Bullied teens gets free cosmetic surgery from New York non-profit the Little Baby Face Foundation

A US organisation is offering free plastic surgery for children like Renata, who has been homeschooled for the last three years after she could no longer take the cruel comments from her classmates.

Renata

A NON-PROFIT organisation in New York is offering free plastic surgery for low-income children with facial deformities, raising questions about the power of bullies.

Only some of the children who apply to the Little Baby Face Foundation are responding to being teased. Among them is Renata, 15, who has been homeschooled for the last three years after she could no longer take the cruel comments from her classmates, the US Today show reports.

"They were just calling me 'that girl with the big nose,'" Renata says. "It just really hurts. And you can’t get over it."

Renata and her mother read last year about the work of the foundation, when teenager Nadia Ilse’s story was publicised. Renata’s mother was one of hundreds of people who contacted the organisation after seeing the story. "I tried convincing myself that I am fine the way I am, but I just don’t believe it anymore," Renata wrote in her application letter.

The use of cosmetic surgery to address bullying has some experts concerned, including New York psychologist Vivian Diller, who believes it is more important to instigate zero tolerance of bullying, and encourage the acceptance of difference.

For Renata’s mother, the surgery is akin to rectifying any other sort of medical problem a child might have. "Parents correct kids’ teeth with braces to make their teeth straighter," she says. "They’re still the same kid on the inside, but, unfortunately, people are judged on how they look."

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Doctors at the foundation also dispute they are running an anti-bullying organisation. Thomas Romo, the director of facial, plastic and reconstructive surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, runs the foundation, which was started in 2002. Mr Romo has treated children with deformities all around the world and wanted to bring that idea home to the US.

The organisation’s mission has not changed since its inception: correcting low-income children’s facial deformities, such as a cleft lip, or facial palsy, says Mr Romo.

Children are not approved for surgery unless they have a medically defined facial deformity. Transforming those deformities often does lead to a transformed life, however.

"You take a child, and you change the way they look. To anybody who sees them, they’re good-looking," says Mr Romo. "That gives the child strength. We can’t go after the bully. But we can try and empower the children."

Renata was diagnosed her with a hemi-facial microsomia, which left her face underdeveloped and caused her nose to lean to the left. It is the second most common facial birth defect after clefts, occurring in as many as 1 in 5000 newborns in the United States, although that may be an underestimate, because the condition is often not diagnosed, or treated.

In addition to fixing her crooked nose, Mr Romo suggested a chin implant to balance her face. The teenager and her mother agreed.

Soon, she will return to a regular classroom, where hopefully she won’t be bullied. Research is starting to show, though, that children with physical deformities are not necessarily picked on simply because of their looks, says Chad Rose, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri.

"Outside of appearing different in a noticeable way, two of the biggest factors are social skills and communications skills," Professor Rose says. "Students with low social skills and low communication skills tend to be victims."

"We are never going to forget the experiences that we carry with us," he says. "We will never forget the victimising experience. The one message I wouldn’t want out there is that if you are being teased for some type of problem with your physical appearance, that if you simply change your physical appearance that all the bullying will go away."

Professor Rose and other experts say it is important the recipients of the facial surgeries be given a mental health evaluation and counselling, before and after their surgery.

Renata's counsellor, who was independent of the foundation, initially recommended against the surgery but later decided it would help the teenager's self-esteem. A few months after the surgery, Renata’s mother said her daughter was happier than she had been in years. “I feel happy and I feel confident, and I feel like I don’t have to hide myself anymore," Renata said.