“You have nice lips that don’t need to be filled!” my doctor said as he was filling up my nasolabial folds. If only, truth be told, I didn’t have the insecurities of my growing up years! 

Everyone around me seemed to have small, dainty, little lips. My inch-thick lips looked so humongous in comparison. I was conscious of my lips wherever I went. They felt like human-sized kissing fish lips. 

On bad days (many), I often had to battle between sucking my lips to make them appear smaller or chewing them to less noticeable size. Whenever someone looked at me, I was certain it was because of “those awful thick lips.”

Then along came the rise of medical aesthetics in recent years … thank goodness!

One day, out of the blue, a friend said to me, “Hey, you’re one lucky girl. There are lots of people out there who pay money just to get Angelina Jolie’s lips … AND you’re blessed with such lips!”

My friend is perhaps right. My “asset” has appreciated over time. 

I wish someone had told me earlier that true beauty comes from within and that no one should feel they have to change who they are.