Megan Knickerbocker's Plastic Surgery..........

From the OC Register - -



NEWPORT BEACH – For more than half her life, Megan Knickerbocker refused to be photographed.

“I always felt like I was the ugly, fat one,” said the 20-year-old Coto De Caza resident. “My sister was tiny, cute and Britney Spears-like-looking and all my friends looked the same way… I was a big girl with no breasts and a bump on my nose.”

Tonight on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County” – an hourlong documentary-soap drama that chronicles the lives of five Coto De Caza women and their families – Knickerbocker undergoes cosmetic nose surgery. A year before she had a breast augmentation.

Orange County plastic surgeons are seeing a steady rise in high school and college-age women having plastic surgery as a way to better fit in.

“The average person portrayed in the media is fit, well- proportioned and well-endowed,” said Newport Beach Dr. Michael Elam, who performs the hourlong nose surgery on tonight’s episode. “From the Lindsay Lohans to the Olsen twins, celebrity status is gained at puberty rather than as young adults. Pressure for the youth to conform to these images (is) greater than ever before.”

Elam is seeing a dramatic  drop in his patient’s ages. Last year he did 13 “graduation gift” surgeries, with breast augmentation, nose surgery and liposuction the most popular procedures. He’s seen a 25 percent increase in patients under 20 since 2005.

Elam says he won’t do surgery on those who aren’t realistic about desired results.

“If a girl comes in that has a fairly nice figure and breast size, I’ll turn her away,” he said.

“We’re not taking a girl and trying to make her the belle of the ball. We’re taking a girl who feels uncomfortable and giving her an ability to be part of a group.”

Knickerbocker – daughter of Tammy Knickerbocker, 43, and the show’s newest housewife – grew up wealthy. Her parents owned a business that launched on the Home Shopping Network in the 1980s selling celebrity-endorsed products. They lived in one of Coto’s largest homes. But luck changed, and the Knickerbockers divorced. Tammy, Megan and sister Lindsey, now 18, moved from their 9,000-square-foot home to a much smaller house they shared with friends.

“I lost 90 percent of my friends because I wasn’t good enough for them to hang out with me anymore,” Megan Knickerbocker said.

Just out of elementary school, she begged her father for plastic surgery.

“I saw magazines and pictures of pretty girls,” she said. “I used to sit in the corner and was never the life of the party because I didn’t feel pretty. My dad said I could have surgery on my 18th birthday if I lost 40 pounds. I worked at it and lost almost all the weight. The second he said yes, I was in the doctor’s office.”

Her father says he should have approved it sooner.

“She walks with a good, self-confident attitude,” said Louis Knickerbocker, who at first didn’t think she needed the surgery. “Now instead of slouching she stands up straight. She’s grown a lot.”

Now Knickerbocker agrees to be photographed again. When her mom signed on for the show’s second season, Knickerbocker knew she wouldn’t have to feel like the ugly older sister.

On the show’s third episode, Knickerbocker reveals her surgery to the world.

“At first I was terrified and I had second thoughts of doing it on TV,” she said. “I wondered what people would say and if they thought I was conceited… It turned out better than I could even imagine. I feel feminine and attractive.”