Beauty or Botched: Plastic surgery creates a beauty standard that is impossible to live up to

Cat-eyes, glowing skin and pouty lips — it’s hard to tell if these features belong to Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski or any other social media influencer when scrolling through Instagram. It’s as if these bloggers and models are  slowly morphing into the same face and body. I mean, how is it possible that everyone has Kim Kardashian’s cartoonishly round hips and tiny waist?

Two words — plastic surgery.

It’s become too easy to completely tweak our faces and bodies with implants and surgeries — that is, if you have a big enough wallet. I’m looking at you, Kar-Jenners. Thanks to these toxic practices, today’s beauty standard is one made of plastic.

 The average cost for butt and breast implants, rhinoplasty and a tummy tuck are all over $5,000, according to plasticsurgery.org. A facelift is easily over $8,000. Without thousands to spend at the Med Spa, attaining this look is physically impossible for most people. Yet we are still tricked into believing it’s attainable, and we fall down the rabbit hole of buying endless beauty products in hopes that one will finally fix our insecurities. 

Low self esteem is what fuels the beauty industry. The unhappier we are, the more likely we are to spend money on products. So we buy what they sell — meal suppressant lollipops, makeup, collagen supplements, teeth whiteners, waist trainers and workout plans.  

It never ends. 

Influencers spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to look “natural” while being completely unnatural. With just enough botox to say, “It’s all about the moisturizer,” just enough lip filler to say, “It’s just a few simple makeup tricks,” tummy-tucks and butt implants that look perfect but just natural enough so they can market their latest workout video. 

But it’s not just our favorite celebrities, it’s us too. It’s common to see local moms passing for college students. But it’s just nice skin-care and sunscreen, right? 

Wrong. For hundreds of years, Humans have been obsessed with finding the “fountain of youth.” We’ve found it, but that fountain is also made of plastic.  

It’s our mothers and grandmothers that we love who are struggling the most with the effects of plastic surgery. Are women allowed to age peacefully anymore? It’s becoming less common to see an older woman with gray hair or wrinkles on their face — earned signs of wisdom and experience, not imperfection. 

How do I, a 17-year-old, have more wrinkles on my face than a 45-year-old? When the women I look up to in my life are so quick to change their natural appearance, it makes me question my own beauty. I notice myself staring in the mirror for just a little too long. 

My lips aren’t big enough, my waist isn’t tiny enough, my hips aren’t round enough. This is what our culture of plastic has done to not only grown women, but teenagers. 

What I wish for the little girl with a Roman nose, skinny lips or a flat chest, is to have someone to look up to. Someone to prove that their features are worthy, and they don’t need to fill their lips with plastic, round their chest with implants and tighten the wrinkles from their forehead to be beautiful, valuable. 

The truth is, chasing beauty standards will never satisfy, as they’re constantly changing: from slim, boyish figures in the 20s, to plump and curvy in the 30-50s, then back to tall and skinny in the 60s, then fit and curvy 80s, extremely thin 90s, and finally, our beloved Kardashian figure. 

Perfection is always just out of reach – that’s why celebrities get addicted to plastic surgery. It will never be enough. 

Trying to live up to the expectation strips us of our self esteem and money, but it takes something from society too. What would our world be like if we all looked the exact same? Extremely boring. There would be no diversity, no ethnic features, nothing to set us apart. 

People with unique features will be convinced they’re ugly, and pressured to change themselves. When in reality, unconventional beauty is the most important thing we have. 

We need to celebrate what makes us unique — not making us uniform — to show younger generations that their features are all beautiful, special and do not need to change. 

Unconventional beauty is the most valuable form of art we have on earth.