Sophie's Diary: Social media makes us all far more conscious of ourselves

Cosmetic surgery was a bit alien to me – changing the way I looked or the way I was shaped wasn’t anything I found at all appealing.

Ironically, when I was ten, I agreed to take the trip to Yokhill Children’s Hospital to undergo ear surgery and, subsequently, had my elephant lugs pinned back.

In the ten years since, the popularity of cosmetic surgery has grown and thousands of people my age are now going under the knife.

Social media has had a huge role to play in this. For as long as I’ve been on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, competition has always existed as to who looks best.

It would be naïve to think teenagers and young adults don’t compare themselves to others their own age, whether it be a celebrity or a friend who’s utterly gorgeous.

Social media pushes us to look a specific way – cosmetic surgery gives us that opportunity. But what’s worrying is the amount of kids younger than me who are determined to change their bodies, before they’ve fully grown. It’s upsetting to know kids feel like that, so young.

I won’t lie – recently, I’ve been thinking my super skinny lips could do with a millilitre or so of injections and I’m sure I’ll have to take action against the laughter lines and the permanent bags which have started forming under my eyes.

But why should I feel the need to change? One simple reason – to make me happy.

I’m not branding cosmetic surgery as ‘bad’. It’s the social aspect which has begun to take a mass psychological effect on teenagers worldwide which I have a problem with.

However, you shouldn’t change because the world is telling you to. Change if it makes you happy and if it doesn’t fit society, tough!