While it may be politically correct to pay lip service to platitudes about our inner beauty, our culture itself pushes in exactly the opposite direction. Media and advertising suggest we should airbrush or nip and tuck away the natural variations that stand between us and the “perfect” women we want to be.

I, certainly, am not exempt from this epidemic. For as long as I can remember, I have hated my nose. It’s too long and disproportionate to the rest of my face; I disliked the way it looked in pictures and wished for a different one.

But I just couldn’t do it. A few traumatic minutes spent watching an exposé on plastic surgeries gone wrong convinced me at an early age that getting it “fixed” wasn’t an option. I accepted my fate with resignation, occasionally wondering why the family’s genes had conspired against me in such a cruel fashion.

Read the article “The Surreal Experience That Taught Me to Love the Nose I Used to Hate” on verilymag.com.