Nadia Ilse will never forget when in first grade a girl walked up to her on the playground and said, “You have the biggest ears I’ve ever seen!”
Up until that point, Nadia had never considered the size of her ears, according to CNN. But from that day on she became the girl with Dumbo ears and kids viciously teased her. The happy-go-lucky and outgoing kid became introverted and antisocial.
Nadia, now age 14, is making national news headlines as she’s the most recent success story coming out of a New York-based non-profit that offers free corrective surgery to teens who’ve been bullied. Little Baby Face covered a $40,000 otoplasty operation to have Nadia’s ears pinned back. Dr. Thomas Romo, III, also reduced the size of Nadia’s nose and altered her chin to create a more balanced face.
Nadia’s story is reigniting the debate over whether kids who are bullied for their appearance should go under the knife. Parents will do just about anything to stop their kids from being bullied at school—but should they allow their kids to get plastic surgery? And if yes, how young is acceptable?
The number of teens getting plastic surgery has increased by 30 percent in the past decade, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery “In 2007 alone, about 90,000 youth underwent cosmetic surgery — though not all cases were the result of teasing,” reports the Huffington Post.
In some cases the kids undergoing surgery are much younger than Nadia. Last year, ABC News covered the story of 7-year-old Samantha Shaw who also received the funding for an otoplasty from the Little Baby Face Foundation. “This was a preventative way so she wouldn’t get bullied,” Samantha’s mom told ABC. “Kids are mean. That’s just how they are.”
Nadia wishes she received the treatment at a younger age because it would have saved her a lot of heart ache. The teen suffered through years of name-calling and even though her ears are finally pinned back, she’s still about to start a counseling program.
[CNN and Huffington Post]
