high school wantagh

Before she underwent breast augmentation surgery last summer, Melissa Wohl said she felt self-conscious about her body - especially at the beach.
“I wasn’t as developed as some of my friends, who were filling out their bathing suits,” said Wohl, 19, of Wantagh, who now attends Binghamton University. “I guess I felt like I didn’t fit in.”
Wohl is among an increasing number of young women looking to plastic surgery for a boost in confidence as well as cup size.
Last week’s death of Stephanie Kuleba, 18, of South Florida, during breast augmentation surgery has drawn attention to what some describe as a growing trend. Kuleba, whose parents say she sought the surgery to correct an inverted nipple and asymmetrical breasts, died Saturday of what may have been a rare genetic reaction to general anesthesia.
According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of women 18 and younger who have had breast enlargements has risen nearly 500 percent over the past decade - a sharper climb than the 300 percent increase in breast augmentations among all age groups.
Dr. Stephen Greenberg, a plastic surgeon in Woodbury, estimated he has seen a 20 percent to 30 percent rise in cosmetic procedures among young people. Often, he said, a girl will come in with her parents, who are buying her a breast augmentation as a birthday or high school graduation gift.
“There are girls and women who are devastated by the fact that they don’t have breasts and their friends do,” Greenberg said. “They don’t play gymnastics and they don’t go on dates or they can’t wear certain clothing, and I hear these things every day.”
Greenberg attributed the trend in part to young women who see their parents undergoing cosmetic procedures, or relate closely to the celebrities who have them.

newsday.com


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