Nadia Ilse, Bullied Georgia Teen, Receives Free Plastic Surgery From Little Baby Face Foundation
Nadia Ilse is looking forward to the new school year, when she will no longer be called "Dumbo" by her peers for her "elephant ears."
To ward off school bullies who began taunting her in the first grade for her ears, Nadia begged her mother at the age of 10 for an otoplasty -- an operation to pin her ears back.
The teen, now 14, was recently granted her wish by the Little Baby Face Foundation, a charity that provides free corrective surgery to children born with facial deformities.
Nadia told CNN that the bullying turned her talkative self into a withdrawn, antisocial girl. The taunting "hurt so much," she told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
When the Little Baby Face Foundation was contacted by Nadia's mother, the organization brought the duo to New York City from Georgia and did more than just pin her ears back. The organization's founder, Dr. Thomas Romo, III. also performed reduction rhinoplasty, reducing the size of the nose, and mentoplasty, altering the chin.
The foundation covered the estimated $40,000 cost of surgery.
While Nadia says she knows she should have been accepted as she was before the surgery, she also knew the bullying wouldn't end and has no regrets following the procedure.
"I look beautiful, this is exactly what I wanted, I love it," she said.
Nadia must still start counseling as part of her treatment to overcome the years of psychological distress from bullying, but Little Baby Face board member Don Moriarity told MailOnline that Nadia's new outlook demonstrates the group's mission.
"We like to say that Baby Face transforms the lives of these children and gives them newfound confidence," Moriarity said.
Nadia's story emerges months after 13-year-old Nicolette Taylor was featured on ABC's Nightline for her nose surgery to overcome online harassment and name-calling at school. There was also global outcry when 7-year-old Samantha Shaw had her ears pinned back to escape name-calling and harassment last year.
So through all this, what advice would you give parents? Gupta asked Nadia.
"Give your children a lot of love and affection and tell them that they're beautiful every single day," she said.
Most states now have bullying laws that require schools to adopt bullying policies, andefforts to combat school bullying have escalated over the last decade, according to a report released in December by the U.S. Department of Education.
Between 1999 and 2010, more than 120 bills were adopted by state legislatures tointroduce or amend legislation that address bullying, harassment or similar behavior in schools. By the time of the Education Department study's conclusion, there were 46 states with enacted anti-bullying laws, 36 with regulations that work against cyberbullying and 13 that give schools the authority to monitor and address bullying behavior even when it occurs off school grounds.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/n
I'm glad that Ilse feels better about her body and is going through therapy, but I don't agree with her parents letting her have the surgery. That won't, as Ilse said herself, stop the bullying. It's a temporary fix, and it sounds like Ilse knows that too. If she gets bullied again, then I hope she's gained the strength to tell them to piss off and then inform an adult to throw the book at them.
Edited at 2012-07-29 06:18 am (UTC)
Meanwhile, I hope the bullies have been dealt with harshly.
What it was was I was an outcast and an obvious victim (sorry kids - like adults - can smell it on you I think) of severe child abuse. As abusers exist due to silence and that is ingrained in the victim, you don't call out the bullies and it perpetuates.
However the other side of that coin is whatever you can do to cope. If this helps the victim - and others - then I can't really throw stones. I still carry the baggage at 48 years of age through thousands of dollars of therapy.
It might be wrong but I think this surgery is stupid. But I guess it's not different then someone who get implants because they were made fun of for being flat chested.
(*Not that I'm trying to say that getting bullied doesn't impact your quality of life, because I think w all know that it does. But she wasn't being bullied because of her ears, that was just the excuse. :/)
Edited at 2012-07-29 07:21 am (UTC)
Further proof that children are just plain awful to their peers.
That said, if the surgery was what she wanted, and it positively changes her life, then it was a good choice for her in her situation.
I knew someone who signed up to have her ears pinned back but she was in the England and by the time her turn came up for this cosmetic surgery, she'd outgrown her self-consciousness and refused the surgery.
I mean, I can understand the desperation, the wanting to have a quick fix to make it stop, but that fix should come in addressing the bully, not performing unnecessary cosmetic surgery on children.
And to add, it may be safe to assume that the quick-fix syndrome will hinder her in the future when life gets hard.
My sister's ears stuck out. We never thought she was deformed. I find the suggestion that this girl had facial deformities requiring corrective surgery gross. She was perfectly normal looking. Do I need skin grafts for my acne or hair transplants for my thin frizzy hair? How about breast implants because I'm a grown woman who never got out of a trainer bra?
This story reminds me of that twilight zone episode where everyone was surgically altered to look exactly the same.
This is me. I'm lucky if I can fill a B cup, if that.
I've thought about getting implants, but then I remember that surgery terrifies me and I always think I'm going to die before I get put under anaesthesia. So, no, not doing it. XD That and I hate the pain/recovery afterwards. Fuck that.
So apparently to most of you, just because what this girl has isn't as severe as a cleft palate that means that she should be stuck with the an appearance that makes her severely unhappy for the rest of her life? Riiight.
She is happy with herself now. That's all that really matters.
Basically THIS, idg the people saying she's not disfigured enough, as if that's the point of the whole surgery when the girl herself says it's about self-esteem/confidence
It's not that easy to magically ~love your body~ at that age no matter what your parents say - she's at school probably 6-6 1/2 hours a day with these bullies and you know what, if plastic surgery's the one fucking thing that can make her feel enough better about herself that she can survive it, then kudos to the adults who made the right decision. This kid's a teenager, not a figurehead for a natural beauty campaign jfc
And purely on a shallow, cosmetic though...how do cosmetic procedure affect the way we age. When individuals are young, many often have features that seem to look "odd," but are features we grow into. If a child has feature he or she will grow into, what'll happen when he or she grows into modified features?
I support an individual's right to cosmetic procedures, I think cosmetic surgery can be awesome, but no I don't think that a child should necessarily have a purely cosmetic procedure. What if the surgery had gone wrong? What if a child having a cosmetic procedure gets a life threatening infection? What if a child has a reaction to the anesthetics?
Ultimately it's her body and it's her choice, but my concern is that she may not old enough to fully comprehend the potential consequences or dangers of a purely cosmetic surgery; I wonder if the surgeon thoroughly discussed potential issues with her/her family.
HOWEVER, kids do a lot of growing up between the ages of 12-20ish. Facial dynamics can change completely, including nose size. I think any plastic surgeon who does cosmetic surgery on someone so young in absence of a deformity OR an issue that can be permenant (i.e. ears sticking out, etc.) is completely irresponsible.
Also makeup does wonders in making some people feel more confident, and it's not putting anyone under the knife.
Plus, why are some posters here sure that she'll be unhappy all her life for having an "odd" feature? I have features that I hated as a teen, that I wanted to correct, that I embrace now as my personal quirks. I worry that this is as effecting as hiding clean laundry between the bed sheets because company's coming over.
more like kids should stop being assholes.
I say this as someone that's had a fair amount of corrective surgeries, and would like to have more if possible. Sometimes, surgery is the answer.
And i was really confused when the foundation was apparently for facial deformities? Ears that are not of the promoted image of "perfect" are not deformities....how can specific dominant alleles for ear shapes be "deformities"...
Maybe some charity should have offered me lipo and breast implants at 14.
I still feel like people think I am gross, and ugly, and that was 10 years ago. So, maybe we shouldn't be so critical of this girl for wanting her ears pinned back. I'm not a fan of the other stuff, but really, IDK.