Teens,
Acne, and the Hollywood Illusion
Being a destination spot for vacationing families, Coeur d’Alene’s
population booms during the summer months and like clockwork,
right after Labor Day, when all the kids go back to school, everything
goes back to feeling “normal” again. Things have gotten
a lot quieter in the last week and it feels as though the whole
town just let out a collected sigh of relief.
Going
back to school must bring up mixed emotions for teens—excitement,
nervousness and anxiety. Not to mention stress! Because, with
school comes the day in, day out scrutiny from friends and peers.
And what’s unfortunate is so often teenagers only perceive
one way to achieve popularity: Perfection! Thanks in no small
part to Hollywood.
Everywhere
you look, everyone looks perfect. Media today portrays flawless
beauty as normal, when in reality, there’s no such thing
as flawless beauty. But teens just don’t see that. Instead,
they desperately want to be beautiful, just like the actress
on the movie screen or the Abercrombie model in the store
window. Each morning though, they look into the mirror and see
themselves…not that airbrushed, perfect-skin model. How
disappointing it must be. Each breakout makes them feel less attractive,
less confident, and less enthusiastic.
In
many cases this pressure leads teens to do some pretty extreme
things. Not too long ago there was a reality show on MTV. In this
particular episode twins with severe acne and scarring were offered
a chance to receive plastic surgery and look like whichever celebrity
they wanted. They requested that the program pay for them to get
faces that look like Brad Pitt.
No
surprise there—I believe Pitt was at one time voted “Sexiest
Man Alive.” So, to have a face like Brad Pitt would certainly
eliminate any teasing the two twins receive in school. It seems
so silly, but the program gave both of them the resources to get
the plastic surgery they wanted.
When
the procedure was done they came out looking like…kind of
like Brad Pitt, with some of his features. Obviously it wasn’t
a perfect resemblance. It was more of combination of Brad Pitt
and a porcelain doll.
The
misconceptions that so many people have about celebrities! Take
these twins for example. I wonder if they realized that Brad Pitt
used to have severe acne and he currently
has scarring on his cheeks as a result. The irony is, the twins
probably looked more like Brad Pitt before they had the surgery.
Unfortunately
celebrities’ imperfections, or should I say realities, aren’t
made public on movie screens or television.
