botox treatments... for kids!

You might have heard last month that Filipino teen singing sensation Charice Pempengco reportedly received botox injections to "look fresh" for her upcoming appearance on Glee. What the hell? She's only 18! Turns out, there's growing trend of young people getting Botox treatments for cosmetic reasons: This Teenage Girl Uses Botox. No, She's Not Alone.

The controversy, though, stems from the off-label uses of Botox by children and young adults. Doctors are injecting teenagers for a variety of perceived imperfections, from a too-gummy smile to a too-square jaw.

In February, Phu Pham, who is 19 and lives in San Antonio, got Botox injections to narrow what he considered to be his "bodybuilder"-big jaw muscle, which he felt didn't fit his otherwise slim face.

"I was nitpicking myself a little bit," said Mr. Pham, a student and X-ray technician for the Air Force. Before his $800 Botox procedure, his left jaw muscle bulged a bit more than the right one, he said, and now, "neither side really bulges out as much."

After the treatment, Mr. Pham said, his parents asked whether he'd lost weight. He had not. "I told them I didn't go under the knife," he said. "I didn't do anything drastic. I just got Botox injected into my chewing muscles," or masseter muscles. After their initial surprise, Mr. Pham said, his parents did not object.

Dude! You're just kids! Give yourself a little more time to grow into your own faces. There's a guy in the article, Dr. Lam, who regularly performs cosmetic surgery on teenagers, "including nose jobs and an operation to create creases in the eyelids of minors of Asian descent." That makes me very sad. Hey, your teenage physical insecurity is his fortune!