7-Year-Old Girl Gets Plastic Surgery To Avoid Bullying : Watch Video

How far would you go to spare your child from being the victim of bullying? One South Dakota mom allowed her seven-year-old daughter to get plastic surgery to have her ears pinned back after she was teased about them.

Samantha's mother Cammy is fearful that her daughter's cup ears (one of which is also a lop ear) are the subject of schoolyard bullying and views surgery as a preventative measure for her daughter. When Good Morning America's Juju Chang repeatedly asked the seven-year-old if she had been bullied, she said no — but her mother claims otherwise. Cammy says Samantha's been called "monkey ears" by other children and that "adults are the worst," as it's the adults who supposedly say things like "What happened to her ear? That's so gross." Perhaps Samantha's mother is more obsessed with those ears than Samantha is herself.







Telling her story on Good Morning America (and thereby subjecting her daughter to further scrutiny), Cammy Shaw acknowledged that her fellow adults actually tended to be meaner than their kids, but defended the operation: “This was a preventative way, so she wouldn’t get bullied.”

Samantha, getting the bandages snipped off her head (complete with before and after pictures), and the reporter’s breathless declaration that the big reveal was “an epic moment that would change her life forever.” Samantha, all cheerful sweetness with her blond bob, tells the camera, “I really don’t like people asking about my ears.”

Statistics show that plastic surgery is on the rise for teenagers. And studies suggests that young people seek out plastic surgery most often to help boost their self-esteem or to avoid bullying. One study reported that reality television shows that celebrate the results of plastic surgery have also made it a more accessible procedure.

The doctor who performed Samantha's transformation cites studies that suggest children with abnormalities are less popular, which can hinder the development of self-identity. While that's likely true, there are factors beyond self-esteem that affect a child's development process. What's more, we all know that kids will a reason to tease another child if they want to: why not focus Samantha's red hair? Freckles? Or maybe the fact that she went on national TV to fix her ears? Children are relentless if they want to be, and there's no surgery to protect a kid from that.

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7-Year-Old Girl Gets Plastic Surgery To Avoid Bullying : Watch Video