This photo is of me, my senior year of high school 2005, after having a nose/lip/cheek job. You should get one! They are super fun!

As I was flipping through channels last night at around midnight, I came across a show on the "We" network about women addicted to plastic surgery. As I had a limited option of re-runs of family guy, paid programs, and a lot of other shows I didn't care anything about, I figured that was the most entertaining thing I could choose in my situation. I came in on a part where this woman, who was slightly curvy, but looked good, wanting to get liposuction on her belly, thighs and around her booty. Good call I guess, she had a pretty legit reason to have this procedure.

The next woman, also wanted liposuction, as well. Problem with that was, she had practically 0% body fat! The woman was in fabulous shape. In her interview she said she blamed her parents and women in her family for the reason she was "insecure" about her body. Her doctor even asked her, "What do you want me to remove this time? A muscles or a rib?" when she went in for the planning appointment for the operation; I cannot stress enough on how she really did not need this operation. But she insisted it had to be done!

Another woman, who had a husband and a young child, was filmed on the phone with the plastic surgeon's office, talking about getting a procedure done to get lipo and some work done on the scar a C-section had left. When she got off the phone, she walked over to her husband and said, "It's going to cost $55,000." Her husband, shocked about the cost, tried too explain, but not every assertively, that they were way in over their heads in debt and simply had no way to pay for this operation. However, he tucked his tail the rest of the way under his legs when she told him there were no questions asked she was GETTING this operation, like it or not, not matter what they had to do. (a song by Carly Simon comes to mind right now; can you guess which one?!) In the end they had to sell their house, which was on beautiful property in California near the red woods, to pay for their piling up debt and, of course, Miss Self-image's lipo and whatever else. RIDICULOUS!!

By this point, I was getting ever so irritated with these woman. I have, not really by choice, gone through many plastic/reconstructive operations for my cleft lip and cleft pallet. And then it happened, the show put the icing on the cake. A 71-year-old woman, who resembled a deformed Zsa Zsa Gabor, came on to tell her story. She told how after her first divorce she decided that she needed to have silicone injections in her face. She rushed to the doctors office the very next day, and asked the doctor how quickly he could make her look "beautiful." He told her a year. She asked if he could do it in 6 months. He said yes. This woman went through a series of silicone injections in her face. The ending result? She got gangrene in her face, and had to have her face removed and each chunk of silicone taken out piece by piece; a portion of her cheek had a crater in it from being eaten away by all the procedures. This woman almost died. Death, from beauty; a slight, but not quite, oxymoron. Of course, after the grace of God, she was still alive, she continued, up into her 70s, to have procedures done. (Oh and FYI, she couldn't smile because of what happened to her face from the silicone procedures.)

That is when I was ready to go postal! I was so enraged by these women (minus the first one) who were seemingly beautiful and still insisted that they had to be flawless. Nobody, mind you, is flawless. How can someone have such a low self image of themselves, even when the people around them constantly are telling them that they are beautiful and don't need to change what they look like.

Yes, I know I probably sound like a slight hypocrite, however, it was very important for me to have this work done or else I could not properly function as a human. I praise plastic and reconstructive surgeons for what they are capable of; they made my life easier! But I really don't see the point, in selling your house because you NEED to have surgery on something that you aren't going to die from, or surgery on something that can wait until you have the money. I had to live a very big portion of my young life, wondering if people were staring at me, wondering how I was going to look like after my next operation, worrying about something going wrong, etc.

I have to say, to this day, I still have flaws, naturally, but I do not sit around and dwell on them. You're mind can be you're worst enemy when it comes to self image. I can also feel their pain, too. After having all these operations done, I would find myself looking in the mirror and picking out what I thought was wrong with my face... I soon got over that (ha ha). When I smile, I don't have part of my gums and my teeth are crooked from being born without part of my mouth, and one of my nostrils is smaller than the other; you don't see me sitting around, looking in the mirror in shame about the way I look. I think I look fabulous, and wouldn't change me for the world.

My facial features are unique, and believe it or not I have been told I look like a few very attractive, successful, actresses. I only wish more women (and men) could see how beautiful they are naturally. Age with grace and find beauty in your flaws. You are you, and although you may think going under the knife is going to change how you feel, it really isn't going to. All of these women were planning on having future procedures done on their bodies.

So remember this: Happiness does not come from a scalpel, a breast augmentation, silicone injections, botox, or nose jobs; happiness comes from you. Feel good about you, and the world will notice, trust me, I've been there.