Sunday, May 23, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas woman runs plastic surgery Web sites
Numerous topics covered, including one section specifically for teenagers
By JOAN WHITELY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Las Vegan Marianne Guarena, center, chats with Laura Randazzo, left, of Dearborn, Mich., and Cindy Rousselle, right, of Prescott, Ariz., at Boobapalooza, a local event for people who have undergone cosmetic plastic surgery. The women met online through Web sites run by Guarena that are devoted to plastic surgery.
Photo by Cariño Casas.
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Yes They're Fake is the name of a network of 15 related plastic surgery Internet sites run by a Las Vegas woman, Marianne Guarena. She declines to give financial specifics but says she and Marc Pfannenstein, her fiance, make a living running the sites, which charge fees to physicians for listing their services.
The sites cover numerous topics in plastic surgery, offering physician-reviewed educational pieces as well as the opportunity for dialogue among lay visitors to the sites.
"No, we're not actively recruiting," she answers when asked if any Las Vegas plastic surgeons are listed on or linked to her sites.
Guarena, 32, had her first cosmetic surgery, a rhinoplasty, at age 25 after she moved to California. She wanted it much earlier but says that as a teen growing up in the South, "it seemed out of reach."
Since then, she has undergone two breast augmentation surgeries, surgical lip augmentation (with Gore-Tex tubes inserted to give definition), liposuction and an experimental "feather lift" of the face that involves inserting barbed threads into the cheeks to stop skin from sagging.
Guarena and Pfannenstein moved to Las Vegas in late 2003.
Her philosophy is that cosmetic surgery is a form of self-expression and confidence-building that participants do not need to deny or hide.
One section of Guarena's Internet sites is specifically for teenagers (http://www.yestheyrefake.net
/4teens.htm).
"How do I ask my parents?" is a question on the page for teens. Parents not only can't see physical faults in their children, she warns, but "may be offended because your nose, ear ... or chin is just like theirs, and why on Earth would you want to change that? They may feel insulted or become insecure."
But Guarena also talks about how to prepare for surgery, whether to tell friends about surgery, and the risks of cosmetic procedures, both surgical and nonsurgical.
"Cosmetic surgery also won't make people like you, and it won't make you popular in school," Guarena cautions in her closing remarks to teens. "Although aesthetics can play a significant role in society, it only gets you so far. Stay in school, strive to learn and better yourself from within. Beauty can be bought later."
