For the past few years I have not had cable, so I was not privy to the explosion of reality TV stars on networks such as MTV and VH1. So when I read the story about Heidi Montag’s addiction to plastic surgery, my first thought was “who?” This girl has decided to supposedly “perfect” an already incredible body. At age 23, she has already had ten cosmetic surgeries, procedures to zap away fat from her flat stomach, lift her eyebrows, enlarge her breasts to DDD’s, and even pin back her ears. Seriously? How could her plastic surgeon even begin to call this ethical, unless he is using her as a cautionary tale to stay away from plastic surgery? I highly doubt it though. This girl detailed her pain, agony, a near death experience from all the drugs, and still says it’s worth it. What happened to her? Why does she think it’s necessary to make herself more disproportionate than a Barbie from the 1980’s? She cites’ Hollywood’s focus on perfection as the source of her obsession, since she wants to be a pop star and feels like her body is not enough. She is quoted as saying “I'm competing against the Britney Spears of the world—and when she was in her prime, it was her sex appeal that sold.” Um…Brittney sold because she had talent, she could sing unlike Ms. Montag, and was a part of a mega multimillion dollar industry that spewed out pop stars on a monthly basis. In our fame obsessed society, people are willing to do a lot of crazy things- post silly videos of themselves on YouTube, write in personal blogs and share dark secrets to anyone who will read, and in the case of Heidi, some even spend thousands of dollars to massively alter the body, just to get that People magazine cover. I find it really sad that this young woman is so fame obsessed that she is willing to put her life in danger just to get closer to some socially constructed ideal of beauty. Real beauty does not require cutting nor lifting, botox nor lipo. Real beauty is confidence, and that is something a surgeon cannot fix.