What You and Caitlyn Jenner Have in Common

Wow! What a transition from Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner! It’s a media storm of mammoth proportions. Not everyone will agree that such a transition is something to be quite so publicly embraced, but it does bring one thing to the forefront — Everyone has a certain Ideal way they want to look.

How you look to yourself is the most important. But how you present yourself for others to “judge” is something we all consider. Makeup, hair, clothing, body shape, skin texture, facial contours – they all come together to make you “you”. Jenner’s interviews are pretty fascinating in the amount of details shared about every aspect of appearance and the relationship of appearance to personal identity.

Looking Better – or Different

I have to admit I’ve never had a patient come to me wanting to look like a different person, but the people who walk through my office doorway do want to look better. Sometimes the goal is clear skin or smoother skin – other times the goal is to recapture the facial contours that were prized years or even decades ago.

No matter who you are, looking better is a worthwhile pursuit. People DO judge you by your appearance, whether that’s fair or not. And how you look to yourself  has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself – no matter who you are or where you are! A colleague describes cosmetic dermatology and plastic surgery as empowerment – and I agree. Self confidence gives you power – power to say Yes, power to say No and power to be the person you are.

Confidence to Be Who You Are

It’s hard to be the gregarious or funny person you might be inside when you want to hide because you have any of the multitude of chronic skin conditions that may be limiting how you act and interact. Just like Bruce/Cailtyn – for most, feeling confident about being yourself is often very closely linked to how you look.