7-Year-Old Girl Gets Plastic Surgery to Avoid Bullying

Some parents would do anything to make sure their child is protected from the dangers of each age. Some are even taking extreme measures to prevent bullying, by having their kids get plastic surgery: such is the case of Samantha Shaw.

Samantha is 7 years old, is in the first grade, and lives in South Dakota. She’s a very energetic young girl, a freckled cutie-pie that, as of now, shows no signs of ever having been picked on, as the video below from ABC shows.

In the special on plastic surgery, Samantha’s mother reveals she fears she will end up bullied at school because of her ears.

When she was younger, parents would call her “monkey” or “Dumbo,” her mother says, concluding that adults can sometimes be even harsher than children.

Samantha has already been picked on at school because of her ears, though she wouldn’t admit to it.

Because she doesn’t want her daughter to go through worse at a later time in life, her mom decided to have her go under the knife and have her ears pinned back.

As it turns out, cases of parents agreeing to cosmetic surgery on their children are no isolated occurrences: requests of this type of interventions have increased by 30 percent in the last year.

Samantha and her mother flew to New York, where Dr. Steven Pearlman conducted the surgery on her free of charge, thanks to the Little Baby Face Foundation.

Dr. Pearlman doesn’t see this type of intervention as plastic surgery per se, since it corrects an abnormality that could, in time, lead to bullying which would, in turn, cripple Samantha’s sense of self.

“Well, it depends where you draw the line. If it’s minor, if it’s cosmetic, absolutely not. But in my book and [that of] most of the medical community, the plastic surgery community, ears that stick out is not a cosmetic issue,” Dr. Pearlman says.

As the ABC hosts also point out, it’s hard to judge Samantha’s mother and her doctor for making her go under the knife when you see the little girl’s face: she’s happier than she’s ever been.