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Former child model Nicolette Taylor is 13-years-old. She’d gotten teased “multiple times a week” for a while because of her nose. What made matters worse was feeling like wherever she went, her bullies could access her: Nicolette was harassed on social networking sites when not in school. Nicolette’s mother, Maria Taylor, told Nightline correspondent JuJu Chang:
“They went on Facebook, and they started posting, ‘Hey big nose. It happened probably about five times that week. … I came in when she was on the phone with the boy, and I took the phone from her, and I said, ‘Listen, you need to take them off Facebook.’ I was crazy, crazy.”
So, after enduring regular harassment and subsequent insecurity, Nicolette simply went and got a nose job:
So, the teasing was the major factor here. As a sidenote, we’re lucky to have not really had robust social networking sites in junior high, so perhaps we’re not understanding: can one not unfriend bullies on Facebook? (We’re not being glib, we’re sincerely curious how one might be harassed on Facebook with adequate privacy settings). For whatever reason, we’re also told that Nicolette had broken her nose twice (which contributed to its appearance) as if that offers further insight into why a 13-year-old has gotten plastic surgery. Thanks to celebrities, people everywhere are familiar with the “plastic surgery as healing” defense.
Nicolette’s parents compare what they’ve done to getting her braces: ”You send them to a good school,” her father Rob Taylor told ABC. “You’d buy them shoes. You’d get them braces, which we did. It’s that kind of thing.” It’s worth noting here that Nicolette’s not a terribly unusual case: earlier this year, ABC news reported that plastic surgery “to avoid being bullied” was on the rise. In 2007, around 90,000 teens opted for cosmetic enhancement.
Plastic surgery has been a pretty popular subject around TheGloss lately, with a lot of commenters passionately defending their right to utilize cosmetic procedures as an act of self-esteem building. Several commenters have revealed that they were specifically teased about their noses and don’t regret getting them fixed. Presumably, none of them were under 18.
As for Mr. Taylor’s justifications: getting a thirteen-year-old a nose job is very, very, very different from sending them to the University of Chicago. It’s also very different from buying them shoes, because one can remove shoes and change shoes depending on mood and whim. And ultimately, yes, getting a nose job is different from getting braces (on the most basic level, one is a surgical procedure and the other is not).
However, the braces comparison does touch on an interesting point. We–like a lot of kids in our generation–got braces young because we didn’t have perfect teeth. Not so imperfect, granted, that we got teased about them. Most parents who provide braces for their children figure that one goes further professionally with good teeth. The same logic can reasonably be applied to a more conventionally attractive nose. Still, we wonder how often plastic surgery is used as a (very drastic) Band-Aid for genuine issues with self-esteem. We also tend to suspect that a lot of the self-loathing and insecurity–that are a regular part of one’s teens–will endure until self-esteem develops the old fashioned way.
Also. Remember Botox Mom? The (hoax?) woman who injected her little girl with botox and gave her “virgin waxes” because she wanted the child to be a successful model/actress? People were outraged over it, perhaps because Botox Mom was pretty upfront about her actions being motivated purely by shallowness (and not harassment, like here). Are people going to be less outraged by this because of the difference in a few years?
It’s striking that all parents involved were happy to tell their stories on television.
Some people will say that Rob and Maria are good parents concerned with their child’s future and current well-being. Others will surely call this child abuse. At least one poll has it at a pretty even split. What do you say?
(via HuffPo, Daily Mail)
she got a nose job and now has a tan and some blonde highlights…whats next? “mom they make fun of my small boobs,” “dad they make fun of….” come on
I am completely with you, Sid.
My step-sister had large ears that stuck straight out from her head. When she was in her 30s, she had them worked on. The Dr did a beautiful job and now the first thing you notice is not her ears but her beautiful green eyes. And she positively blossomed as a result. I don’t know how things might have been different for her if this could have been done when she was a teenager, but I wish our parents could have afforded it then.
Why not get surgery? It’s very easy for us to say “take it like a champ, it’ll make you stronger”. Kids can be so damn cruel, so if a srugically reconstructed nose is the ticket out of it, I sure as hell would pay for surgery if my kid asked for it.
I wasn’t bullied over my physical appearance in high school, I was bullied the first year in my new school just for being the new fucking kid, and let me tell you, if I could have just switched schools, I would have. Sometimes the easy fix isn’t necessarily wrong.
But I do have to raise one question: is the fake tan necessay? And the pouty lips? Now that’s just creepy.
You all are focusing on her nose, but it definitely looks like she got her lips done too. Does a 13 year old really need her lips done?
If you take the “well if she’s self conscious about it…sure!” approach that so many are taking, I’d have to ask – Why would a 13 year old even know to be self conscious about her lips? I don’t recall knowing about differences in lip shapes until HS.
That said, while I’m not entirely against fixing the construction of a now-healed break, I have to wonder if allowing for cosmetic surgery at 13 teaches some not so healthy lessons – “If someone doesn’t like something about you, go out and change it!” “You have to be pretty because it’s your most important asset!” etc.
I agree, while I can understand the nose job, it definitely fixed her lips as well. I guess she can go back to being a model now, can she?
Again the self-esteem issue. A young adolescent woman needs to establish pride in her own indentity. When I was young, I knew such first hand. I don’t agree with all this emphasis on comestic appeal. Seems shallow, as though a woman can have no identity without it.
I don’t think she got her lips done, she’s just a vain little girl in love with her new look and obviously pursing them together in her best blue steel “after” shot. I briefly did the same thing for about an hour after being allowed to finally wear lipstick until my mother laughingly wondered aloud in front of company whether my lips had gotten permanently stuck in that position.
I’m ok with this.
If you break an arm bone, you go to the doctor and fix it.
If you break your finger, you go to the doctor and fix it.
You don’t want it to heal up and get set into place and now you got a freaking messed up finger or arm.
Same concept except it was less major damage.
She broke her nose. It only makes sense to fix it.
It just takes a while because her nose was still growing.
But now it’s stopped so it’s only right to fix it and let her move on with her life.
Good for her! She is proactive with her life..I laugh at the bs from people who think she should stay the way she is …if you don’t fight in this life to be the way you think you should be, you will be very unhappy..do what you think you should do and not conform to others’ ideas..
if it makes HER feel better (NOT HER tormentors) i would let her get it done… switch schools after that and a new fresh beginning without people harassing her.. schools need to do something about the bullies… kids can be sooooo soooo cruel… i was lucky enough to look average i spose, i never got teased in that manner
Two words: Barbra Streisand
She could have “fixed” her nose, but she didn’t.
People even told her she should.
Cindy Crawford had her modeling agency “suggest” she loose the mole. She didn’t.
Kim, that’s exactly what I was thinking… Barbra never changed for anyone… and look at her fly like an eagle :)
She looks like she had her lips plumped a little bit.
I’m 17 years old and was teased for my nose all through school and I would NEVER get plastic surgery I was born with it, everyone has faults .
To Reality Check:
I’m not saying that hearing loss is a deformity, I just threw that in there (that was my own fault, the main focus in that statement should have been on his misshapen earlobes[so I apologize if I offended you]). Nor am I saying that having a big nose is a deformity either. From the front view of this child’s nose, it looks normal to me, but from the side view, the bridge of it looks strange. which is, what I can only assume, from it being broken in the past, which has caused it to be misshapen and deformed looking.
though I see your point, you’re right, it is a temporary fix for a long term problem.
i really hope she is happy now. And to be honest it looks way better! What people don’t reallise here that saying: accept yourself, this is who you are, be happy with how you look and bullshit like that but it’s way to easy to say that if you have never been bullied. they say there is a lower then 1% chance that in 4 years here face looked normal, but that’s 4 years of bieng bullied 5 times a day, 35 times a week,1820 times a year 94640 times in 4 year! can you imagine how that feels? as an insecure teenager? teenagers a judged on there appearance way more than adults. when youre older than 30 people don’t expect you to look perfect anymore, but add the age of 13 your soposed to look better than in the rest of your life. and 4 years might seem like nothing to adults but 13 year is just a little over 3 times 4 plus she has been bullied even before she was 13. and 13 to say 18? is soposed to be the best time of your life. great being bullied every day. i think it’s wonderful that her parents allowed her to do something like that. they gave her a chance of not getting bullied. ofcourse it’s possible that she will get bullied again but her biggest insecuritie is gone so she can start bilding up her self-esteem i hope she will go to a coach or someone els to help here with that.
I think getting a nose job so young is probably a little bit iffy just because her features have not ‘settled’ yet. She still has quite a few more years to grow so maybe once she’s fully grown, her nose will look awkwardly small, who knows?
Also, her nose job is really obvious and that could actually cause her to be the target of more bullying. Something along the lines of ‘oh we made fun of your nose, so you got a new one’. It’s a really sad situation that bullying has caused her to feel so insecure.
People are making such a big deal out of this but I honestly see nothing wrong with it. This is not like she has tiny boobs and the kids are teasing her about it so her parents say “Oh my God, stop calling out daughter itty bitty titties” and then turn around and say “Honey do you want bigger boobs because the kids are teasing you?”
This is something else. Her nose looked deformed from it being broken in the past. They were merely giving her the option of having a normal looking nose.
My parents did the same thing for my brother when he was her age (no seriously he was 13 at the time). He was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and part of that, I guess, came with hearing loss and deformed ear lobes. So, when the kids were teasing him constantly in school they asked him if he wanted surgery to make them look relatively normal. There is nothing wrong with this. They are merely fixing a deformation and making their child’s life a little bit better.
Just like my parents did with my older brother.
Well, I would have to disagree with this. For two main reasons, having a “big nose” is not a real deformity. It is based on the opinion of some jerk who has no idea what he’s saying. Second, hearing loss is not a deformity. People who are completely deaf function normally in society, and their are a wide variety of ways to adapt to hearing loss. Trust me. My brother who is seven copes with it everyday. Also, having a real condition or a congenital defect is completely different. I can sympathize with this little girl, but her parent’s actions are totally uncalled for. It is just a temporary fix for a long term problem.
I agree with this, in a way. If she had broken it in the past and that contributed to its apperance, it’s likely that she already felt bad about it and the bullying just exacerbated the problem. If she’s getting plastic surgery to appease the bullies, that’s absolutely terrible, and I don’t think it’s right, but if it’s something that’s coming from inside her I think plastic surgery can be a great way to correct something that’s standing in the way of her happiness. It’s only dangerous if you think it’s going to fix all of your problems if you just have one more surgery.
I had a friend growing up that was teased mercilessly because she had a big nose. She was so sweet and a wonderful person, but no matter what she did, there was always some asshole around to rain on her parade with some sort of cruel comment. As a result she was horrifyingly shy.
any parent that allows their kid to suffer when something could easily be fixed, is a form a child abuse.
That qualifies quite a few things as child abuse, doesn’t it? I don’t like it when that term is thrown around so loosely, as the interpretation you created encompasses MANY things.
I’m not against the plastic surgery as altering your appearance, even at 13. It’s whatever. I do not know very much about plastic surgery but i’m sure it has heath repercussions, that is what i’m against.
IIt is really interesting case. At first glance, when I saw the title of the article I said no because she is too young. It is so bad for our society to “judge” a girl for her physical feature. On the other hand, watching her photo after the operation I realized something else. This girl doesn’t look 13 or 14 years old, no innocent to her face. Why the girls want to be like a woman on their 13?
Simultaneously, I have the opposite opinion. Why the prominent ears correction is accepted to be performed at the age of 6 before the child go to school and not a rhinoplasty? (of course after a facial skeleton growth has been achieved). An otoplasty is acceptable at younger ages, why not a rhinoplasty at the age of 15?
well she did the right thing by getting her nose fixed cause if i were her i would have done the same nobody will like to get teased over how they were borned and to say the truth that nose was hiddious thank god she did that it was the best and only thing to do……….
Look their is no such thing as UGLY OR BEAUTIFUL! It’s just a features that some people are attracted to. Some people aren’t. Just like some people like others with long hair and others like those wIth short. But It doesn’t really matter what they like, becasue the world shouldn’t be something that your trying to impress anyways, you just need to be yourself and love yourself for who you are. They way you were born is the way your were born, oh well if people don’t like it becasue it’s not what’s attractive now of days, people need to realize that and get over it,move on,ignore,and just live your life, just be happy your alive. Getting surgey is unhealthy anyways, and you should only get it if its a life ore death situatiation, or if its causing medical problems. If your being made fun of let the critism make you stronger and if your hearing it so much it shouln’t even bother you after a while anymore beacsue you are use to it and you dont care. If you were born with a feature that is just diffrent and people are constatly making fun of you, it helps you find real friends fatser, becasue you know who makes fun of you, so that cant be your friend, and the one that is nice and dosen’t make fun of you could be your friend that you can trust. I was attacked by a dog when I was in the 2nd grade. I use to have that look that everyone thought was just so beautiful and and attracted now of days. But after the attack people started teating me different becasue of my looks. So I was like “Oh ok, ya’ll wanna treat me diffrent because of what I looked like, then whatever I’m glad I found out early that you ain’t my friend. So I just treated people nice and with respect no matter what they said or thought abot me, and true friends came to me,after a while becasue I knew I loved myself and didn’t care how I looked or what other people thought of my looks. I just went out there and was just happy to be alive, I was just like whatever, I don’t give and damn and you shouln’t either. Beacuse just like your clothes and items dont define you, your looks dont either. ITS ALL ABOUT CHARACTER!!!!! CHARACTER,CHARACTER,CHARACTER!! THATS IT! THAT WHAT MAKE YOU WHO YOU ARE! Psotive attitude, leads to positive actions, and decisons, and you will find postive people too. No matter what! FOR THE AS LONG AS THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD NOBODY WILL EVER LOOK (EXACTLY) THE SAME, EVERRRRR! So people pleassssssssssee, stop stressing yourselfs out over nothing at all, becasue this something big in the world that should me so tiny, and I mean it shouldn’t even exist. People pick a cobonation of human features that THEY LIKE AND THEN SAY PEOPLE WITH THESE FATURES ARE PRETTY! WHO ARE THEY TO TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD LOOK LIKE! THEY AINT NOBODY,SHOOT! AND ALL THESE PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY BEILEVE THEM AND ACTUALLY DO CHANGE THEM SELVES ARE RETARTED AS HELL! INSUCURE
LOOKS ARE NOTHING THOUGH! ITS LIKE SAYING THESE TOES ARE CUTE “umm…..ok…? they are just toes who calls toes cute who cares they are just toes that help to balance you dont need to make them look a ceatain way. all you need to do is take care of them so they can continue helping to walk.” same thing with noses,ears,eyes,skin color. People’s genetics are cause for a reason to help you survive. If you live you live in Africa you genetics are more likey to give you dark skin becaseue it will help you survive in the hot sun becasue you are darker. If you have a large nose its for a reason, becasue your gentecs, t will most likely help you survvie better. if you have a big nose You will be able to breath more easily in stuffy areas. If you live some where and you get genes that have nothing to do with your area its probally becasue it takes yeras and generations for the humans characteristcas to change and adapt to their area and get better fearures to survive in this specific area better. its like animals.People looks are nothing it just helps you survive and its life!!!!! LIVE AND JUST MAKE YOURSELF (HAPPY!) BECASUE ISN’T BEIGN HAPPY IS JUST WHAT EVRYONE WANTS AND TRYS TO ACHIEVE!! right?THINK ABOUT IT
to me i prefer the way her nose looks now if i were her i would have done the same i know it sounds rediculious but im saying the truth i would have done it if i was being teased beacuse of my nose she looked horrible before but now she looks beautiful i love it
I’m sure someone has mentioned this but I can’t find it so… at 13, her bones and facial features aren’t done growing yet, and plastic surgery doesn’t grow with you, I wonder at how that will be addressed. Also what kind of message does this send to her peers. If others can affect what you do, you can affect what others do, even at the young age of 13, she should be held accountable for her actions, she just effectivly told everyone, “I agree, it was ok to bullt me, my nose was ugly so I fixed it” and possibly related the message that others should follow. Originally “bullying” was a way to get an unhealthy person in the group/tribe/early cultures to conform into something that was best for the group and individual so that humans could survive. It’s still necessary, but now it’s aimed at the wrong things, and so causing problems instead of solutions.
Bully not bullt*
Apparently girls’ noses stop growing at an early age.
So it’s probably not going to grow again…