By Okechukwu Okugo, Founding Editor, North America –

America’s pursuit of beauty continues to reach new heights. According to the latest reports from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and The Aesthetic Society, Americans underwent nearly 30 million cosmetic procedures in 2024, including approximately 1.6 million cosmetic surgical procedures and more than 28 million minimally invasive treatments such as Botox injections, dermal fillers, laser skin resurfacing, and chemical peels.

Industry analysts estimate the U.S. aesthetic surgery market exceeded $18 billion in 2024. And this demand for aesthetic enhancement is a global trend. People across the world attach self-confidence to how they look or try to copy how someone else looks. Once considered a predominantly female pursuit, aesthetic medicine is rapidly becoming mainstream for men of all ages.

While women continue to account for the majority of cosmetic procedures in the United States, men are embracing aesthetic enhancement at an unprecedented rate. According to the 2024 American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), men underwent more than 1.6 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures in 2024, accounting for about 7% of all such treatments performed nationwide. Men also accounted for nearly one in every ten cosmetic surgical procedures, with treatments such as liposuction, eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), chin augmentation, and gynecomastia (male breast reduction) becoming increasingly popular.

The data showed that this is not a concern for women alone, as a record number of men who had also visited plastic surgeons for cosmetic purposes continues to skyrocket.

Looking at yourself in the mirror, do you feel there’s something wrong with any of those features on the face you are seeing right there in the mirror? 

And standing before the mirror, turning to all elevations, front and back, do you really think there’s something wrong with the shape or size of any of those features you are seeing there?

Do you feel that the way you look could actually debar you from something good in society, now or in the future?

Do you think your personal appearance has a direct bearing on your professional competitiveness, or are you obsessed with healthy aging, and hinging self-confidence on trying to look like someone else?

Are there more important things than being overly obsessed with just one’s appearance?

As millions seek to enhance their appearance and achieve their personal ideals of beauty, here are 7 reasons to know there’s nothing wrong with the way you look, and nothing about you makes you less of a person or inferior; rather, what you offer is more important:

1. Your physical looks do not in any way affect what is inside your brain, hinder or reduce the capacity of what you can produce. Productivity and innovation have never been linked to physical appearance.

Therefore, continue to develop yourself, and know that you prove your worth by what you can do, and not by how you look.  

2. Even the “Most beautiful” “Idols” or “Models,” some of whom may have won numerous beauty contests, still find “something” wrong with “something” in their faces or bodies; that’s why many of them have done some kind of cosmetic surgery, or rely heavily on makeup. That model you may be looking at as the ideal of beauty is not even happy with their looks and is seeking to change something. Therefore, be proud of your natural looks (which also involves the shape of your nose, skin color, size, or shape of your body parts, etc.)

3. No matter how “awful” you think you may look, someone out there would love and die for you, just for who you are and not what he or she sees on your body. Therefore, it is better if you wish someone sticks to you because of who you are, for that would last longer than if someone is merely attracted to you by the way you look.

“Beauty” diminishes with age and time, and accidents or complications can reverse it in an instant. Let people appreciate you or love you for who you are. No matter how long you maintain physical beauty or appearance, senescence in old age must come. Illnesses can suddenly develop and wipe it away.

4. The way you look does not convey intelligence or skills to you or your children. Natural intelligence is hereditary. But no one had woken up and suddenly developed a skill because of their new looks or new physical appearance, which they got under the knife. No matter how beautiful you are, if you don’t learn a skill or get some education or undergo some personal development, looks cannot convey that to you. Thus, your quality is dependent on the input to your mind and the attributes you develop. And those who seek those qualities or can recognize those attributes get attracted to you because of who you are. Therefore, many purported “Ugliest and shortest” men/women had been married to the prettiest or handsomest women/men, maybe because of those “unseen or invisible qualities.” This is called value. The value one can add has also attracted people to form business partnerships.

Then, why are you troubled simply by the way you look, or obsessed with copying someone else’s looks rather than working on the value you can add to society or to your home?

5. No matter how beautiful you look, it cannot change the world or add value to someone near you; rather, what you can do or do for others is what changes society and adds value to humanity. Be kind. Be hospitable. Be helpful. All these values have nothing to do with physical appearances, and those who give to others will become beautiful human beings despite their physical looks.

6. How great or beautiful one looks does not sustain a relationship; rather, how you work on it does.

7. Remember, a highly productive country is not made up of beauty models, but rather hardworking and inventive people.

Instead of that obsession with tucking your tummy, ballooning your chest, making your backside look as gigantic as the magnificent Kukuruku hills with their panoramic views in traditional Afemai Edo ambiance, or even chemical-peeling your body, why not put more effort into making yourself a better you by being more understanding, loving, caring, discerning, and productive?

There’s nothing wrong with putting effort into looking good; after all, how one appears in public is very important. One needs to look clean, wear good clothes, and look as the occasion demands. But the obsession with physical appearance or hanging your self-confidence on copying how someone else looks can make one forget the more important things in life. The world has many problems, and people are looking for problem solvers. Physical looks cannot last forever, but the problems you helped solve can last a lifetime. And with the above 7 points, simply remember that what makes you is not how beautiful you look, but how beautiful what you do can be remembered.  

Founding Editor’s Note: This piece was updated from its original publication years ago. 

Okechukwu Okugo is the founding editor of Heartmenders Magazine Media Inc., who specializes in helping new and aspiring authors/writers. Contact him at heartmendersmagazine@yahoo.com.