Although national celebrities from Lady Gaga to Anderson Cooper have pledged over the last month to fight bullying, Facebook taunts grew so severe for 13-year-old Nicolette Taylor that she underwent plastic surgery to change her appearance.
Taylor broke her nose twice — when she was two and again when she was eight — and has been teased ever since.
The Long Island, N.Y. eighth grader told ABC News that people made lots of mean and hurtful comments about her nose, calling her names like “big nose Taylor” and “hey big nose,” often posting them to her Facebook wall.
The teasing got so bad that Taylor’s parents made the decision to take her to a plastic surgeon to undergo a rhinoplasty surgery. At the age of 13, she is the doctor’s youngest rhinoplasty patient.
Being teased is a part of adolescence, Taylor’s parents admitted. They more or less followed the “build character” mentality and told their daughter they would take her in to a plastic surgeon when she turned 18, but the teasing only got worse.
“I think its fine for a while to say it gives you character,” Taylor’s mom told ABC News. “But if that’s the one thing that makes her so insecure, I don’t have a problem with it.”
The introduction of Facebook to younger children makes the reality of teasing and bullying far more permanent. No longer are young people just getting made fun of to their face, but now it can be posted in a public forum for all to see. (RELATED: Facebook sparks privacy concerns at FTC)
“I was more concerned that everybody could see it,” Taylor told ABC News. “All my friends could see it, all my new friends could and I didn’t want them saying things, because gossip goes around and it really hurts.”
This week, CNN host Anderson Cooper hosted a town hall discussion surrounding the issue of bullying, shedding light on a growing problem of youth being bullied about being different, particularly on the Internet.
“Too many kids have died already; too many kids are living in fear,” Cooper said in a statement.
Taylor’s parents admit that surgery is an extreme way to deal with bullying but, her father said, “If it’s something you can do for your child that’s within your control, that’s really a factor, than why would you not do it.”