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Write an essay or editorial on any subject you like. No matter what it is.
There's actually a hidden agenda to this contest as I will be looking primarily for folks who can express themselves and compose their thoughts in a readable manner. The Guild may have use for someone who can achieve that.

What does that mean? It means spelling and proper use of grammar count. Be as vulgar or descriptive as you want. Just make sure you could hand it in to your English teacher without her circling things in that dreaded red pen.

ONLY ENTRIES FOUND IN THE CONTEST THREAD WILL BE CONSIDERED.
LIMIT: 2 ENTRIES PER PERSON.

This contest will end March 1st.

The winner of this contest will be notified by PM and in the contest thread as well as in our announcements area.

You will then make a list of items you'd like from the cash shop and submit them to me via PM. I will buy and gift the items to your gaia account. The total of your requests may not exceed $10USD.

Good luck, folks!

Hmmm. . . . . . . . . . . . Will you just read these essays or does your hidden agenda have an even more ulterior motive? stare

lol jk xd This is something that had a run through Turnitin.com so I'm confident with posting it around. This is a college level report style essay originally done in MLA format.

Cosmetic Surgery in Adolescents

According to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, in the year 2004, 326,233 total cosmetic procedures were performed on patients 18 or younger. 13,217 of these surgical procedures were otoplasty (ear pinning), 51,931 were rhinoplasty (nose surgery), approximately 3,962 were breast augmentation procedures, 3,631 were gynecomastia correction (male breast reduction) and 3,250 were liposuction. The two most common procedures for persons under 18 years of age were non-surgical chemical peels, (109,052) and microdermabrasion (68,709 procedures), presumably for acne treatment. Many young girls are getting serious cosmetic procedures done to “improve” their bodies at younger and younger ages. This can pose a possible danger both physically and psychologically. Children and teens should not be allowed to receive major cosmetic procedures outside of true physical deformities.

Some people will argue on the benefits of having bigger breasts and straighter noses. Many parents who approve these procedures, and of course the scalpel happy, eager surgeon ready to perform them, argue the procedures will boosts their child’s confidence and make them more successful or stop the child from being discriminated or teased. While this may be true in some children such as those born with a cleft palate, there is a big difference in a fifteen year old girl being teased for a deformed face that causes her health problems and a fifteen year old girl who claims to be teased because her breast are not “big enough” or her ears stick out more then she would like. Many young girls claim their some of their features to be physical deformities in order to obtain the Britney Spears or Ashley Simpson look.

The first and primary problem posed by adolescent cosmetic surgery is the psychological ramifications. The majority of adolescents want cosmetic procedures done because of the false image of beauty they have in their minds. The media has done nothing to help this problem. By using models and actors who have had procedures done themselves and then further “cleaning” their images on a computer before final print, they have created false images of unreal beauty. Before cosmetic surgery there were anorexia and bulimia, two very serious and sometimes deadly eating disorders. In the late 1960’s a young British model named Lesley Hornby (Twiggy) stormed the fashion industry with her androgynous looks and natural waif-like body (she weighed 90lbs). Her success spawned a new trend in fashion. Many agencies looked for and employed skinnier and skinnier models until the model norm became the starved skeleton stereotype we know it as today. In order to find employment, some models turned to anorexia and bulimia to stay employed. This inadvertently lead to young girls who had healthy weights to feel they were “too fat” to be pretty or normal and soon the too turned to anorexia and bulimia causing a cornucopia of health problems including depression and suicide.

There is also the danger of the parent themselves wanting the procedure for their child as well. Parents who had bad experiences when they were children often push their own kids into having or doing things they wish they had or did when they were their age. Some parents already push their children, some as young as two years old, into having their hair bleached than dyed in order to make them more beautiful for things such as pageants. These pageant parents who constantly compete treat their children little better than show dogs and maybe desperate enough to push a child into having augmentation done in order to increase their child’s chance of winning. One must also consider the psychology of the child or teen seeking the procedure. Although researchers haven’t concluded surgery can lead to suicide, four epidemiologic studies have found that the risk of suicide among women with breast implants is two to three times higher than amongst other women. One theory is that some people who get surgery are actually suffering from a psychological disorder known as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), in which they falsely believe they are unusually ugly. A study last year found that suicide rates among patients with BDD was 45 times higher than in the general population.
INDENT“We know that from 5 to 15 percent of all cosmetic surgery patients have BDD and it tends to first emerge in adolescence.,” says David D. Sarwer, an associate professor of psychology from the Center for Human Appearance at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Instead of allowing a child to change their bodies when they are younger than eighteen, parents should console their children and support them in the way they look. Maybe even seek a counselor or therapist if needed.

There is a big difference between cosmetic surgery being performed for disfigurements and procedures done for vanity. Deformities such as cleft palates, webbed fingers, and crooked bones need cosmetic surgery to fix because they pose serious mental and physical problems as well. Cleft palates are rather grotesque to look at and may frighten small children from making friends with children who have one. Thus ostracizing the child and making them feel like monsters. In addition, the constant opening in the mouth causes problems with simple tasks such as eating and talking and can lead to drying of the mouth and serious infection. Having small breasts is not a deformity, though some would still disagree. It does not harm or impede your way of life. Others would argue cosmetic surgery is no different from straitening teeth with braces. This is actually a big difference too. Though a strait, perfect smile is not necessary to live, crooked teeth are health risks. Crooked teeth can cause pain when eating when your “bite” does not line up correctly. Crooked teeth are also harder to keep clean and trap food very easily leading to cavities, gingivitis, and the possibly deadly periodontal disease. The treatment to correct these problems once you have them can be just as painful, physical and financially, and can result in permanent loss of some teeth.

Another argument that comes up with the issue of cosmetic surgery is reconstructive surgery. Reconstructive surgery is the procedure where people who have suffered disfiguring injuries can have their looks restored. Many would argue cosmetic surgery is as necessary as reconstructive surgery. A woman does not need a straight and perfect nose to survive so why should a crash victim receive one when a normal person can’t. Once again we see a big difference between what is needed and wanted. Firstly, many reconstructive surgeries performed are indeed necessary for survival. When bones are shattered, they are often reconstructed with steel plates otherwise soft tissue would be vulnerable to serious injury of infection. Crushed noses and torn skin are often reconstructed for the same reasons.

In addition to all this, there are the health problems posed by having cosmetic procedures performed. Just like in any surgical procedure, cosmetic surgery comes with the threats of infections, sometimes deadly, and faulty implants. Men and women over twenty years old probably will not change much for the next thirty or so years. Children on the other hand are constantly changing as they grow up, especially children in puberty. Children who receive reconstructive surgery or cosmetic surgery for deformities need to have sometimes up to thirty follow-up procedures done to accommodate their growth. Cosmetic surgery such as breast augmentation can cause problems for young girls when performed at fifteen or sixteen because sometime a girl will be a “late bloomer” and her breast will start growing at seventeen, causing the girl pain with her implants or unnatural lumpy looks thus requiring an equally expensive procedure to remove the implants and reconstruct any damage caused by it. In cosmetic surgery, as with any surgery, there are risks, including bleeding and infection and as many as 20 percent of all cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. must be revised every year.

SQUEEEEEE Yayz! biggrin while winning without competition isn't much fun at least I tried my bestest!