My Thoughts on Cosmetic Surgery

After struggling for years with my own body image and self-esteem, I’ve come to dedicate a great deal of my time to encouraging positive thinking and confidence in others. I volunteer with organizations that work to spread positive body image and eating disorders awareness, and I blog about fun ways to ensure that self-confidence is at the forefront of all that we do.

So I was somewhat startled when I was recently asked how I felt about cosmetic surgery—at least in the scheme of my push for self-love. Caught off-guard, I mumbled something about seeing both the pros and cons, but after a week of pondering the issue, this is the more formal opinion I’ve formulated:

I am absolutely not against cosmetic surgery. While I am adamant about loving yourself, I’m in no way oblivious to the quirks and imperfections that we all have. And while hopefully you can embrace these quirks, if there is something that makes you terribly unhappy and there’s a way to change it and make yourself happier with your appearance—in turn making you more confident in yourself—then I'm all for it!

However, my problem lies not with the surgery itself, but with the mindset that most likely accompanies it. The “if only my nose were smaller, or my stomach flatter, then I’d be happy” mentality. And we all have it. It’s the same as the “if I were just ten pounds thinner” mentality that slowly but surely perpetuates disappointment, blame and self-hate.

Because what’s most important to remember—especially in the realm of cosmetic surgery—is that you can’t fix yourself from the outside in. Those insecurities we all have can’t be fixed by going under the knife or by starving ourselves—because more likely than not, these are just excuses for the real issues we’d rather not face or deal with.

Basically, if you think that "a tummy tuck will fix all my problems," then surgery is hardly the answer. Because once you fix one thing, you'll want to fix another and another, and you'll never be satisfied or perfect.

Self-love has to come from the inside out, no matter what size jeans you wear or how large or small your nose and chest are. And again, I absolutely understand plastic surgeries for medical reasons, but I think ultimately, we should strive to fix ourselves on the inside and grow to be happy with ourselves—with or without the surgery.