More and more teenagers, especially young women, are dissatisfied with their appearance. Many therefore consider surgical interventions at an early stage. According to Dagmar Pauli, chief physician at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Zurich, young people are already thinking of going under the knife at the age of 11. This is legal in Switzerland from the age of 16 – with the consent of the parents.
Pauli sees the reason for this development in the “Photoshop mentality on Instagram and Tiktok”. Everything is feasible there. Because so-called filters manipulate the pictures and selfies of the young people. Over time, the desire to look exactly like this in reality grows, according to the doctor.
Inspiration on Instagram and Tiktok
The cosmetic surgeon Cynthia Wolfensberger also holds social media responsible. She says: “That is where you will find inspiration. It tells you how to look. ” In some cases, young women bring pictures from Instagram to their practice as a template. There is one trend in particular among younger women: lip injections. 20-year-old Cindy came up with the idea of an operation through social media. When she accompanied Blick TV on Thursday, it was already her third lip injection.
The pandemic has increased the demand for surgery among young people. During the lockdown, they were even more in contact with the virtual world, explains Dagmar Pauli. At the same time, the necessary comparison with reality was missing, with real people without a filter.
Optimization mania is the new normal
In addition, algorithms pull young people deeper into the optimization mania. “If you look for cosmetic surgery, more and more such content is displayed,” says Pauli. Many women share videos of themselves before and after an operation on Tiktok – and celebrate the results. Pauli finds it problematic. Because the contributions normalize the beauty and fitness mania.
Young people have to understand that there are many aspects of beauty, says Dagmar Pauli. Parents play a central role: “They have to teach their children that there is more than just external things.”