On my recent post Beauty Lesson: From Ugly Duckling To Swan I wrote about my experience, going through and coming out, of the dreadfully ugly adolescent years. Most of us outgrow this stage once we start improving in the looks department. But there are those who remain fixated on the idea of the perfect beauty and how to achieve it. This certainly seems to be the case for Cindy Jackson, the Guinness Book of World Records holder for having undergone the highest number of cosmetic surgeries: 52 to be exact, and counting. At 57, Cindy declares, “I’ll only stop when I die, when they hammer that final nail into my coffin. As far as I’m concerned, this is only the anniversary of my first 25 years of surgery. I’ve got at least that many more to come.” She adds:
“From the age of six I knew I was a plain-looking girl and that it put me at a disadvantage compared to my far prettier classmates. I could see that the attractive kids got asked to answer more questions in class and would be picked first for team games. The teachers were kinder to them. The better looking you were, the better other people treated you. I wanted to be a member of that golden group. A friend said that when I smiled my nose and chin looked as though they might touch. It made me feel ugly.” [The Sun]
I give her a lot of credit for actually looking rather “normal” and not as most people do when they have several procedures done. It’s obvious that she has approached this entire process in a conscientious manner. However, a part of me is still shaking my head. No matter how many procedures she has done, no matter how beautiful she might be, this poor woman has spent her entire life dissatisfied with herself. Now that she has checked off all the items on her “To Fix” list, she plans to continue having surgeries in order to remain looking younger. She says, “I never intended to break records. I just want to be young and beautiful. I never want to look into the mirror and see a wrinkly old face staring back — and I don’t think I will ever have to.”
Well, I don’t like the idea of getting old either. However, I know that when that time comes, when I will stare at myself in the mirror I will not only see my face, I will see my real self, and that’s something that all the surgeries in the world will never be able to give Cindy Jackson.
