Lisa Kudrow's 'Life Altering' Moment

It's no secret that there's a lot of plastic surgery in Hollywood. And yet, still, most celebrities remain mum on the matter, content in letting us believe that their perfect unwrinkled skin, svelt bodies, and skinny noses were genetics' gift to the world. Which is why when Lisa Kudrow talked openly about the nose job she got in high school, it was refreshing. And a little surprising? But mostly thought-provoking.

The refreshing:

Kudrow was very open and honest about the surgery and why she chose to undergo it. As we said, that's relatively rare in Hollywood — take Scarlett Johansson (who got some pretty obvious rhinoplasty sometime after Ghost World), for example. We'd love for her to stand up and say "Yeah, I carved my face up, it seemed to be what the industry and the world wanted from me." If, you know, that's what she did.

Actually, the refreshing aspects of this story are surprisingly intermingled with...

The surprising:

What's surprising isn't the fact that Kudrow had the surgery — we tend to be suspicious of most of the "perfect" noses on TV — but rather that Kudrow is going somewhat against the "love yourself as you are!" anti-plastic surgery narrative that is often pushed with stories like this. Kudrow seems pretty damn secure in her decision, at least if we're looking at what she told to People:

That was life altering. I went from, in my mind, hideous, to not hideous. I did it the summer before going to a new high school. So there were plenty of people who wouldn't know how hideous I looked before. That was a good, good, good change.

Kudrow doesn't seem to have any regrets, and in fact, calls her former self "hideous."

So that leads us to...

The thought provoking:

Kudrow's story — which, according to People is that she felt cast off and alone and hideous as a teenager and so got a nose job right before transferring schools — is a pretty common one. Or at least the first half is; the second half (the part about getting a nose job at 16) is one that a lot of people 1) don't consider, 2) don't have access to, or 3) are banned by their parents from doing.

So was Kudrow's choice a legitimate one? Is plastic surgery when you're that young really advisable, considering you've got a lot of physical and emotional growing left to do? Should plastic surgery be the solution to bad self-esteem? Meh, probably not. And frankly we can't imagine a world in which Kudrow is "hideous," no matter the size of her nose. There's also the fact that we live in a society that puts far too high a premium on physical beauty.

But it's pretty hard to escape that world, especially if one is entering the world of acting. So her choice is complicated. But if she doesn't regret the changes she made to her body, that's an opinion that is worth respecting.

Basically? People should love themselves, and though going through painful and expensive surgeries to get there is far from the ideal (so so far from the ideal), some people feel that's all they've got.

Something actively awesome Kudrow said in that same interview has to do with Phoebe Buffay. Doesn't it always?

She was basically a ditzy girl who lived in a happier reality than everybody else, because everything was so gloomy around her. That's what I decided. And she was fearless and unapologetic. Now on Twitter or Facebook I see young girls saying, 'I identify with Phoebe because I'm different too.' That's nice, to think that people who don't feel they fit in perfectly well can relate to that character.

Essentially, the entire point of this article is that we really miss Phoebe Buffay.