New York University plastic surgery prof Sherrell Aston says Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Lucy Liu—and even Barack Obama—have something in common, besides being famous and in the news regularly. They have “slightly asymmetrical chins,” he says, a trait they they share with almost every other person in the world. The finding holds regardless of age, sex, ethnicity or race. You and Angelina Jolie Probably Have This in Common. Dr. Aston has conducted thousands of pre-op facial exams in his … [Read more...]
We’re all guilty of lookism regarding severe disfigurements.
Psychologist Irvin Rock perceptively wrote in 1974: "Even photos of familiar faces -- famous people like Franklin D Roosevelt, for instance -- will look unsettling when flipped upside down. Just as, if you tip a square enough it stops being a square and starts becoming a diamond, so rotating a face makes it seem less like a face. The mind can't make immediate sense of the inverted features, and reacts with alarm. A bigger change, such as taking away the nose, transforms the face severely enough … [Read more...]
Cleft lip and palate repairs by Rotary Clubs.
Rotary Clubs in Australia raise money for repairs of cleft lips and palates—as well as speech therapy service—for poor children in Asia and Southeast Asia at no cost to their families. The Australian Rotarian Operation Cleft program is not unlike those sponsored by Smile Train and Operation Smile here in the US. What's different is that a team of volunteers from the Rotarian community are able to keep administration costs to a minimum. The cost for each operation is very low and covers … [Read more...]
Who says cleft lip kids aren’t beautiful?
A "feel good" cleft lip post for this 4th of July.Imagine if you had a beautiful daughter, perfect appearing in every way except for a split lip running almost to her nostrils. Imagine, too, if you lived in a rural part of Northeastern Brazil and had nine other children with no money left over year after year for corrective surgery. As a rural farmer, life would be hard enough that you wouldn't want to watch your daughter Danila bullied and ostracized because her congenital cleft permanently … [Read more...]
Cyberbullying——actresses Willis and Patridge talk.
Last March and early April, I blogged about cyberbullying and featured Monica Lewinsky's Ted Talk about it. Well, two more celebs have weighed in about being cyberbullied: Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) and Audrina Patridge (reality star and TV personality).Cyberbullying – The Fastest Growing Faceless Crime.As I noted in prior blogs, Patti Agatston, PhD— from www.cyberbullyhelp.com—defines cyberbullying as "using the Internet or other digital devices to send or post … [Read more...]
Face/voice recognition—evil twins for cleft lip folks and perhaps us all.
Could Wells Fargo's involvement with cutting edge face and voice recognition be evil twins? There are many evil twins out there just like the so-called Twisted Twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska who brought us the horror films AMERICAN MARY and SEE NO EVIL 2.Well, defenders of our right to privacy feel so, but surprisingly, so do many cleft kids and adults.The anti-surveillance state. The privacy folks' opposition to face and voice recognition has been made clear, and my recent blog lays out … [Read more...]
Support a cleft kid who’s endured much pain.
Hoping you can send some positive energy to an 11 year-old midwestern boy named Tyler. He's scheduled to have another cleft lip/palate surgery this Thursday, June 18.Bilateral clefts experience extra pain.According to his brave and resourceful mom who wrote me a heartfelt note* the other day, Tyler's had it tough of late. He feels like an outcast because bullies lay into him and call him names. As a bilateral cleft born with gaps to the left and right of the midline, I'd warrant a guess that … [Read more...]