Vietnamese social media has been abuzz with the story of a girl who went under the knife at age 19, after breaking up with her boyfriend because of her looks.

Nguyen Tuong Vy became an overnight hot topic in Vietnam after taking to social media to share photos of herself from a few years ago, before undergoing extensive plastic surgery to her face. The 21-year-old woman from Dak Lak province said that she made the decision to drastically change her looks after breaking up with her 11th grade boyfriend, when she was only 17. Apparently, they were very much in love, but even though he constantly told her that he liked her for who she was, not how she looked, her boyfriend never introduced her to his friends. It was only when one of his friends invited them to his birthday that she realized it was because of her looks.

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Lhouraii Li, a makeup and nail artist from Bradford, in the UK, has been getting a lot of attention on social media sites like Instagram due to her unique look; for the past two years, Lhouraii has been painting her face blue almost every day.

To be fair, the 28-year-old makeup artist has always sported an unconventional appearance. Back in 2013, she made news headlines around the world, with major tabloids like Daily Mail and The Mirror calling her a “real-life Barbie” due to her doll-like looks. She says that it was all just a misunderstanding, that her Japanese-inspired “Gyaru” style was mistaken for a doll imitation. Two years ago, however, Lhouraii Li decided that a bright blue skin complexion fitted her personality much better, so she started dying her face and hands blue almost every day.

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Kjerstin Gruys, a 29-year-old PhD student in sociology, has gone mirror-free for an entire year, avoiding her own reflection in order to boost her self-esteem and inspire others to stop focusing on their physical appearance.

Can you imagine not checking how you look for an entire year? Most women can’t go a day without looking in the mirror, whether to check how their clothes fit, or if their make-up looks good, but one ambitious young student managed to avoid looking at her reflection for a full year. If you think about it, it’s hard not looking at yourself, when you’re surrounded by mirrors and all kinds of shiny surfaces, but Kjerstin Gruys somehow made it work. For months, she covered the bathroom mirror so she could wash her face and brush her teeth without accidentally catching a glimpse of herself, she learned how to apply make-up by touch and not by sight, and she even learned to use her car’s mirrors so that she didn’t have to see her face in them. It was hard in the beginning, but she quickly adapted and says the experiment made her realize looks are really not as important as most people think.

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