A 15-year-old South Carolina teenager opted for plastic surgery so kids at school would stop bullying her about her nose that slanted to the left NBC News reported Sunday.
Renata received the $7,000 operation for free from the Little Baby Face Foundation in New York The Independent reported Monday. The non-profit organization offers plastic surgery on children with birth defects for no charge.
"I tried convincing myself that I am fine the way I am, but I just don't believe it anymore," Renata said in a letter when applying for the procedure NBC News reported. Her name is not being used at the request of her mother Michelle NBC News reported.
"They were just calling me that girl with the big nose Renata told NBC News. "It just really hurts. And you can't get over it."
The foundation selected Renata for the procedure after declaring she had hemi-facial microsomia. This meant her face was not fully developed, and her nose went to the left NBC News reported.
"You take a child, and you change the way they look. To anybody who sees them, they're good-looking," Dr. Thomas Romo a certified facial plastic surgeon told NBC News. "That gives the child strength. We can't go after the bully. But we can try and empower the children."
"Are we saying that the responsibility falls on the kid who's bullied, to alter themselves surgically?" Vivian Diller, New York psychologist told NBC News. "We really have to address the idea that there should be zero tolerance of bullying, and maybe we even have to encourage the acceptance of differences."
The procedure appears to have made all of the difference.
"I feel happy and I feel confident, and I feel like I don't have to hide myself anymore," Renata told NBC News.
Renata and her mother were inspired by another teenage girl's Nadia Ilse story NBC News reported.
