Want to be beautiful? Stop obsessing about yourself

A recent television show aired here called 'Make me beautiful,please' or words to that effect. In it three UK women were flown to LA to be broken, siphoned, polished and rearranged by some of the USA's top cosmetic surgeons and dentists to overcome the physical imperfections that had made them miserable all their lives.

The interesting thing about this program was that, while all three women were never going to be on the cover of a Victoria's Secret catalogue, all of them had the most divine husbands who were all unquestionably good looking but also, across the board, devoted to their gals.

These men had met, fell in love, married and in two out of the three cases, had babies with these women ... while they were in their 'ugly duckling' phase. It gets one thinking does it not? Why are these women so loved by others yet so loathed by themselves? One 45-year-old woman said that, after a face lift that would supposedly take years off her, she could "start to live". Hmmmm. The same woman also had tears in her eyes when she declared that, at this age, she was experiencing a manicure for the first time. Get over yourself puhlease! There are actually people out there whose African villages don't even sell hair dye. I mean, can you believe it?

A number of things come to mind watching programs like this. One is that - yes - a tear can come to the eye watching a young woman speak of the constant taunting she endured during school years because of a hook nose and crossed teeth. As a tissue-ready viewer I do find myself rooting for her to go and change it all and come out a perky beauty. But really, what message is this giving? I don't have the answers, I just think it's worth pondering.

Secondly, and I know it sounds very bleeding heart and holier than though, but what about the kind of physical and facial deformities that one sees in the street or in books and on television that actually, truly, stop people from living? The kind of things that leave them unable to move, speak or operate in the outside world? One million pounds or similar was spent on the three women in the show. That's something like $3million of our Aussie boomerang dollars. We could probably achieve some serious medical intervention for UNWELL people with this kind of cash.

"Don't get me wrong," I declare, whilst staring into my cosmetic overflowing bathroom cabinet. I've sometimes daydreamed of a boob lift and there's not a week goes past where I don't come up with some new hairbrained work-out/weight loss concept that I'm never going to follow. I just don't think I should be encouraged in this shallowness. Let me wallow in it in my own private ego salon!