How often do you think about the way you look? Are you confident in your body? Do you love yourself? Many people can relate to thinking about those questions at at least one point in their lives. Teenage boys and girls are constantly wondering, how do I look? Teens today find so many flaws within themselves that they take many drastic measures, and they attempt to rectify each and every flaw with one dangerous solution. Cosmetic surgery. Teenagers all around the world use cosmetic surgery to enhance their features and eliminate bullying, but they do not realize that the solution to their every problem can be very dangerous. Teens who obsess about their bodies don’t need plastic surgery; they need a psychiatrist's help, since every deformity cannot be fixed with plastic surgery. Beauty comes from within and only you can make yourself love yourself. Without a doubt, teenagers should not use cosmetic surgery to enhance their body images unless there are compelling reasons to do so.

To begin with, plastic surgery is not good for your health. Teenagers don’t realize that by getting plastic surgery done, they can be decreasing their lifespan and losing their immunity to some deadly diseases like a common flu. To emphasize, teenagers can have emotional dangers which can affect their daily life. According to Dr. Austin of the cosmetic surgery, “It is not psychologically good to have their lips done or for parents to buy them fillers” (Krishnan 2). In short, people who undergo the plastic surgery procedure can become unstable psychologically, which can be very dangerous for their mental and emotional well-being. Moreover, certain surgeries are not recommended to certain ages because of the emotional and social stress effects. The FDA (Food Drug Administration) recommends that breast augmentation should not happen if it is for cosmetic causes until the age eighteen, but it happens way too much (Collins 1). In other words, breast augmentation is not recommended because the FDA thinks it can be risky for the health of a teenager. To sum up, plastic surgery is very dangerous for your health.

In addition, teens are not mature enough and just want to undergo cosmetic surgery because they succumb to peer pressure. Plastic surgery is sometimes just a means to gaining popularity, which emphasizes the immaturity of teenagers. Furthermore, plastic surgery has just become a trend between teens because they want to do what everyone else is doing. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, “...they count about 209,000 surgeries for all kids 18 and under” (Collins 1). To add, the numbers are so big because of the prevalence of plastic surgery at that time and in some cases, the peer pressure that teens get into for looking the best they can conceivably be. Some parents use plastic surgery as a bribe or reward after doing well in exams and sports. Therefore, parents use plastic surgery as a way to make their teens happy and at the same time bribe them to excel in education. To demonstrate, The President of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, Geoffrey Lyons, states, “Offering injections and fillers as an inducement for children to do well in exams is completely inappropriate” (Carroll 1). Moreover, parents give their immature and society dependent teens the permission for horrible procedures in return for a good report card, which is absolutely outrageous!  As shown, teenagers are not mature enough and only want plastic surgery because everyone else around them is doing it.

Lastly, some teenagers who obsess about their bodies need counseling and not plastic surgery to fix their body image problems. Some teens have a mental fear of being fat called Pocrescophobia, which can lead to eating disorders, a belligerent attitude and the will for surgeries like liposuction. In fact, some teens can have mental illnesses that affect their lives in horrible ways. As an example, in the article “Teens Turn to Plastic Surgery” it states, “Teens obsessed with body image concerns may suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness... they obsess about the differences between their actual and ideal self” (Collins 2). Moreover, some teens become impaired with this disease and are mentally unstable which can impact their lives in an unhealthy way. The idea of consultation and thinking they are mentally ill may not occur to a teenager thinking about cosmetic surgery. Following this, some people make it mandatory to undergo consultation before cosmetic surgery. The Medical Council of NSW Guidelines “...requires minors who are considering cosmetic surgery to have a 3-month cooling off period followed by further consultation” (Hanes 2). To put in other words, they want the teenagers to go through consultation in hopes that they can deter them from undergoing cosmetic surgery. In the end, teenageres who obssess about their body images need immediate help or counseling not cosmetic surgery.

Some will claim that studies, such as the one conducted in Britain’s University Hospital of North Staffordshire by physician Oakley Smith prove that, “...otoplasty resulted in a reduction or elimination of bullying in 100 percent of surgeries performed on children aged 5 to 16” (Krishnan 2). Yet, studies like these forget to factor that not every teen gets bullied, and according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, for a doctor to suggest surgery as a bandaid for their bullying problems is unethical and completely outrageous (Krishnan 2). Doctors who encourage teens to enhance their body image using cosmetic surgery are reprehensible. Furthermore, teens are being put into an environment where plastic surgery is encouraged when these tests are being conducted (Krishnan 2). Studies such as the one Oakley Smith conducted cannot be accurate because the teens are put in areas where adults hover over their heads pressuring them for the encouragement of plastic surgery. As shown, studies such as this are not completely accurate and forget to factor many aspects of the situation.

In conclusion, teenagers should not use cosmetic surgery unless it is absolutely necessary because plastic surgery is not good for their health, teens just want it because of the peer pressure of trying to look their best and some teens need counseling, not plastic surgery, to fix their body image issues. Teenagers in today’s society want to fit in and some of them will go through extreme measures to do so. To emphasize, teenagers who are self-conscience of their bodies should follow a nutritional diet, exercise at least thirty minutes a day and learn to accept their inherent features and their original bodies. If we allow teenagers to go through with cosmetic surgery, we would be walking around with a world full of Barbies who just want to fit in so badly. Why should we let teens give in to their insecurities? Why should we let them ruin their health? Why should we condone to living with plastic people?