. Tracy Carp, who had breast augmentation at 17 with her parents’ consent and recently underwent a second procedure to reshape a “slight bump” on her nose, says that “a little bit of cosmetic work” has helped his daughter “feel much better about herself . . . and healthier.”
What price hotness?
A new nose or sleeker profile aren’t free, even if the surgery is performed pro bono or paid for by insurance. The ASPS urges teenagers and their parents to remember that “plastic surgery is real surgery, with great benefits, but also carries some risks.” In 2008, Pennsylvania courts awarded $20 million to a family of an 18-year-old girl who died from what was “likely a pulmonary embolism after liposuction.” The same year, 18-year-old Stephanie Kuleba of Florida died of malignant hyperthermia, a rare reaction to anesthesia, after undergoing cosmetic breast surgery. “This is something that can happen in any surgery, on any part of the body, in any setting,” D’Amico said.
Other risks? MRSA infection, a deadly strain of staph, which killed more US patients in 2008 than AIDS. Unskilled or shady surgeons, like the man who gave Priscilla Presley injections of “industrial, low-grade silicone” after convincing her that it was a miracle fix for wrinkles. And then there are always the kids who will tease you for having a nose job or breast implants.
Given all the factors that accompany an elective procedure, would you consent to or support plastic surgery for your own kids if they were being teased about their physical appearance?
Sources:
This cartoon, that Geeks Are Sexy rightfully titled “You’re A Skywalker, Not A Street Walker,” just goes to show how everyone’s adolescent years are pretty much the same -even Princesses.
Link Via Geeks Are Sexy
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With four teenagers at home, I witness every day the strange thought processes they have. We’ve learned from recent research that the human brain undergoes immense changes during adolescence, which are often not finished until the mid-20s. National Geographic looks beyond that research into why the brain goes through such changes in adolescence, and finds it has to do with our evolutionary past. The risks teenagers take are in some ways very adaptive.
Let’s start with the teen’s love of the thrill. We all like new and exciting things, but we never value them more highly than we do during adolescence. Here we hit a high in what behavioral scientists call sensation seeking: the hunt for the neural buzz, the jolt of the unusual or unexpected.
Seeking sensation isn’t necessarily impulsive. You might plan a sensation-seeking experience—a skydive or a fast drive—quite deliberately, as my son did. Impulsivity generally drops throughout life, starting at about age 10, but this love of the thrill peaks at around age 15. And although sensation seeking can lead to dangerous behaviors, it can also generate positive ones: The urge to meet more people, for instance, can create a wider circle of friends, which generally makes us healthier, happier, safer, and more successful.
The entire article is available now in the October issue of National Geographic magazine. Link
(Image credit: Kitra Cahana)
Teenagers need more sleep than other age groups; nine hours is recommended. But many only get seven or even fewer hours of sleep each night. A recent study found that adolescents whose parents set an early bedtime for them had fewer bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts than those whose parents set a later bedtime. Most adolescents in the study complied with set bedtimes, getting to bed an average of five minutes later.
Results show that adolescents with parental set bedtimes of midnight or later were 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression (odds ratio = 1.24) and 20 percent more likely to have suicidal ideation (OR=1.20) than adolescents with parental set bedtimes of 10 p.m. or earlier. This association was appreciably attenuated by self-reported sleep duration and the perception of getting enough sleep. Adolescents who reported that they usually sleep for five or fewer hours per night were 71 percent more likely to suffer from depression (OR=1.71) and 48 percent more likely to think about committing suicide (OR=1.48) than those who reported getting eight hours of nightly sleep. Participants who reported that they “usually get enough sleep” were significantly less likely to suffer from depression (OR=0.35) and suicidal ideation (OR=0.71).
The researchers in this study say there are several ways sleep deprivation can lead to depression. Link -via reddit
(image credit: Flickr user Carlos 57)
Why are teenagers so lousy at chores? Is it laziness … or biology? Monica Luciana of University of Minnesota and colleagues have the scientific answer:
Blame it on "cognitive limitations." [Teenagers'] brains can’t multitask as well as those of the taskmasters. [...]
The part of the brain responsible for multitasking continues to develop until late adolescence, with cells making connections even after some children are old enough to drive, according to a new study in the May/June issue of the journal Child Development.
The frontal cortex, which starts just behind the eyes and goes back almost to the ears, figures out (or doesn’t) what to do when a person is asked to juggle multiple pieces of information. Imagine, then, how "make your bed and bring the laundry down" might befuddle a 13-year-old.
The Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics surveyed 29,760 American high school students about their ethics and activities. The results are disturbing.
*a total of 30 percent overall — admitted stealing from a store within the past year.
*More than two of five (42 percent) said that they sometimes lie to save money.
*A substantial majority (64 percent) cheated on a test during the past year
*More than one in four (26 percent) confessed they lied on at least one or two questions on the survey.
*A whopping 93 percent said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character
The report released yesterday covered honesty and integrity. A later report will have survey results on drug use and violence. Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!
