Teenage girl receives new nose from charity in response to school bullies

A 15-year-old girl from South Carolina in the US undertook a nose job operation (rhinoplasty) funded by a charity whose aims are to ‘’empower children’’ through corrective surgery for birth defects.

The young girl, Renata, was taunted at school for being ‘’the girl with the big nose’’. She had been used to being the subject of being looked at; she used to perform in beauty pageants as a young girl. Once she hit her teens, however, she became more withdrawn than usual, as a result of school bullies picking on her over her appearance.

Her mother approached the charity on her behalf – New York-based Little Baby Face Foundation exists in order to correct birth defects in children, in order that they can carry on with normal lives without them.

In this case the corrective surgery was carried out, as Dr Thomas Ramo of the charity put it, “to help balance out her face”. In addition to her rhinoplasty, Renata received cheek implants. The surgery would have cost them $7000 privately (£4280); however it was entirely funded by the charity.

The foundation insist they only provide corrective, rather than cosmetic, surgery. This has led to many objecting that this funding therefore assumes that a nose that’’s a bit on the big side is a birth defect, rather than merely a physical trait unique to the person as any other physical part of their face or body.

Renata’’s mother on the other hand dismissed any suggestion that the surgery was not a good message to give her daughter by comparing it to the many thousands of US children who get their teeth straightened with the use of a brace. It is, she said, unfortunately true that the world judges people based on their looks.

Since having the surgery Renata is reportedly feeling happier about her looks and as a result is feeling more confident about returning to school to face her tormentors. Let’’s hope they don’’t find something else to pick on her about.