When I was younger, my friends and I would hang out after school, and inevitably the question of: What do you hate about your looks and what would you change? ..would come up.

Other girls answered that they hated their nose, or that they wished they had smaller hips.

My only answer was that I wished I had perfect, smooth, pimple-free skin.

Now, my skin wasn’t so bad that I would have needed to take medication like Accutane, but it was not great, and I knew it, even if I didn’t know it was processed and junk foods I was allergic to, which was causing my skin to break out so often.

Sadly, most girls can probably relate to this exercise.

But I can’t imagine boys will know what we’re even talking about.

Today, if you asked me the same question, I’d say: Not a damn thing.

(Especially since I discovered that eating real, unprocessed food really makes a difference in your skin. I’m good to go.)

PLASTIC SURGERY: THE NEW NORMAL LOOK OF ‘BEAUTY’

I have known for a very long time that no cream or potion no matter how expensive, will erase your wrinkles — only surgery can make those tell-tale lines puff back up to what they used to be.

The best thing you can do for your skin is moisturize, wear lots of sunscreen and to be stress-free.

So therefore I am not passing TOO much judgement on cosmetic surgery as being a bad thing (I know quite a few people who have had Botox), but it just frustrates me that it’s considered normal to get a quick injection to ‘solve’ our beauty problems.

Little wrinkles at 30? Botox. Facelift.

Angelina Jolie lips? Lip fillers.

Just saw a picture of some Victoria’s Secret models? Get a boob job.

(Ironically, a padded, lifted bra would feel too fake.)

There is always a surgical solution for your body and your face to fight Mother Nature.

Now in all the beauty magazines I read (vapid I know), they’ve started listing out cosmetic surgeons to visit, what celebrities do to their skin and worst of all, suggestions for women under the age of 30 to start considering Botox to ward off the passage of time.

It’s affecting teens too: Parents are now gifting new high school graduates with plastic surgery.

Although teens make up just 2 percent of cosmetic surgery patients in the United States, their numbers have grown.

In 2006, procedures performed on kids ages 13 to 19 totalled 244,124, including about 47,000 nose jobs and 9,000 breast augmentations, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

It has become so prevalent to NOT look your age or to want to be someone you are not, it’s scary.

I get that wanting to look attractive, means that you feel better, and people treat you better.

But why not stick to makeup, wearing flattering clothes, keeping your body healthy inside and out, and having a natural, sexy confidence instead?

That’s much more attractive than some Barbie-doll or Ken-doll look-a-like who you can’t even talk to.

IT ISN’T JUST FOR THAT CRAZY CELEBRITY ANY MORE

I used to think it was only kept in the realm of celebrities, because they’re crazy and actresses in particular HAVE to look young or they don’t get the job. No one wants to hire older women as their real ages, which is a cryin’ shame.

On top of that, they have to deal with so much pressure in life, paparazzi snapping their photographs when they just want a damn cup of coffee in the morning while walking their dogs — that’s bound to make any sane person snap.

I’d probably snap with a huge box of macarons, where you’d find me lost in a sugar haze, ranting and raving uncontrollably.

..but now the woman you work with, is raving about how amazing Botox is and how it’s changed her life, and you KNOW that accountant on the 20th floor is suddenly sporting a new chest.

WTF?

THE BEAST IN ALL OF US

All this talk about plastic surgery makes you start to wonder if you should do something about those lines around your mouth, even before hitting the age of 30 (*raises hand*), until you snap back to reality and think:

This is ridiculous. It isn’t normal.

Let’s just keep wearing sunscreen, eating well, doing good things for others, smiling, being happy, and stressing less about things that don’t matter.

Honestly, you can tell who has had surgery and who hasn’t.

I’m sure Nicole Kidman denied for years she was Botoxing, but that woman couldn’t move her forehead, her cheeks or her lips without looking like she was in pain. She was a great actress trapped in a mannequin’s face, pumped full and frozen with chemicals.

Don’t even get me started on Joan Rivers, or any of the Housewives on TV.

Via

It has affected male celebrities too.

Bruce Jenner used to look like the only normal human being on the Kardashian show, and now he scares me.

Via

Aging gracefully is a lost art these days.

Can’t we just accept that collagen disappears from our face, and it gives us character?

Once you start seeing those minor, MINOR “imperfections” as a result of natural aging, you start to see everything else as being bad.

People are addicted to plastic surgery, and will go back for 20 or more rounds just to look perfect, without realizing that looking this so-called ‘perfect’ is really imperfect.

What’s beautiful in people, is their natural imperfections. Cindy Crawford’s mole on the left side of her lip, or Kirsten Dunst’s vampire-ish teeth.

So what is it all for anyway?

To look younger so that you stay beautiful and attractive to everyone around you?

Everyone will eventually find out that you’re 45. So what’s the harm in being 45?

What is this crazy need to look 19 when you AREN’T?

Not only that, other signs give it away — your deeply wrinkled necks, spotted backs of your hands, and everywhere else you haven’t Botoxed or lifted to oblivion.

I also wouldn’t want to hug my mother or look at her comfortably, if she scared me with her windblown face and perpetually surprised expression.

People, the Emperor has no clothes!!

It is not beautiful nor is it fooling anyone.