Standards of beauty differentiate as we continue to search for more methods to looking, as well as feeling, good. Determining these methods can be beneficial for the sake of self-care and personal hygiene, but in a day and age where beauty trends rapidly come and go, it can potentially damage a person's self-esteem. For 21-year-old Finland native Amanda Ahola, striving to have Barbie's body image was worth more than her life.
At sixteen, Amanda wanted to improve her body image, even though she was already pretty and looked healthy. She figured that since she did not look like the person she envisioned herself to look like, she would challenge Mother Nature's authority and resort to plastic surgery.
In five years, she managed to get four surgeries done. Three boob jobs and one nose job. The first boob job cost €7,000, the second one was €4,000, and the nose job cost €4,000. Amanda had her third boob job after her nose job, and it cost her €6,000 to have done. After that surgery, she suffered seizures and brain swelling that could have killed her.
When Amanda's family and friends found out about what happened, they were worried that she died during surgery. Despite the experience, Amanda decided to wait on getting a Brazilian butt lift and considered the possibility of using local anesthesia rather than general anesthesia.
Even if she decides to use local anesthesia on any desired surgical site, there is a risk of the anesthesia affecting other parts of her body. Ultimately, it may possibly have physiological and cognitive effects similar to the effects the general anesthesia had on her after her third boob job.
To pay for her surgeries, Amanda became a sugar baby. Amanda's boyfriend is overprotective of her and still has a hard time accepting her profession. In his facial expressions and body language, he showed that he was uncomfortable while talking about Amanda's sugar daddy. He admits that it caused problems in their relationship. To still support Amanda after the surgeries and the sugar daddy drama shows how much her boyfriend cares about her.
It bothers me that what happened after the third boob job was not a strong enough wake-up call for Amanda. Even though Barbie's features were changed to make her appear real and relatable to young girls, the changes were made too late in time.
Though new generations of girls will learn that "normal" comes in all different shapes and sizes, my generation and generations before me focused on one ideal image to live up to.
I feel bad for Amanda because as her mom said at the end of the video, her priorities when she is older will be different compared to when she was younger. With size 30GG breasts, how is she able to give birth if she decides to have children of her own? How is she able to breathe through her nose if her nostrils are too thin? Further down the line, will her boyfriend continue to support her if she continues to use a sugar daddy?
I appreciate how honest Amanda was about her experience with plastic surgery, despite her decision to continue going under the knife. It is refreshing to hear someone like her be honest, especially in a society where media is used to look sexy rather than be real.
